Lothian Birth Cohorts are a research group based in Psychology at the University of Edinburgh. Our aim is to understand how our brain and thinking skills change throughout life, and why some people's brains age better than others'.

At the core of our research are two longitudinal studies of older adults: the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 (LBC1921) study, established in 1999, and the Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 (LBC1936) study, established in 2004. Professor Ian Deary founded the studies with the late Professor John Starr and was Director of LBC from 1998 until his retirement in November 2020. Dr Simon Cox took over directorship of LBC in December 2020. Ian Deary continues to work on the studies as professor emeritus.

The studies have generated a wealth of data for in-depth, high quality research on cognitive, brain, and general ageing, leading to over 700 peer-reviewed publications to date. They are one of the longest follow-up studies of cognitive ageing in the world.