The Healthy Aging Research Seminar Series features faculty and trainees from UBC, other institutions in Canada, and abroad. Speakers present on various topics related to research on healthy aging, with the goal of disseminating knowledge and fostering new collaborations. Our research seminars typically occur on the third Wednesday of every month. These seminars are intended for a research audience but all are welcome to attend. Scroll through our events calendar for upcoming research seminars.
Our next Research Seminar is at 11:00 AM on June 21st, 2023. Dr. Ryan Falck, a Michael Smith Health Research BC Postdoctoral Fellow in the UBC School of Biomedical Engineering, will be speaking about “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the 24-hour Activity Cycle and Healthy Cognitive Aging”.
Summary: With one new case of dementia detected every 3 seconds, and no effective pharmaceutical cure yet available, we urgently need to identify lifestyle strategies which can reduce dementia risk. Physical activity, sedentary behaviour, and sleep are three behaviours which we all engage in daily and make up most of our 24-hour day (hence, the 24-hour activity cycle). Each of these behaviours are independently associated with cognitive health. However, most research has treated these behaviours as isolated with very little consideration for how people live each day (e.g., poor sleep likely impacts physical activity and vice versa). This seminar will discuss the growing evidence surrounding how the 24-hour activity cycle shares an interactive relationship with older adult cognitive health, practical applications of our current knowledge for clinical populations, and the meaning of life (the answer is of course 42).