Tag Archives: cognition

July 29, 2023 · 11:13 pm

The Truth about “Brain-Boosting” Supplements – Tufts

More than 25 percent of Americans ages 50 to 73 and 36 percent of those age 74 and over take supplements for brain health. Let’s take a look at what the science says about some popular options, according to Tufts Health & Nutrition Letter.

Ginkgo. A few small, early studies suggested the extract from leaves of the Ginkgo biloba tree may slightly improve some symptoms of dementia, but newer studies have shown no effect. The largest clinical trial ever conducted on the effect of Ginkgo supplements on dementia prevention was the Ginkgo Evaluation of Memory Study, published in 2008. This eight-year randomized controlled trial gave 240 milligrams (mg) a day of Ginkgo biloba extract or placebo to more than 3,000 older adults with normal cognitive function or mild cognitive impairment at baseline. There was no significant difference in risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease (or progression to dementia if they had mild cognitive impairment) between participants receiving the supplement and those in the placebo group.

Safety: Consuming moderate amounts (120 to 240 mg) of Ginkgo leaf extract appears to be safe for most people. Possible side effects include headache, stomach upset, dizziness, palpitations, constipation, and allergic skin reactions. Ginkgo may interact with anticoagulant medications (blood thinners) and could cause early labor or extra bleeding during delivery if used near the end of pregnancy. Do not consume raw or roasted Ginkgo seeds or unprocessed leaves, as these may be toxic.

The Bottom Line: There’s no conclusive evidence that Ginkgo is helpful for preserving or improving cognitive health.

Omega-3 Fatty Acids. Eating a dietary pattern that includes fish rich in omega-3 fatty acids has been associated with lower risk for cognitive decline. Results from research on supplements, however, have not been promising. The NIH and the Alzheimer’s Association both state there is not sufficient evidence to recommend omega-3 fatty acids to prevent or treat Alzheimer’s disease. A 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis of 38 randomized controlled trials with a total of 49,757 participants concluded that omega-3 fatty acid supplements do not protect older adults from cognitive decline.

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June 28, 2023 · 11:19 pm

Tracing the evolutionary origin of cognitive flexibility

Get up. Go to the kitchen. Prepare some cereal – but a look into the fridge shows: the milk bottle is empty. What now? Skip breakfast? Ask the neighbour for milk? Eat jam sandwiches? Every day, people are confronted with situations that were actually planned quite differently. Flexibility is what helps. The origin of this skill in the brain is called cognitive flexibility.

A neuroscientific research team at the Berufsgenossenschaftliches Universitätsklinikum Bergmannsheil, University Hospital of Ruhr University Bochum, Germany, and the Biosciences Institute at Newcastle University has now succeeded in getting a little closer to the evolutionary origin of cognitive flexibility. The researchers published their findings in the journal Nature Communications, online since 9. June 2023.

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June 17, 2023 · 11:14 pm

Effective Strategies for Managing Anxiety

Norman Dill, 69, never thought he was the anxious type. But when he was diagnosed in 2019 with posterior cortical atrophy (PCA)—a neurologic condition in which the posterior cortex, the area of the brain involved with visual processing, is damaged—anxiety became part of his life. In the early stages of the disease, people may experience problems seeing and recognizing faces and objects. “I began to have trouble driving,” says Dill, who lives in Charlottesville, VA. “I’d turn into the wrong lane or hit a curb. When my grandchildren came to visit me that Thanksgiving, I realized I didn’t feel comfortable driving with them in the car.”

His anxiety only deepened over the next few years as the disease increasingly affected his life. When PCA advances, people tend to develop symptoms of dementia, such as memory loss and confusion. Dill forgot the names of his employees at the natural food store he’d owned for more than 30 years. He struggled to read the labels of the food items that he stocked on his shelves. He had stopped driving, but taking public transportation confused him. “It’s a free-floating anxiety,” says Dill. “I feel a sense of frustration that things aren’t right, and I want to get back to how things were before.”

Research suggests that about half of people with PCA or Alzheimer’s disease report symptoms of anxiety, and it’s common in many other neurologic diseases, too. But “it’s always hard to tell if the anxiety is a manifestation of the condition or if the anxiety is related to living with the disease,” says Danny Bega, MD, associate professor of neurology at Northwestern University in Chicago.

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June 11, 2023 · 11:28 pm

10 Early Signs of Alzheimer’s – Rush

Your dad just asked the same question he asked — and you answered — a few minutes ago. You realize that it’s not the first time he’s repeated himself or forgotten something you just said. What does this mean? Does he have Alzheimer’s disease?

