Innovative methods of studying brain health, cognition topic of upcoming lecture

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Martin “Marty” Sliwinski, director of the Center for Healthy Aging at Penn State and Gregory H. Wolf Professor in Healthy Aging and Human Development, will present the 2025 Schmitt Russell Research Lecture, “Measuring a Moving Target: Cognition-on-the-go and the new science of brain health,” on Wednesday, Sept. 24, in the Bennett Pierce Living Center, 110 Henderson Building, at Penn State University Park.

The lecture will take place at 3 p.m., with a reception to follow at 4 p.m. Both are free and open to the public.

Sliwinski is the recipient of the 2024 Pauline Schmitt Russell Distinguished Research Career Award, which recognizes the contributions of a distinguished faculty member whose career-long research has had a profound impact on a specific field of study.

Sliwinski’s lecture will explore new methods for capturing cognitive health as it unfolds in the rhythms, contexts and challenges of daily life. This work builds on a tradition of research at Penn State and the Department of Human Development and Family Studies that has helped shift research in the field of aging from using static analysis models to understanding development as a dynamic, unfolding process.

Sliwinski will discuss how using modern tools to study brain health allows researchers to understand cognition in real time. While traditional tests were designed to detect impairment, Sliwinski’s research emphasizes measuring change and capturing how cognition fluctuates and adapts in response to everyday experiences.

The results of Sliwinski’s research could potentially allow health care providers to detect early cognitive changes before they become clinically visible, as well as help promote brain health and prevent advancing dementia by identifying early, actionable signals of cognitive change that can inform targeted interventions across the lifespan.

In addition to directing the Center for Healthy Aging, Sliwinski is the director of the Penn State Geroscience and Dementia Prevention Consortium and professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.

His work focuses on improving the measurement of cognitive change with applications in cognitive aging and dementia prevention. His research explores how fluctuations in cognitive performance — shaped by factors such as stress, social interactions and physical activity — can reveal early signs of cognitive decline and inform strategies for maintaining brain health.

Sliwinski has led the development of innovative methods for assessing cognition in real-world settings, including the Mobile Monitoring of Cognitive Change (M2C2) platform, which leverages mobile technology to capture high-frequency, in-the-moment cognitive data.

His research emphasizes dynamic phenotyping of daily experiences and cognitive function, examining their inter-relationships across multiple timescales, from micro-changes over days to long-term trajectories over years.