stages in the life span. While strenuous exercise may be contraindicated in some cases, de Vries found that a modified program could even be beneficial for individuals with mild cardiovascular disease. This work is currently being extended using female subjects, and Dr. deVires is continuing his attempt to explore and extend the limits of physicological capacity in older people.

In the psycholophysiology laboratory with my own work, I, too, am interested in exploring the limits to which physiological and behavioral decline in aging can be reversed. We are working with electrical activity in the brain-the electroncephalogram (EEG)—or brain waves. One of the best documented findings in the EEG literature is the slowing of the dominant brain wave rhythm, the alpha rhythm, with age. Since slower brain wave rhythms are associated with states of lower alertness, fatigue, and pathology, it has been assumed that alpha slowing was deleterious. On a behavioral level, slowing of the alpha rhythm has been associated with slowing of reaction time. We have been working with a technique called biofeedback with which we have had some success in training older people to produce more fast brain waves, and this change in brain wave frequency has affected reaction time. When subjects produce fast brain waves they can move more quickly. We are in the process of replicating this work and looking at the implications for more complex behavior. Can we affect attention and information processing capacity in old people? Can we make them more alert and help them to think more quickly by teaching them to produce faster brain waves? These are the questions we hope to answer within the next several years, and our goal is to devise techniques to help older people to function at an optimal level in old age. Clearly, if successful, such research could alter prevailing stereotypes of old people which imply inevitable senility.

The biofeedback technique has also been used to train individuals to lower their blood pressure, and indeed, many physiological rhythms and processes can be changed with biofeedback. Since hypertension has been associated with intellectual decline and higher mortality rates in old people, using biofeedback to reduce blood pressure may prove to be an effective therapy and one which would obviate the use of drugs. With may colleague, Dr. Larry Thompson, I plan to explore the physiological limits of various systems in the aging human in an attempt to maximize potential in older individuals. For too long we have accepted the model of biological decline as the norm for aging without attempting to determine if capacity was truly lost or if it was just unused. While there is undoubtedly physiological decline in aging systems, I believe that there is some untapped residual capacity in the aging organism which we can amplify and maximize.

Additional work in the psychophysiology laboratory which Dr. Thompson and I are undertaking with Dr. David Smith involves the exploration and description of patterns of brain activity, as measured by event related potentials, which are computer averaged measures of EEG activity. Previous research implicates the central nervous system as the primary causal site for age changes in behavior, and we hope to more clearly isolate the nature and location of these changes. Our research in this project will also involved the attempt to modify brain activity once we have isolated change associated with poor performance. We also hope to answer some of the questions which have been raised regarding the integration of central and autonomic nervous system activity in old age. Some evidence suggests that the older nervous system may not function in a coordinated manner and may be desynchronized and therefore less efficient. By simultaneously measuring biochemical and bioelectric signals we hope to resolve some of the questions regarding integration in the older nervous system.

In addition to providing a better understanding of brain behavior relationships in old age, the psychophysiological research in our laboratories may lead us to devising therapies to intervene in what have heretofore been considered inevitable age changes. We may be able to maximize the physiological efficiency of old people and help them to remain more alert, move more quickly, and hopefully feel better as well. An additional perspective which we feel is important is to look at physiology and behavior over the life span. By taking this perspective we can think about preventive strategies in addition to the more short-ranged interventions at the end of the life span.

A life span orientation to developmental psychology has led Dr. K. Warner Schaie to conclude that the intellectual decline which was thought to accompany old age is a myth. In an extensive series of studies Schaie has convincingly demonstrated the impact of cultural change and generational differences on intelligence test scores. It's not that we lose intelligence with age but rather

when we compare contemporary generations of old people (who have been out of school for 50-60 years and who have on the average four to six years less formal education than contemporary young generations) to young people, we find that the young score higher. When we follow people over long periods of their life span, we find that they do not decline in intellectual performance. These data have led Schaie to state that the aged are obsolete and they need to be "updated" by returning to school. Indeed, James Birren, Director of the Andrus Center since its inception, has suggested that we will observe a "greying" of our educational institutions as more and more individuals return to school in mid and later life. The aged can profit from education in a number of dimensions and with the slowing of the birth rate and shrinking numbers of younger cohorts, educational institutions more and more will be turning to the old to fill their enrollments.

Sociologists, political scientists and public administrators at the Center are also focusing on the impact the expanding proportion of elderly in the population will have on policy makers. What are the attitudes of policy makers toward the aged? Can these attitudes be changed? How can we effectively carry out "consciousness raising" strategies to attune legislators to the problems of the elderly? Dr. Neal Cutler and Dr. Paul Kerschner are seeking the answers to such questions in field studies and in projects designed to be undertaken with state legislators.

