Audrey Duarte is an associate professor in the School of Psychology and the principal investigator of the Memory and Aging Lab.

Because memory is key to who we are and how we react to situations, Duarte and her fellow researchers are trying to figure out how memory fails as we get older. A failing memory can be a sign of serious disease such as Alzheimer’s, but it can also impact otherwise healthy, aging adults.

What exactly causes those memory failures? Can they be prevented by cognitive activities, just as physical exercise helps maintain muscular and cardiovascular fitness? Could this research be applied to new ways of educating students, particularly those on the autism scale?

Those are the questions Duarte is trying to answer, as she explains in Episode 8.

Take a listen at sciencematters.gatech.edu.

Enter to win a prize by answering the question for Episode 8: 

According to Episode 8, what brain waves are associated with deep states of sleep?

Submit your entry by 11 AM on Monday, Oct. 15, at sciencematters.gatech.edu. Answer and winner will be announced shortly after the quiz closes.