What’s New

Terrie Moffitt, Nannerl O. Keohane University Distinguished Professor of Psychology & Neuroscience has received the title Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire, commonly known as the MBE. The honor, also bestowed upon many celebrities over the years, was presented to Moffitt by King Charles III at a ceremony in Windsor Castle in recognition of her outstanding scientific achievement and service to the United Kingdom. Established in 1917 by King George V, the MBE is the third highest… read more about Terrie Moffitt Receives Royal Honor From the British Monarchy »

Renate Houts along with Annchen Knodt, Kathy Xie and our research team won 1st prize in the Research Data Visualization Competition at Duke University. The competition theme was “Through Time,” fitting as Duke celebrates its 100th anniversary and also exactly what our longitudinal research does!  Read more here. read more about First Prize in Data Visualization Competition: Renate Houts, Annchen Knodt, and Kathy Xie »

Measuring your Biological Age has been extremely popularized because of how highly correlated it is to almost every chronic disease and death. However, the Biological Age of a person is limited in the sense that it is a “historical-based” age, meaning it only captures how quickly you’ve been aging since your inception up until the present moment.   Listen here. read more about How Fast are you Aging, Really? with Dr. Terrie Moffitt »

Biologically, we all age. Joints get stiffer, arteries get thinner and eyes and ears just don’t gather information they way they used to. Based on their unparalleled collection of five decades of health data following residents in Dunedin, New Zealand, Duke psychologists Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi have devised a way to measure whether a person is biologically aging one year for every calendar year or at a faster — or slower — pace.  Listen here. read more about How fast are you aging?  »

Founded in 1780, the Academy honors excellence and convenes leaders to examine new ideas, address issues of importance to the nation and the world, and advance the public good. This year’s election of 261 new members continues a tradition of recognizing accomplishments and leadership in academia, the arts, industry, public policy, and research. Read more here. read more about Terrie Moffitt and Avshalom Caspi elected to American Academy of Arts & Sciences  »

The internationally-renowned Dunedin Study celebrates its 50th anniversary this week, marking five decades of research impact around the world. The first Dunedin baby to enter the University of Otago’s Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health & Development Study was born on 1 April 1972 and over the course of the following year a further 1037 babies became Study members.  Read more here and here. Happy 50th Birthday toast!     read more about Dunedin Study celebrates 50 years »

In 1923, lead was first added to gasoline to help keep car engines healthy. However, automotive health came at the great expense of our own well-being. A new study calculates that exposure to car exhaust from leaded gas during childhood stole a collective 824 million IQ points from more than 170 million Americans alive today, about half the population of the United States. Read more here. read more about Lead Exposure in Last Century Shrank IQ Scores of Half of Americans »

2021 is the centennial year of Science News’ publication, so the magazine is posting articles on the last 100 years of research in various scientific disciplines. This one examines the last century of psychology/social science research. Our research on the prevalence of mental disorder and the use of p to summarise mental disorder histories appears in the section titled “Diagnostic Disarray.”  It’s in there with Watson, Skinner, Bowlby, Milgram, Zimbardo, Khaneman and Tversky, Franz Boas, Margaret Meade… read more about 2021 is the centennial year of Science News’ publication, so the magazine is posting articles on the last 100 years of research in various scientific disciplines.  »

Moffitt served on the panel producing the National Academy of Sciences 10-year research agenda for dementia. As the largest generation in U.S. history - the population born in the two decades immediately following World War II - enters the age of risk for cognitive impairment, growing numbers of people will experience dementia (including Alzheimer's disease and related dementias). By one estimate, nearly 14 million people in the United States will be living with dementia by 2060. Like other hardships, the experience of… read more about Reducing the Impact of Dementia in America: A Decadal Survey of the Behavioral and Social Sciences  »

Temi did a fun 20-min podcast to announce her talk in the King’s College London, Inst of Psychiatry’s annual research festival on 27 April.  It’s being promoted by Mental Elf, a UK NGO that disseminates information about mental health to the public. There is a 20-min podcast link below, and also a tweet if you care to help send it. The topic is: “What surprises we got by following 1000 people’s mental health for decades.” Soon there will be a blog as well, by professional mental health blogger, Dona Matthews. Very… read more about Podcast: Surprises Found By Following 1000 People’s Mental Health »

We tracked age-related declines in multiple organ systems across 20 years and found that, already by midlife, those aging fastest showed cognitive declines, signs of brain aging, diminished sensory-motor function, and negative views about aging.  People who are aging more rapidly than same-age peers are simultaneously at higher risk for health challenges and future frailty as well as age-based discrimination.  Read more here. read more about People of the same chronological age vary greatly in their biological age, which has implications for frailty risk and for policy »