The overall goal of this grant is to continue supporting the multidisciplinary Scientific Research Network onDecision Neuroscience and Aging. The integrative emerging area that this grant will support combines thestrengths of several fields including psychology, neuroscience, and economics to facilitate rapid scientificprogress and directly contribute to the development of effective interventions and policies to improve healthand well being across the life span. Over five years this network grant will support scientific meetings, intensivetraining workshops for researchers at all stages, collaboration and mentorship initiatives, and pilot grantcompetitions for researchers new to the field. These activities will directly support the growth, development,and sustainability of the decision neuroscience of aging. This grant will support growth of the network throughdissemination activities. Scientific meetings will increase awareness of the latest findings with the goal ofdrawing new researchers into the area and encouraging new collaborations. A small grant competition willencourage scientists to join the area and will stimulate new research through small scale pilots. This networkgrant will support development of the area through methods workshops and an outside mentorship program.Short, intensive workshops will focus on training researchers at all stages in the collection and analysis ofvarious emerging behavioral (e.g., health-related, social, economic) and biological (e.g., neurochemical,genetic, hormonal) measures. The development of these skills is currently difficult to achieve in traditionalsingle discipline training programs, but will be essential for taking advantage of the growing number of largemultivariate and multi-level integrative datasets generated by this area in the future. In general the network willfocus on investing in the sustainability of this field by ensuring that graduate students, post-doctoral fellows,and junior and senior faculty are invited to participate in all activities. Workshops, meetings, small pilot grants,and collaboration initiatives will facilitate the transition from a small group of individuals managing networkactivities to a strong field of researchers leading future work in this area. After completion of activities, thisemerging area will be in better position for network members to pursue funding to support the network in thefuture using more traditional mechanisms.
RelevanceAs the proportion of older adults in the population continues to expand; magnifying the relative impact of theirdecisions; it is increasingly imperative to better understand changes in decision making across the life span.The recent; rapid rise in interdisciplinary research combining psychology; neuroscience; and economics hastremendous potential for increasing translation of science for real-world impact. The long-term goal of thisnetwork is to conduct integrative and multidisciplinary research that contributes directly to interventions aimedat improving health and well being in the daily lives of aging adults.