The impact of cultural and ethnic variables on human aging is another focus of research activity. Dr. Vern Bengtson heads a project which involves the study of black and Chicano elderly. What are the special needs of these subgroups of aged? What is unique and what is universal about the experience of human aging? Answers to such questions may affect the nature of policy with respect to these groups, and the results of these projects have clear and direct implications for action.

These, then, are a few of the issues to which we have addressed ourselves at the Andrus Center. While many of the research questions we ask are basic, there are clear applications of this information which can be directly applied to the lives of the aged. The questions we ask and the answers we are getting have implications for the elderly at many levels. It is essential for the population of today's aged and for the aged of tomorrow that we continue to ask questions, search for answers and apply and disseminate the results of our work. Old people themselves see the import of this research and have pledged their time and money to support such endeavors.

'Unfortunately, the federal government has not been as enthusiastic in committing funds to gerontological research and training. Indeed, only $7 million is requested for research in the Budget for the proposed legislation—a figure which reflects no increase over earlier requests. Additionally. Congress has yet to appropriate research funds for the National Institute on Aging. Thus, we have submitted research proposals which have been evaluated for their scientific merit and approved as sound, yet there is no money appropriated to fund the work. In this light, I urge the members of this committee to:

1. Expand federal support for research in gerontology.

2. Expand federal support for training in gerontology.

3. Provide support for multidisciplinary centers in gerontology.

4. Press for appropriation of funds to the National Institute of Aging. The current state of funding for research in aging is a sad commentary on the lack of foresight in planning for the elderly. Research is often viewed as a frill and of secondary importance to direct services, but the potential of research to present physical and mental deterioration which in turn is costly to society is typically overlooked. Elimination of some of the problems of aging is the great potential of gerontological research, and we must invest both in the short term programs of service delivery and in the long term potential of research in order to truly improve the quality of life for contemporary and future generations of older Americans.

BIOFEEDBACK-IMPLICATIONS FOR GERONTOLOGY

(Diana S. Woodruff, University of Southern California)

In a discussion of scientific creativity, Lord Adrian, the famous biologist stated, "New ideas in science are induced by new discoveries, and at the present time it seems to me that the most potent factor in promoting new discoveries has been

the introduction of some new technique, some new tool that can be used for exploring natural phenomena." (Adrian, 1961). Biofeedback easily qualifies as the kind of promising new technique of which Lord Adrian was speaking.

The basic mechanism employed in feedback training is an electronic system which serves to amplify and inform an individual about the ongoing activity of selected physiological processes. The actual feedback is a signal or stimulus presented to the subject contingent upon the presence of a certain physiological state. For example, if a subject is being trained to produce brain waves in the alpha frequency (8-12 cycles per second), the feedback might be a tone sounded whenever the subject produced an alpha wave.

The biofeedback technique is based on the fundamental learning principle that a response is learned when an individual receives reinforcement (feedback) when he makes a correct response. While natural feedback loops exist for some systems in the body (eg. kinesthetic receptors provide information about position, movement and tension), we normally do not receive feedback information concerning the functioning of our internal organs. Hence, we usually are unaware if our brain waves are in the alpha range, if our heart rate is fast or slow or if our blood pressure is high or low. In this sense biofeedback serves as an artificial receptor which provides information about the state of our internal organs.

Biofeedback is a relatively new research tool which has been developed in the last five or six years. In the late 1960's researchers asked the question: If a subject is given information (biofeedback) that tells him that his electroencephalographic (EEG) brain waves are within the alpha range, that his heart is beating slowly, or that his blood pressure is low, will he learn to prolong the occurrence of alpha rhythm, or to keep his heart rate slow, or to maintain a low level of blood pressure? A number of investigations have provided an affirmative answer to this question.

Research in the area of the EEG brain waves which has received its primary imputes from Kamiya (1962, 1968, 1969) has led to the demonstration that subjects can learn to voluntarily control their EEG alpha rhythm. Electronic circuitry is arranged so that subjects hear a tone whenever the alpha rhythm is present. When instructed to keep the tone on, subjects learn to increase the time they spend in the alpha brain wave state, and conversely, when told to turn off the tone, they decrease the time spent in alpha. To accomplish the task of producing alpha rhythm, subjects report that they maintain a subjective state of tranquility and a “blank mind." Hence, control over subjective states or mental events which are associated with physiological events seem to lead to control over internal physiological events.