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Memory changes can be scary, both as an older adult experiencing them and as a family member or caregiver noticing them. But it’s important to note that forgetfulness doesn’t necessarily equal Alzheimer’s disease.

“The red flag is if it’s happening on a consistent basis and is paired with a change in the person’s ability to function,” says Magdalena Bednarczyk, MD, a geriatrician at RUSH University Medical Center. “When a patient comes to me for an evaluation, it’s usually because family and friends have noticed uncharacteristic or concerning behaviors, not just memory issues.”

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May 12, 2023 · 11:21 pm

Possible ‘steps’ to revealing super-agers

On the quest for the proverbial fountain of youth, scientists have long looked for evidence of super-agers—people whose brain ages slower than their body. Researchers at the Del Monte Institute for Neuroscience at the University of Rochester have found older adults whose brain performance improves when they combine a cognitive task with walking.

“Identifying super-agers will leverage what we understand about the brain and aging,” said Eleni Patelaki, a Biomedical Engineering PhD student at the University of Rochester Medical Center and first author of the paper in NeuroImage. “But this is difficult to do because, in this case, there was no external evidence of this ability, and people are unaware that their brain is working differently.”

Walking and doing exposes brain flexibility

Researchers had the participants complete the same cognitive task while sitting and while walking. The 37 men and women, ages 62 to 79, scored similarly while sitting. When the same group repeated the test while walking, researchers found some individuals improved their cognitive performance. Researchers used Mobile Brain/Body Imaging (MoBI) to observe these changes and measure how the brain responded to the dual task. “We think this brain activity might constitute signatures of ‘super-aging,” said Patelaki. “We were able to find seven people, and now that we know where and how to look in the brain to find these super-agers, we can find more.”

The participants whose cognition improved while walking showed that their brain was able to adapt to and improve at the task—it had flexible usage of certain frontal resources. But those same people lost their flexibility in using the rest of their neural resources, similar to their peers who did not improve at the task while walking. This suggests that the brain’s ability to adapt or its flexibility in reallocating neural resources while walking might be an important factor in protecting cognition as we age.

Some young adult brains also improve

Previously, the same group of researchers in the Frederick J. and Marion A. Schindler Cognitive Neurophysiology Laboratory discovered that some young and healthy people also improve their performance on cognitive tasks while walking by changing the use of neural resources.

Like the older adults, there was no predictor of who would improve and who would not before being tested. This study was Patelaki’s first clue that the dual-task experiment could find super-agers. Most previous research shows that the more tasks a person has to do concurrently, the worse they perform, especially older individuals.

Developing a map for brain health

Brain flexibility is an indicator of brain health. This research offers a potentially necessary component for tracking the health of an individual’s brain—it found where to look.

“These findings have promise for being translated to clinical populations, such as patients with neurodegenerative diseases,” said Ed Freedman, PhD, associate professor of Neuroscience and senior author of this study. “These markers could be used to assess the degree of disease progression, to evaluate treatment outcomes, and potentially to identify people, pre-clinically, at high risk for developing aging-related or disease-related cognitive decline.”

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May 9, 2023 · 11:31 pm

Your job can shape your cognitive abilities

The job that you do can change your brain. This has famously been found for London cab drivers but also acupuncturists, typists, musicians and airport security officers. There is also evidence that more intellectually stimulating jobs bring cognitive benefits, which extend into later life.

This past work has found job-related improvements in skills like touch discrimination and emotion regulation. Now a new study finds that a job that challenges a key aspect of cognitive functioning — the updating of information held in working memory — improves this ability too.

Effective updating of the contents of working memory is vital for all kinds of everyday experiences, including having a conversation and reading. It’s also linked to greater academic success. So this new work, led by Xin Zhao at Northwest Normal University, China, and colleagues, published in Applied Cognitive Psychology, provides evidence that job choice can affect a fundamentally important aspect of everyday brain function.

In the first of two studies, the team recruited 53 men who worked as restaurant ticket collectors in beef noodle restaurants in China, plus 53 security guards as a control group. (Men typically hold these jobs, they write.)

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May 8, 2023 · 11:15 pm

A higher dose of magnesium each day keeps dementia at bay

More magnesium in our daily diet leads to better brain health as we age, according to scientists from the Neuroimaging and Brain Lab at The Australian National University (ANU).

The researchers say increased intake of magnesium-rich foods such as spinach and nuts could also help reduce the risk of dementia, which is the second leading cause of death in Australia and the seventh biggest killer globally.

