Volunteers sought for study into effects of ageing on the brain

Neuroscientists at the University of Glasgow are looking for volunteers to help them in a project looking at the effects of ageing on the brain. The team from the Institute of Neurosciences and Psychology are looking for men and women aged 55 and over to take part in the study that involves identifying emotional states from facial expressions. Volunteers will be asked to look at a variety of animated three-dimensional faces displaying different expressions and identify the emotions being conveyed. Participants will be compensated for their time, which will involve a total of around ten one hour session, with a payment of around £60. A smaller batch of volunteers will have their brain activity monitored by a magnetoencephalography (MEG) machine during the task, which will be carried out over three two-hour sessions. Dr van Rijsbergen, a Research Associate in the Institute, said: "This is a study looking at how the brain reorganises itself as it gets older and compensates for the effects of aging. "We are looking at facial expressions because there are special areas of the brain which are specifically involved in face recognition, but these areas are subject to attrition as we grow older.