Heart rate and blood pressure are other physiological functions which have been demonstrated to come under voluntary control with the biofeedback technique. Shapiro and associates (1969, 1970a) monitored blood pressure with a conventional blood pressure cuff and reinforced one group of subjects for increasing and another group for decreasing systolic pressure. Pressure levels became differentiated between the two groups in a relatively short period of training (thirty minutes). The Shapiro group (1970b) also used biofeedback techniques to train subjects to increase and decrease heart rate, and significant heart rate conditioning occurred in a single training session. Engel and Melmon (1968) had some success in treating cardiac arrythmias with biofeedback. Budzynski, Stoyva and Adler (1970) used biofeedback to relieve tension headaches, and Randt and his colleagues have had encouraging results in training epileptic patients to suppress paroxysmal spikes in their brain waves (Barber, 1971). Other researchers have been applying biofeedback techniques to various psychosomatic disorders. Working with animals, Miller (1969) and his associates demonstrated learned control of heart rate, blood pressure, localized blood flow, urine secretion and stomach and intestinal contractions.

The implications and potential applications for biofeedback in the fields of gerontology and geriatrics are almost totally unexplored. The descriptive literature of gerontology contains numerous examples of deleterious physiological changes which occur with age, but little attempt has been made to explore the extent to which these changes are reversible. Phenomena such as the increase in blood pressure and slowing of the dominant brain wave rhythm are commonly accepted as concomitants of normal aging, but investigators have directed their research toward explanation of these age functional relationships rather than attempting to modify the changes. With biofeedback it may be possible to train aged subjects to lower blood pressure and to speed the dominant brain wave frequency hence reversing age changes which may be deleterious. In this manner

biofeedback offers a behavioral approach to the maintenance of optimal physiological functioning in the aged.

In addition to the implications of biofeedback as a therapeutic technique are the implications for feedback as an experimental technique. Increasing emphasis has been placed on the need for experimental as well as descriptive research in the psychology of aging (Baltes & Goulet, 1971; Birren, 1971), and biofeedback is a tool which can be used for experimental manipulation. It is possible to train subjects with biofeedback to maintain physiological rates of young and old individuals. In this manner simulation of the observed physiological age functions can be achieved. Using behavioral measures as the dependent variable in such age simulation studies might clarify the nature of the relationship between aging, physiology and behavior.

An age simulation study using the biofeedback technique to train subjects to control the frequency of their alpha rhythm is currently underway in our laboratory at the University of Southern California. A group of young and a group of old subjects is learning to increase the time they spend in three different frequencies in the alpha range (fast, mean, slow). After a baseline session in which EEG and reaction time are measured the biofeedback technique is used to train subjects to increase the time spent in their mean brain wave frequency (normally 10-11 cps for young and 8-9 cps for old subjects). Subjects' brain waves are monitored with an EEG amplifying system, the EEG output is filtered, and when the filtered EEG signal reaches a selected amplitude it triggers a feedback tone heard by the subject. Subjects are told that their brain waves control the tone and that they are to keep the tone on as long as possible. When subjects meet a set criterion of time spent in the alpha state, reaction time is measured. Next subjects learn to increase the time spent in brain wave frequencies two cps faster and two cps slower than their mean frequency, and reaction time is measured after subjects accomplish each task. The conditions are counterbalanced so that half of the subjects receive the speed condition first and the slow condition second while half receive the conditions in the reverse order.

Surwillo (1963) demonstrated in a descriptive study that brain wave duration (inverse of frequency) correlated highly (r=.72) with simple reaction time, and he hypothesized that the slowing of brain wave frequency with age could account for the age related slowing in reaction time. The present study is an experimental test of Surwillo's hypothesis. Half of the subjects have completed the experiment, and preliminary results indicated that three-fourths of the old and half of the young subjects shifted their reaction time by at least 20 msec. in the direction predicted by Surwillo's hypothesis. Hence, preliminary results suggest that there is a relationship between simple reaction time and brain wave frequency. At least some of the observed slowing of reaction time in the aged may be related to slowing of the dominant brain wave frequency.

The slowing of reaction time is not the only behavior which has been linked to the slowing of the dominant brain wave rhythm. Nowlis (1970) suggested that biofeedback training of the EEG alpha rhythm might help geriatric patients to maintain alertness over longer periods of time thereby recovering deficits in cognitive functioning. Mood changes have also been related to changes in alpha frequency (Davis, 1942; Hurst, Mundy-Castle, & Beerstecher, 1954). The design strategy of training subjects through biofeedback to increase the time spent in fast, mean and slow brain wave frequencies presents a means of testing the behavioral significance of the slowing of the alpha rhythm with age. A comparable strategy could be adopted to test the behavioral significance of age changes in blood pressure and any number of other physiological rates which are known to change with age. If deleterious behavioral changes are found to relate to the physiological changes, biofeedback might be used to train subjects to maintain an optimal physiological rate hence reversing the change in behavior. In this manner the biofeedback technique is potentially useful as a therapy and as a technique for the scientific study of aging.