The study of more than 6,000 cognitively healthy participants in the United Kingdom aged 40 to 73 found people who consume more than 550 milligrams of magnesium each day have a brain age that is approximately one year younger by the time they reach 55 compared with someone with a normal magnesium intake of about 350 milligrams a day.

“Our study shows a 41 per cent increase in magnesium intake could lead to less age-related brain shrinkage, which is associated with better cognitive function and lower risk or delayed onset of dementia in later life,” lead author and PhD researcher Khawlah Alateeq, from the ANU National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, said.

“This research highlights the potential benefits of a diet high in magnesium and the role it plays in promoting good brain health.”

It’s believed the number of people worldwide who will be diagnosed with dementia is expected to more than double from 57.4 million in 2019 to 152.8 million in 2050, placing a greater strain on health and social services and the global economy.

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May 6, 2023 · 11:19 pm

Sleeping pill reduces levels of Alzheimer’s proteins

Sleep disturbances can be an early sign of Alzheimer’s disease. Many people eventually diagnosed with Alzheimer’s start experiencing difficulty falling and staying asleep years before cognitive problems such as memory loss and confusion emerge. It’s a vicious cycle: Alzheimer’s disease involves changes to the brain that disrupt sleep, and poor sleep accelerates harmful changes to the brain.

Researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis have identified a possible way to help break that cycle. A small, two-night study has shown that people who took a sleeping pill before bed experienced a drop in the levels of key Alzheimer’s proteins — a good sign, since higher levels of such proteins tracks with worsening disease. The study, which involved a sleeping aid known as suvorexant that is already approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for insomnia, hints at the potential of sleep medications to slow or stop the progression of Alzheimer’s disease, although much more work is needed to confirm the viability of such an approach.

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April 28, 2023 · 11:34 pm

Causal link between cognitive ability and obesity in doubt

The well-replicated associations between cognitive ability and body mass index (BMI) may largely reflect confounding by other factors related to family background, according to a new study published April 13^thin the open access journal PLOS Medicine by Liam Wright of University College London, UK, and colleagues.

Obesity is a major contributor to the global disease burden and its prevalence is expected to continue rising. Existing studies have found links between cognitive ability and obesity, with a lower cognitive ability in childhood or adolescence associated with a higher BMI or higher rate of obesity in later adulthood.

In the new study, researchers used data on 12,250 siblings from 5,602 households followed from adolescence to age 62 as part of four separate United States youth population cohort studies. By comparing the association between cognitive ability and BMI within families, the team could account for unobserved factors related to family background.

When comparing unrelated individuals in the dataset, the researchers found that moving from the 25^th to 75^th percentile of adolescent cognitive ability was associated with an estimated 0.61 kg/m² decrease in BMI (95% CI -0.90 to -0.33) when adjusted for family socioeconomic position. When comparing siblings, however, moving from the 25^th to 75^th percentile of adolescent cognitive ability was associated with only a 0.06 kg/m² decrease in BMI (95% CI -0.35 to 0.23).

“The results suggest that existing findings on the link between cognitive ability and BMI are biased by shared family factors,” the authors say. “Given that associations between cognitive ability and other health outcomes have been found using similar observational research designs, sibling data may be useful for assessing potential bias for these health outcomes too.”

Wright adds, “Does higher cognitive ability (intelligence) help one to avoid gaining too much weight? Lots of studies have found an association between the two, but our study suggests that these links may not be causal in nature.”

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April 22, 2023 · 11:27 pm

Can alcohol-associated burn injuries impair cognitive function?

The relationship between alcohol use and burn injuries is a negative one in multiple ways. Not only are about 50% of adults who sustain burn injuries intoxicated at the time of injury, suggesting that alcohol use may have contributed to the incident, but alcohol use among burn-injured patients is associated with more severe complications, delayed recovery, and increased morbidity and mortality.

“Return to work or normal life can be impaired or delayed for burn-injured patients who use alcohol,” says Elizabeth Kovacs, PhD, vice chair of research and professor of GI, trauma, and endocrine surgery in the University of Colorado Department of Surgery. “Every organ of the body is affected by alcohol because it enters your bloodstream. If you look at the data on alcohol use and injury recovery, it affects everything from the cardiovascular system to the lungs, liver, and pancreas, and even fracture repair.”

That’s primarily because alcohol in the body alters inflammatory responses, she says, making it harder for the immune system to do its job.

