Observations of the Morphological Evolution of Neuronal Intranuclear Rods in the Human Substantia Nigra Across the Age Spectrum

2019 ◽  
Vol 152 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. S76-S76
Author(s):  
Osama Khan ◽  
Mario Capitano ◽  
Susan Fan ◽  
John Woulfe
Keyword(s):  
Observational Study ◽  
Middle Ages ◽  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Distinct Type ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Cellular Mechanisms ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Shed Light

Abstract Objectives Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative disease characterized by a depletion of dopaminergic neurons in the substansia nigra (SN). Loss of SN neurons occurs at a rate of up to 10% per decade in nonpathological aging. Other age-related changes in nigral neurons include accumulation of intranuclear inclusions called Marinesco bodies (MBs). MBs have been shown to associate with a distinct type of neuronal intranuclear body called the intranuclear rod (INR). At what point in the aging process INRs develop, and when they give rise to MBs, are questions that remain unanswered. In this observational study, we set out to determine whether SN INRs display changes in their morphology across the human age spectrum. Methods The laboratory information system was searched for hospital and forensic autopsies conducted from 2010-2017 that had midbrain sections taken. Ten slides were cut from each of 11 age groups from ages ranging from 1 month to 80 years of age. Sections were immunostained with glucocorticoid receptor (GR) to identify INRs. Results There was a progressive age-associated transition in INR morphology from long, linear intranuclear structures in the youngest age groups (infants), to shorter linear structures at middle ages, culminating in small, dot-like juxtanucleolar structures in elderly subjects. A proportion of short INRs displayed contact with MBs in the middle age groups. Conclusion We demonstrated a striking progressive, age-dependent alteration in INR morphology. These results suggest that INRs give rise to MBs in the SN during middle ages. As a follow-up of this preliminary observational study, quantitative analysis of INR frequency and size is currently being performed in our lab. Ultimately, we plan to expand our cases for the creation of a human SN tissue microarray, which we hope will shed light on the cellular mechanisms of neuronal ageing and degeneration in the SN.

scholarly journals Sources of path integration error in young and aging humans

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthias Stangl ◽  
Ingmar Kanitscheider ◽  
Martin Riemer ◽  
Ila Fiete ◽  
Thomas Wolbers
Keyword(s):  
Path Integration ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Motion Cues ◽  
Elapsed Time ◽  
Integration Error ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Langevin Diffusion ◽  
Self Motion ◽  
Velocity Input ◽  
Shed Light

AbstractPath integration is a vital function in navigation: it enables the continuous tracking of one’s position in space by integrating self-motion cues. Path integration abilities vary across individuals but tend to deteriorate in old age. The specific causes of path integration errors, however, remain poorly characterized. Here, we combined tests of path integration performance with a novel analysis based on the Langevin diffusion equation, which allowed us to decompose errors into distinct causes that can corrupt path integration computations. Across age groups, the dominant errors were due to noise and a bias in speed estimation. Noise-driven errors accumulated with travel distance not elapsed time, suggesting that the dominant noise originates in the velocity input rather than within the integrator. Age-related declines were traced primarily to a growth in this unbiased noise. Together, these findings shed light on the contributors to path integration error and the mechanisms underlying age-related navigational deficits.

Age-Related Changes in Distribution of Body Weight on Soles of Feet for Selected Actions and Postures

1997 ◽  
Vol 85 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1263-1271 ◽  
Author(s):  
Toshiaki Yanagida ◽  
Takaaki Asami
Keyword(s):  
Body Weight ◽  
Weight Distribution ◽  
Healthy Subjects ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The Body ◽  
The Other ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Soles Of The Feet ◽  
Age Related Changes

We investigated age-related changes in the distribution of body weight on soles of feet in 878 healthy subjects ranging from 5 to 80 years of age. By modifying Morton's Staticometer, we constructed an instrument for measuring body-weight distribution over three areas of soles of the feet, the big toe (inner forefoot), the other four toes combined (outer forefoot) and the heels for both feet, thus a total of six areas. The weights in the six areas were recorded at the completion of nine selected actions and postures. We observed that for inhaling and exhaling standing postures, generally younger subjects had a ratio close to 1:2:3 for weights recorded for the inner toe:outer toes:heels as observed by Morton, but elderly subjects had a smaller value than 3 for the heel. The body-weight distribution tended to shift from heels to outer toes across age groups, which was more distinctly observed in women than in men.

