Arts, Health and Seniors Project: Healthy Aging through the Arts

2009 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 643-643
Author(s):  
Marie Bernard ◽  
Sunil Iyengar

Abstract Nearly a decade ago, a federal interagency task force on the arts and human development was launched as the result of a research summit held by the National Endowment for the Arts and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to investigate the arts’ relationships to health and well-being across the lifespan. Soon afterward, the National Institute on Aging partnered with the Arts Endowment and the National Academy of Sciences to identify research recommendations to benefit healthy aging and the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases in older-adult populations. While this session will revisit some of those findings, it also will share more recent advances in biomedical and behavioral research being conducted by a growing network of “Sound Health” researchers at the nexus of neuroscience, music, and health==with direct implications for the future of research on the arts and aging.


Author(s):  
Cecil E. Hall

The visualization of organic macromolecules such as proteins, nucleic acids, viruses and virus components has reached its high degree of effectiveness owing to refinements and reliability of instruments and to the invention of methods for enhancing the structure of these materials within the electron image. The latter techniques have been most important because what can be seen depends upon the molecular and atomic character of the object as modified which is rarely evident in the pristine material. Structure may thus be displayed by the arts of positive and negative staining, shadow casting, replication and other techniques. Enhancement of contrast, which delineates bounds of isolated macromolecules has been effected progressively over the years as illustrated in Figs. 1, 2, 3 and 4 by these methods. We now look to the future wondering what other visions are waiting to be seen. The instrument designers will need to exact from the arts of fabrication the performance that theory has prescribed as well as methods for phase and interference contrast with explorations of the potentialities of very high and very low voltages. Chemistry must play an increasingly important part in future progress by providing specific stain molecules of high visibility, substrates of vanishing “noise” level and means for preservation of molecular structures that usually exist in a solvated condition.


GeroPsych ◽  
2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katja Franke ◽  
Christian Gaser

We recently proposed a novel method that aggregates the multidimensional aging pattern across the brain to a single value. This method proved to provide stable and reliable estimates of brain aging – even across different scanners. While investigating longitudinal changes in BrainAGE in about 400 elderly subjects, we discovered that patients with Alzheimer’s disease and subjects who had converted to AD within 3 years showed accelerated brain atrophy by +6 years at baseline. An additional increase in BrainAGE accumulated to a score of about +9 years during follow-up. Accelerated brain aging was related to prospective cognitive decline and disease severity. In conclusion, the BrainAGE framework indicates discrepancies in brain aging and could thus serve as an indicator for cognitive functioning in the future.


2019 ◽  
Vol 33 (3) ◽  
pp. 188-197 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roberta Adorni ◽  
Agostino Brugnera ◽  
Alessia Gatti ◽  
Giorgio A. Tasca ◽  
Kaoru Sakatani ◽  
...  

Abstract. The aim of the study was to explore the effects of situational stress and anxiety in a group of healthy elderly, both in terms of psychophysiological correlates and cognitive performance. Eighteen participants ( Mage = 70 ± 6.3; range 60–85) were assessed for anxiety and were instructed to perform a computerized math task, under both a stressful and a control condition, while near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) signal and electrocardiography (ECG) were recorded. NIRS results evidenced an increased activation of right PFC during the entire procedure, even if effect sizes between left and right channels were larger during the experimental condition. The amount of right activation during the stressful condition was positively correlated with anxiety. Response times (RTs) were slower in more anxious than in less anxious individuals, both during the control and stressful conditions. Accuracy was lower in more anxious than in less anxious individuals, only during the stressful condition. Moreover, heart rate (HR) was not modulated by situational stress, nor by anxiety. Overall, the present study suggests that in healthy elderly, anxiety level has a significant impact on cerebral responses, and both on the amount of cognitive resources and the quality of performance in stressful situations.


2020 ◽  
Vol 25 (3) ◽  
pp. 162-173 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sascha Zuber ◽  
Matthias Kliegel

Abstract. Prospective Memory (PM; i.e., the ability to remember to perform planned tasks) represents a key proxy of healthy aging, as it relates to older adults’ everyday functioning, autonomy, and personal well-being. The current review illustrates how PM performance develops across the lifespan and how multiple cognitive and non-cognitive factors influence this trajectory. Further, a new, integrative framework is presented, detailing how those processes interplay in retrieving and executing delayed intentions. Specifically, while most previous models have focused on memory processes, the present model focuses on the role of executive functioning in PM and its development across the lifespan. Finally, a practical outlook is presented, suggesting how the current knowledge can be applied in geriatrics and geropsychology to promote healthy aging by maintaining prospective abilities in the elderly.


PsycCRITIQUES ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 52 (31) ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul J. Silvia
Keyword(s):  

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