“The immune system kills a germ by eating it, like a Pac-Man, and alcohol impairs the ability of that cell to eat the germ,” Kovacs says. “If you get a bacterial infection and your body can’t destroy it, then you’re going to have more bacteria, and things will only get worse.”

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April 19, 2023 · 11:21 pm

Sense of smell linked to speed of brain loss and cognitive decline – NIA

Having a good sense of smell is associated with slower loss of brain volume and cognitive decline in older adults, and the link between sense of smell and brain and cognitive changes may be especially pronounced among those who develop cognitive impairment or dementia. These are the key findings from NIA-led research published recently in Neurology.

The sense of smell declines with age, and loss of olfactory function is also an early symptom of neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s. While previous research found the sense of smell was associated with brain volume and function, no studies had examined longitudinal changes within an individual across the whole brain and by cognitive status.

In this study, scientists analyzed sense of smell, brain imaging, and cognitive performance data from participants in the NIA Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging. The researchers examined whether sense of smell, as reflected by odor identification scores, was associated with longitudinal changes in regional brain volumes and changes to cognitive function. To examine the association between sense of smell and brain volume, they compared odor identification scores and brain MRI scans from a subset of 567 participants. The association between sense of smell and cognitive function was analyzed by comparing odor identification scores and cognitive evaluations from a subset of 754 participants. The subsets were analyzed separately but included 565 overlapping participants with both brain MRI scans and cognitive assessment data.

Participants who developed cognitive impairment or dementia had worse odor identification scores than those who did not. Better odor identification scores were associated with slower loss of brain volume, particularly in the frontal and temporal regions — areas important for thinking and memory. Better scores were also associated with slower decline in memory, attention, processing speed, and sensorimotor integration skills over time. However, when data points after a diagnosis of cognitive impairment or dementia were excluded from analysis, the associations between sense of smell with brain volume and cognitive functioning were not as strong.

These study findings add to evidence that sense of smell is related to cognitive impairment and dementia and demonstrate longitudinal relationships with brain volume loss in specific brain areas and cognitive decline in specific domains. Future studies with longer follow-ups of change over time may help researchers better understand the potential for using sense of smell as an early biomarker of cognitive decline and the role of specific brain regions in this association.

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April 3, 2023 · 11:24 pm

For clues to healthy brain aging, look to the Bolivian Amazon

Some of the lowest rates of heart and brain disease ever reported by science are found among Indigenous communities inhabiting the tropical forests of lowland Bolivia. New USC research on two of these societies, the Tsimané and Mosetén, suggests that there are optimal levels of food consumption and exercise that maximize healthy brain aging and reduce the risk of disease.

The study appears on Monday, March 20 in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Thanks to industrialization, humans now enjoy greater access to food, less physical toil and better access to health care than ever before. However, we’ve grown accustomed to eating more and exercising less. Obesity and sedentary lifestyles are associated with smaller brain volumes and faster cognitive decline.

To better understand the tipping point where abundance and ease begin to undermine health, the researchers enrolled 1,165 Tsimané and Mosetén adults, aged 40-94 years, and provided transportation for participants from their remote villages to the closest hospital with CT scanning equipment.

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February 22, 2023 · 11:26 pm

FSU professor discusses his memory improving smart phone app

A study conducted by Florida State University Psychology Professor Chris Martin and a team of researchers at the University of Toronto, shows that a smart phone application can enhance memory function in older adults.

Martin was the lead author on the study, which was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in December. The study found that regular users of the HippoCamera app recalled everyday experiences with over 50 percent more detail than they would otherwise.

Improvements were observed in healthy older adults as well as those showing decline in memory. The findings could prove helpful for those suffering from memory decline, including those in the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease.

“Our personal identity is intimately related to memory,” Martin said. “We are what we remember, and when we start to lose our memories because of age, disease, or injury, we also lose our sense of self. Our hope is that by helping people feel closer to the events and people in their lives that we can also protect that sense of self.”

Martin answered a few questions about the study and the HippoCamera App.

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February 18, 2023 · 11:12 pm

BrainHealth research demonstrates positive impact of online SMART training

The Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Tactics (SMART™) brain health training protocol has been shown to improve symptoms of depression, anxiety and stress when delivered in person. New research from Center for BrainHealth® at The University of Texas at Dallas demonstrates the effectiveness of online delivery of SMART.

SMART training features strategies to strengthen the brain’s frontal networks and achieve significant, measurable brain changes and improvements. This brain health training program promotes improvements in both trained and untrained areas of cognitive functioning, including strategic attention, innovation, working memory and real-life executive function behaviors. In addition to improving cognitive function, SMART has also demonstrated unexpected benefits in mental health markers.

