Environments for Aging - Summer 2019 - 18

HAVING EARNED DEGREES in aerospace engineering and
neuroscience, Corinna Lathan, co-founder and CEO
of AnthroTronix Inc., launched her company more than
20 years ago to blur the lines between humans (anthro)
and technology (tronix). Today, she works with organizations that seek to use technology as an enabler of
human function. In her opening keynote presentation
at the 2019 EFA Expo, Lathan offered attendees an
overview of some of the opportunities that exist for
technology to support us as we age and even combat
the negative effects of dementia.
The need to explore such solutions is vast. "We're
ignoring the brain," she said. For example, Lathan
questioned why during a doctor's visit, a patient's
temperature, blood pressure, weight, and height are
recorded but nothing's done to measure or assess
cognitive function. "We do nothing to track our brain
health," she said, even though we know there are
44 million people with dementia worldwide and that
number will increase to about 75 million in the next
few decades."
Technology also stands to combat isolation, which
is the number one predictor of functional decline in the
elderly, she said.
And although chronic diseases associated with
aging can be prevented or related symptoms improved
by eating better, exercising, and reducing stress-all
without technology-Lathan urged attendees to
imagine what can be accomplished if these lifestyle
changes were combined with technology. "I believe
that technology is not just for making us healthier and
stronger; it's also for designing environments that connect us to each other and enable lifelong learning and
exploration," Lathan said.-Shandi Matambanadzo,
managing editor

keynotes
18

EFAmagazine.com * Summer 2019

The

Designing
a future of
healthy
brains

Village
effect
SO WHAT'S THE SECRET to being
happy and healthy and living long,
productive lives? Psychologist,
journalist, and author Susan Pinker
says it's "the village effect." That's
the term she uses to describe the
personal, face-to-face connections
that help us survive and thrive.
Pinker explored her theory in a
keynote presentation at the 2019
EFA Expo.
How she discovered this started
with the realization that females live
longer than men, by an average of
15 years-"That's a huge gap," she
said. And one notable character
trait of women when compared to
men is the propensity to prioritize
and groom social relationships
across their lifetimes. However,
there is at least one place in the
world where men live just as long
as women: Sardinia, Italy.
Sardinia's claim to fame is its
presence on the list of Blue Zones,
regions of the world where people
live longer than average. There,
Pinker traveled to Villagrande
Strisaili, a town so dense that you
can't go anywhere without meeting
someone on the way, she said-its
very makeup contributing to its
social success and, subsequently,
resident longevity.
But it isn't just familial bonds

that help keep us going. Researchers out of Brigham Young University, she said, studied what reduces
the chances of death the most
and found unexpected results. For

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Environments for Aging - Summer 2019

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