BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//events.la.psu.edu//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:STANDARD DTSTART:20201101T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=11;BYDAY=1SU END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT DTSTART:20200308T020000 TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 RRULE:FREQ=YEARLY;BYMONTH=3;BYDAY=2SU END:DAYLIGHT END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT UID:17026-2b544f33e89deffe1db72b3281716b08@events.la.psu.edu DTSTAMP:20260421T020154Z DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20240126T090000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20240126T190000 SUMMARY:Dr. Michele Diaz (CLS, Penn State) DESCRIPTION:\n"Age-Related Differences in Language Production and Semant ic Memory Networks"\n\nMichele Diaz\, Ph.D\n\nProfessor of Psychology\, Linguistics\, &\; Neuroscience\n\nDirector of Human Imaging: SLEIC of Psychology\n\nAlthough age is often associated with cognitive change\, language abilities show complex patterns of both spared and impaired per formance. In this talk\, she will discuss two areas of their lab’s resea rch: age-related differences in language production and age-related diff erences in semantic memory networks. Language production is often associ ated with age-related differences such as speaking more slowly\, having more frequent slips of the tongue\, and experiencing more pauses and fil lers during speech. While these phenomena are often observed\, the under lying mechanism is less clear. To explore these issues\, recent work fro m their lab has examined the neural and behavioral effects of word chara cteristics such as lexical frequency and neighborhoods (phonological and semantic) in a broad sample of individuals across adulthood. While we o bserve typical age-related slowing\, increases in errors\, and increases in functional activation during picture naming\, neural and behavioral sensitivity to word characteristics is largely stable across the lifespa n. In contrast to language production\, semantic memory is generally tho ught to remain largely stable as we age. Older adults generally have lar ger and more diverse vocabularies\; and demonstrate comparable performan ce to younger adults when making semantic judgments and during semantic priming tasks. However\, the additional information that arises from lar ger vocabularies and richer experiences incur storage needs. Using a gra ph theory approach\, recent findings from their lab have demonstrated th at older adults’ semantic memory networks differ from younger adults. We find that older adults’ semantic networks are less flexible and break d own faster than younger adults. Collectively\, these findings suggest th at while older adults’ sensitivity to phonological and semantic characte ristics is stable across the lifespan\, the underlying representation an d access to that information may decline with age.\n\nFor more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/dr-michele-diaz/ X-ALT-DESC;FMTTYPE=text/html:

"Age-Re lated Differences in Language Production and Semantic Memory Networks"

Michele Diaz, Ph.D
Professor of Psychology, Linguistics, & Neuroscience
Di rector of Human Imaging: SLEIC of Psychology

Although age is often associated with cognitive change, language abilities show comp lex patterns of both spared and impaired performance. In this talk, she will discuss two areas of their lab’s research: age-related differences in language production and age-related differences in semantic memory ne tworks. Language production is often associated with age-related differe nces such as speaking more slowly, having more frequent slips of the ton gue, and experiencing more pauses and fillers during speech. While these phenomena are often observed, the underlying mechanism is less clear. T o explore these issues, recent work from their lab has examined the neur al and behavioral effects of word characteristics such as lexical freque ncy and neighborhoods (phonological and semantic) in a broad sample of i ndividuals across adulthood. While we observe typical age-related slowin g, increases in errors, and increases in functional activation during pi cture naming, neural and behavioral sensitivity to word characteristics is largely stable across the lifespan. In contrast to language productio n, semantic memory is generally thought to remain largely stable as we a ge. Older adults generally have larger and more diverse vocabularies; an d demonstrate comparable performance to younger adults when making seman tic judgments and during semantic priming tasks. However, the additional information that arises from larger vocabularies and richer experiences incur storage needs. Using a graph theory approach, recent findings fro m their lab have demonstrated that older adults’ semantic memory network s differ from younger adults. We find that older adults’ semantic networ ks are less flexible and break down faster than younger adults. Collecti vely, these findings suggest that while older adults’ sensitivity to pho nological and semantic characteristics is stable across the lifespan, th e underlying representation and access to that information may decline w ith age.

For more details: https://events.la.psu.edu/event/dr-michele-diaz/

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