Default beliefs guide learning under uncertainty in children and older adults

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rasmus Bruckner ◽  
Matthew R. Nassar ◽  
Shu-Chen Li ◽  
Ben Eppinger
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Environmental Control ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Belief Updating ◽  
Learning Differences ◽  
Learning Impairments ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Normative Factors ◽  
New Perspective

Across the lifespan, humans rely on the ability to learn from new experiences to adapt to uncertain and changing environments. Here we investigated age-related differences in the reliance on default-belief settings during learning in these environments. We collected behavioral data with a predictive-inference task in children, adolescents as well as younger and older adults. Using a Bayesian belief-updating model, we first showed that age-related learning differences might be due to a reduced ability to adjust learning according to dissociable normative factors. The results revealed a reduced consideration of uncertainty in older adults and increased perseveration in both children and older adults. Simulations indicated that interventions to reduce perseveration might lead to more similar performance levels between the age groups. In a follow-up experiment, we found that one such intervention which randomly distorted participants' initial predictions strongly reduced perseveration, but led to increased performance differences. This counter-intuitive effect resulted from an environmental control of learning in children and older adults through random information from the intervention to reduce perseveration. Across the two experiments, our findings show that age-related learning impairments can be explained with insufficient updating from a default belief. In stable environments, this results in perseverative behavior, while in the presence of random environmental information, it leads to environmental control. We formalized the emergence of these belief-updating behaviors with a model that updated beliefs only to an acceptable level of plausibility, suggesting that children and older adults are more quickly satisfied to report beliefs that reflect their default than younger adults. This model not only accounted for our own findings but might also provide a new perspective on a wide variety of previous findings in the developmental and aging literature.

Changes in Brain White Matter Assessed Via Textural Features Using a Neural Network

2010 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 37-48
Author(s):  
R. Kalpana ◽  
S. Muttan ◽  
B. Agrawala
Keyword(s):  
Neural Network ◽  
White Matter ◽  
Diffusion Tensor ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Textural Features ◽  
Statistical Parameters ◽  
Brain White Matter ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Brain

Diffusion Tensor Magnetic Resonance Imaging (DTMRI) has proved useful for microstructure characterization of the brain. This technique also helps determining complex connectivity of fiber tracts. The brain white matter (BMW) changes with respect to age and corresponding appearance of white-matter lesions among the brain’s message-carrying axons affects cognitive functions in old age. In this paper, the observed morphology in BWM on ageing is analyzed using statistical parameters extracted from DTMR images of different age groups. The gray level co-occurrence matrix (GLCM) obtained from the segmented images gives 14 textural features, subsets of which are adopted as the input sets in a backpropagation neural network classifier. The network is trained to predict the age based on BMW details used as the inputs. The proposed method helps in understanding the age-related changes in white matter. This is useful for the physician in understanding miscorrelation in motor activities and relevant causes in elderly subjects.

scholarly journals Fuzzy Generalized Fractal Dimensions Using Inter-Heartbeat Interval Dynamics in ECG Signals for Age Related Discrimination

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (4.10) ◽  
pp. 900
Author(s):  
D. Easwaramoorthy ◽  
P. S. Eliahim Jeevaraj ◽  
A. Gowrisankar ◽  
A. Manimaran ◽  
S. Nandhini
Keyword(s):  
Multifractal Analysis ◽  
Fractal Theory ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Fractal Dimensions ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Classification Rate ◽  
Ecg Signals ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Graphical Comparison ◽  
Chaotic Nature

Fractal theory is the propelled technique to analyze the non-linear signals with more complexity.  Quantification of chaotic nature and complexity of the multifaceted therapeutic signals requires the estimation of the spectrum of Generalized Fractal Dimensions (GFD) where the complexity means greater inconstancy in the general form of fractal dimension range.  This paper has proposed a fuzzy multifractal technique to analyze the age related classifications by using the Fuzzy Generalized Fractal Dimensions (F–GFD) with Gaussian fuzzy valued function through the cardiac inter-beat interval dynamics in electrocardiogram (ECG) signals.  It has been revealed that, the designed Fuzzy GFD method accurately categorizes the young and old age subjects by graphical comparison with the typical GFD method.  The classification rate of young and elderly subjects has also supported statistically by ANOVA test.   Hence the fuzzified multifractal analysis accomplishes significantly to discriminate age groups than the classical multifractal analysis in heartbeat rate time series from ECG signals and also the conventional GFD is a specific case of the proposed F–GFD.   

Age-Related Differences in Remote Pointing Performance

1997 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 148-151
Author(s):  
Shang H. Hsu ◽  
Chien C. Huang ◽  
Yang H. Tsuang ◽  
Jui S. Sun
Keyword(s):  
Young Adult ◽  
Travel Time ◽  
Movement Time ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Adult Group ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Pointing Device ◽  
Fine Adjustment

The present study investigated age-related differences in remote pointing performance. Three age groups (i.e., the Young adult. Middle-aged, and Elderly) performed cursor positioning tasks by using a remote pointing device. The time taken to reposition the cursor was collected. The result showed that age groups had differences in movement time. Further analysis on the submovement duration times showed that movement time for the Young-adult group was mostly travel time, while the Elderly subjects spent most of their movement time on fine adjustment. This study supports the proposition that different age groups exhibit different kinds of movement patterns.