REFERENCES

Adrian, Lord. Creativity in science, discussion on scientific creativity. Third World Congress of Psychiatry, 1961, 1, 41-44.

Baltes, P. B. & Goulet, L. R. Exploration of developmental variables by manipulation and simulation of age differences in behavior. Human Development, 1971, in press.

Barber, T. X. Preface. Biofeedback & Self-Control: 1970. New York: AldineAtherton, 1971. Pp. vii-xvi.

Birren, J. E. Towards an experimental psychology of aging. American Psychologist, 1971, 25, 124–135.

Budzynski, T., Stoyva, J., & Adler, C. Feedback-induced muscle relaxation: Application to tension headache. Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 1970, 1, 205–211.

Davis, P. A. Comparative study of EEG's of schizophrenic and manic-depressive patients. American Journal of Psychiatry, 1942, 99, 210-222.

Engel, B. T. & Melmon, K. L. Operant conditioning of heart rate in patients with cardiac arrhythmias. Conditional Reflexes, 1968, 3, 130.

Hurst, L. A., Mundy-Castle, A. C. & Beerstecher, D. M. The EEG in manic depressive psychosis. Journal of Mental Science, 1954, 100, 220-240.

Kamiya, J. Conditioned discrimination of the EEG alpha rhythm in humans. Paper presented at the Western Psychological Association, San Francisco, 1962.

Kamiya, J. Conscious control of brain waves. Psychology Today, 1968, 1, 56-60. Kamiya, J. Operant control of EEG alpha rhythm and some of its reported effects on consciousness. In C. T. Tart (Ed.), Altered States of Consciousness. New York: Wiley, 1969. Pp. 507–517.

Miller, N. E. Learning of visceral and glandular responses. Science, 1969, 163, 434-445.

Nowlis, D. A. Implications of bio-feedback traning. Unpublished manuscript, Stanford University, 1970.

Shapiro, D., Tursky, B., Gershon, E., et al. Effects of feedback and reinforcement on the control of human systolic blood pressure. Science, 1969, 163, 588-590.

Shapiro, D., Tursky, B., & Schwartz, G. E. Control of blood pressure in man by operant conditioning. Supplement I, Circulation Research, 1970, 26, 27, 1-27 to 1-32. (a)

Shapiro, D., Tursky, B., & Schwartz, G. E. Differentiation of heart rate and systolic blood pressure in man by operant conditioning. Psychosomatic Medicine, 1970, 32, 417–423. (b)

Surwillo, W. W. The relation of simple response time to brain wave frequency and the effects of age. Electroencephalography and Clinical Neurophysiology, 1963, 15, 105–114.

THE USEFULNESS OF THE LIFE-SPAN APPROACH FOR THE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF AGING

(Diana S. Woodruff, PHD 1)

The life-span perspective has been both useful and misleading in psychophysiological approaches to aging, and it is the aim of this paper to delineate the strengths and weaknesses of the life-span model in psychophysiological research. Psychophysiology involves the attempt to determine relationships between psychological and physiological variables. Psychophysiological research on aging has typically consisted of the description and explanation of age changes in behavior over the life-span in terms of age changes in physiology. Indeed, the biological decremental model of aging has pervaded geropsychological research, and consequently the psychophysiological approach has received considerable emphasis in the psychology of aging.

On the one hand, the life-span approach in psychophysiology has been useful inasmuch as a large body of evidence has accumulated indicating that physiological decline is related to age changes in behavior (e.g., Birren, Butler, Greenhouse, Sokoloff, & Yarrow, 1963; Gaitz, 1972; Jarvik, Eisdorfer, & Blum, 1972; Thompson, 1973; Welford & Birren, 1965). On the other hand, the approach has perhaps misdirected psychologists to accept irreversible physiological and behavioral decline as characteristic of aging thus precluding exploration of means to decelerate or reverse behavioral aging as well as precluding exploration of non-physiological and concurrent environmental determinants. The pervasiveness of the life-span psychophysiological approach in aging research attests to the usefulness of this approach, but the very pervasiveness of the biological decremental model represents a weakness in terms of a narrowness of perspective in contemporary geropsychological research.

1 Assistant Research Psychologist, Dept. of Psychology, Univ. of California, Los Angeles 90024.