Three of the nine psychology grants funded by the Swedish Research Council (VR) this year have gone to ARC researchers. Professor Lars-Göran Nilsson, Associate Professor Jonas Persson, and Associate Professor Martin Lövdén each received a grant. Additionally, the council awarded Research Scientist Marc Guitart-Masip in the psychology group a five-year medicine and health grant for young researchers.
Lars-Göran Nilsson will study how job-related stress affects cognition in late life. He will use his grant to fund a two-year postdoctoral student beginning in January 2014. The project is called “Genetics and psychosocial exposure: Possible explanations of subjective and objective cognitive problems in the work force.”
Jonas Persson will provide an improved description of the nature and features of cognitive fatigue in older people. He will estimate the prevalence of the problem in normal old adults, investigate the processes that lie behind and lead to it, and examine what happens in the brain during cognitive fatigue. The project is called “Cognitive fatigue in old age: Psychological and neurobiological mechanisms.”
Martin Lövdén‘s project focuses on whether transcranial magnetic stimulation, drugs, or exercise make it possible for cognitive training to change the aging brain and improve cognitive performance. He also aims to better understand what lies behind plasticity and thus how age-related cognitive impairment can be prevented, delayed, or reversed. The project is called “Releasing the Brakes on Adult Plasticity.”
Marc Guitart-Masip will study decision making in general and the role of dopamine in various aspects of decision making. He will also investigate whether age-related changes in decision-making ability are related to dopamine losses. His project is called “Dopamine and decision-making across the adult lifespan.”

Image: Grégoria Kalpouzos