"When people get older memory and other cognitive functions seem to change. But is this true for everybody? It turns out that many young people are outperformed by middle-aged or older persons on cognitive performance tests. So what are the characteristics of people who age successfully, what causes the age-related cognitive changes seen in usual aging, and what are the determinants of pathological aging, such as dementia? These are the main questions of the Maastricht Aging Study (MAAS). This research program consists of several related studies about the biological, medical and psychosocial aspects of cognitive aging. The core project of MAAS was a longitudinal study in nearly 1,900 individuals aged between 24 and 81 years. Since 1992 our participants were tested at fixed intervals over a period of 12 years. The analysis of the longitudinal data is still ongoing and is performed by researchers with a wide range of disciplinary backgrounds. Since 2019, a 25 year follow-up is being executed in all still available participants." Source: MAAS
"The basis of MAAS (the so-called A-study) is founded by a cross-sectional study involving several thousands of healthy subjects, aged 24 to 86 years at baseline. Data were collected in four consecutive panel studies. These panel studies were virtually identical with respect to structure and organization. In the first panel study A1 (1993) agroup of 2,000 subjects received an extensive postal questionnaire. Of these 2,000 subjects, 480 were actually tested at the behavioral laboratory. Three additional experiments (A2 to A4) were subsequently executed, in which some individual data were to be collected by means of postal questionnaire, and other data by in-depth neuropsychological and medical assessment, 440 to 480 subjects per panel study." Source: The Pink Book (1995)
More information on MAAS can be found via the Maelstrom Research website. The MAAS is part of the CHeBA COSMIC and IALSA Networks.
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