The research, “Effects of Online Brain Training on Self-Reported Mental Health Symptoms for Generally Healthy Adults During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” was published in Brain and Behavior.

This study investigated the effects of a 12-week, self-paced, online SMART training on mental health on 145 participants between the ages of 18-78 years. Participants included 106 females and 39 males. Participants self-reported mental health symptoms on the Depression Anxiety Stress Scale (DASS-21), a tool to measure the negative emotional states of depression, anxiety and tension/stress, both pre- and post- training. Although the participants consisted of healthy adults, some reported symptoms of psychological distress at baseline pre-training on the DASS-21, particularly in the younger age groups.

Improvements in depression, anxiety and stress symptoms were observed following online SMART, evidenced by a significant decrease in self-reported symptoms on the DASS-21. While SMART training generally yielded mental health benefits across age, gender and education levels, additional exploration is warranted to explore how age and education may affect expression of symptom subtypes.

The lasting impact of this training was revealed in data from 44 participants who completed a follow-up DASS-21 six months after the initial training and showed that improvement in self-reported mental health symptoms was maintained or continued to expand post-training. These findings suggest that SMART may be an effective tool to help those experiencing pre-clinical mental health symptoms, particularly for depression and stress.

Lead author Sarah Laane, MS, CCC-SLP, a research clinician and doctoral student at Center for BrainHealth, stated these findings indicate that participants who completed online SMART experienced similar mental health benefits to those previously demonstrated after in-person SMART programs and demonstrates support for the use of online SMART as a potential low-cost, high-impact tool to support mental health.

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February 3, 2023 · 11:15 pm

New test could detect Alzheimer’s disease 3.5 years before clinical diagnosis

New research from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London has established a blood-based test that could be used to predict the risk of Alzheimer’s disease up to 3.5 years before clinical diagnosis.

The study, published in the journal Brain, supports the idea that components in the human blood can modulate the formation of new brain cells, a process termed neurogenesis. Neurogenesis occurs in an important part of the brain called the hippocampus that is involved in learning and memory.

While Alzheimer’s disease affects the formation of new brain cells in the hippocampus during the early stages of the disease, previous studies have only been able to study neurogenesis in its later stages through autopsies.

To understand the early changes, researchers collected blood samples over several years from 56 individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a condition where someone will begin to experience a worsening of their memory or cognitive ability. While not everyone experiencing MCI goes on to develop Alzheimer’s disease, those with the condition progress to a diagnosis at a much higher rate than the wider population. Of the 56 participants in the study, 36 went on to receive a diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease.

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December 7, 2022 · 11:10 pm

Machine learning gives nuanced view of Alzheimer’s stages

A Cornell-led collaboration used machine learning to pinpoint the most accurate means, and timelines, for anticipating the advancement of Alzheimer’s disease in people who are either cognitively normal or experiencing mild cognitive impairment.

The modeling showed that predicting the future decline into dementia for individuals with mild cognitive impairment is easier and more accurate than it is for cognitively normal, or asymptomatic, individuals. At the same time, the researchers found that the predictions for cognitively normal subjects is less accurate for longer time horizons, but for individuals with mild cognitive impairment, the opposite is true.

The modeling also demonstrated that magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a useful prognostic tool for people in both stages, whereas tools that track molecular biomarkers, such as positron emission tomography (PET) scans, are more useful for people experiencing mild cognitive impairment.

The team’s paper, “Machine Learning Based Multi-Modal Prediction of Future Decline Toward Alzheimer’s Disease: An Empirical Study,” published Nov. 16 in PLOS ONE. The lead author is Batuhan Karaman, a doctoral student in the field of electrical and computer engineering.

Alzheimer’s disease can take years, sometimes decades, to progress before a person exhibits symptoms. Once diagnosed, some individuals decline rapidly but others can live with mild symptoms for years, which makes forecasting the rate of the disease’s advancement a challenge.

“When we can confidently say someone has dementia, it is too late. A lot of damage has already happened to the brain, and it’s irreversible damage,” said senior author Mert Sabuncu, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering and of electrical engineering in radiology at Weill Cornell Medicine.

“We really need to be able to catch Alzheimer’s disease early on,” Sabuncu said, “and be able to tell who’s going to progress fast and who’s going to progress slower, so that we can stratify the different risk groups and be able to deploy whatever treatment options we have.”