Age-related cognitive decline and the borderland between normal aging and dementia

1997 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 94-96 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jolles
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Decline ◽  
Cognitive Aging ◽  
Successful Aging ◽  
Age Groups ◽  
Adult Life ◽  
Normal Aging ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Large Individual ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Age Related

It is now generally agreed that healthy individuals are characterized by cognitive decline during the later decades of adult life. The acquisition of new information becomes less efficient, which, coupled with a diminished retention of this information for later use, results in substantially poorer memory performance. The ability to plan new activities, solve problems and make complex decisions, as well as cognitive flexibility is noticeably diminished. In addition, attentional processes appear to be invariably poorer in old subjects than in young subjects (for review). While it is quite clearly established that elderly subjects (i.e. after 65 years of age) show a deterioration of cognitive functioning, there is also evidence that this deterioration may start in middle age (40 years). There is large individual variance in age groups; for instance, some old individuals perform on many neurocognitive tests as well as young individuals do. Rowe and Kahn proposed in their influential article to discern between successful aging and usual aging. Successful aging would be due to the effect of chronological age, whereas additional factors would be responsible for usual aging. An important point is the nature of the borderland between usual cognitive aging and pathological conditions such as dementia. Various health-related factors are thought to be important in this respect. They may be a determinant for the transition between successful aging to normal aging and into the borderland with dementia. The Brain & Behavior Research Institute in Maastricht investigates the determinants of successful and pathological aging in a number of related and multidisciplinary projects. This paper describes some major findings of this research programme and gives a theory on the interaction of vulnerability factors and protective factors in their effect on cognitive aging.

Polypill therapy and frailty in elderly: Time to stop treating everything

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (4) ◽  
pp. 39-42
Author(s):  
Sunil Kumar ◽  
Parth Godhiwala ◽  
Amrutha Garikapati ◽  
Shraddha Jain
Keyword(s):  
Observational Study ◽  
Elderly Patients ◽  
Prospective Observational Study ◽  
Related Condition ◽  
Medicine Department ◽  
Risk Of Death ◽  
Age Related ◽  
One Year ◽  
The Impact

Background: Frailty is a reversible age-related condition of increased vulnerability and risk of death or unplanned hospitalization. Frailty and polypill therapy are common in elderly, although little is known about the impact, they may have on each other. Aims and Objective: The study was a prospective observational study, designed with an aim to observe the six-month and one-year outcomes of elderly patients on polypill therapy. Material and Methods: Three hundred forty-two patients aged more than 60 years on polypill treatment were enrolled in this study, which were on regular follow up in our rural hospital at geriatric units of medicine department. Results: At the end of one year, 38.1% were in severe frailty (FIRE >0.7) category, out of which death happened at the end of one year were 41.6%. 47.6% required repeated hospitalisations that were on polypill therapy. Conclusions: A reduction of polypill therapy could be a cautious strategy to prevent and manage frailty. Further research is needed to confirm the possible benefits of reducing polypill in the development, reversion or delay of frailty.

Hippocampal cavities in elderly subjects - prevalence, evolution and impact on cognition

2011 ◽  
Vol 26 (S2) ◽  
pp. 849-849
Author(s):  
F. Riese ◽  
O. Ballach ◽  
H. Suliman ◽  
H.-J. Geertz ◽  
H. Wolf
Keyword(s):  
Episodic Memory ◽  
Medial Temporal Lobe ◽  
Short Term Memory ◽  
Morphological Evolution ◽  
Memory Performance ◽  
Apoe Genotype ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Cross Sectional

Hippocampal cavities (HcC) are frequent findings in brain MRIs of elderly subjects. The prevalence, evolution and impact on cognitive performance of these cavities are unclear. Our study therefore aims at providing data on prevalence, morphological evolution and clinical significance of HcC. We used a population-based sample of nondemented elderly subjects aged 75–85 and a comparison group with Alzheimer's disease for cross-sectional analysis. All nondemented subjects were included in a prospective study (mean follow-up 3.2 years). HcC numbers and volume were recorded from volumetric T1w MRI scans. Serial MRIs were performed for a subgroup of subjects. Cognitive functions were assessed by SIDAM and CDR. Hippocampal and brain volume, medial temporal lobe atrophy, white matter lesions, ApoE genotype and vascular risk factors were considered as confounders. The prevalence of HcC in our sample was approx. 60% with no differences between cognitive groups. HcC volume was found to be a predictor of short-term episodic memory performance. The effect of HcC volume was non-linear with the highest risk for decrease in short-term memory associated with the smallest HcC volumes. Mean HcC number and volume remained stable during follow-up. However, we provide anectodal evidence for both cases with increase and decrease of HcC volume over time. In conclusion, small HcC may be an independent risk factor for decline in short term episodic memory performance in elderly subjects.

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