scholarly journals Hippocampus shape across the healthy lifespan and its relationship with cognition

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aurelie Bussy ◽  
Raihaan Patel ◽  
Eric Plitman ◽  
Stephanie Tullo ◽  
Alyssa Salaciak ◽  
...  

AbstractThe study of the hippocampus across the healthy adult lifespan has rendered inconsistent findings. While volumetric measurements have often been a popular technique for analysis, more advanced morphometric techniques have demonstrated compelling results that highlight the importance and improved specificity of shape-based measures. Here, the MAGeT Brain algorithm was applied on 134 healthy individuals aged 18-81 years old to extract hippocampal subfield volumes and hippocampal shape measurements, notably: local surface area (SA) and displacement. We used linear, second or third order natural splines to examine the relationships between hippocampal measures and age. In addition, partial least squares analyses were performed to relate measurements with cognitive and demographic information. Volumetric results indicated a relative preservation of the right cornus ammonis 1 with age and a global volume reduction linked with older age, female sex, lower levels of education and cognitive performance. Vertex-wise analysis demonstrated an SA preservation in the anterior hippocampus with a peak during the sixth decade, while the posterior hippocampal SA gradually decreased across lifespan. Overall, SA decrease was linked to older age, female sex and, to a lesser extent lower levels of education and cognitive performance. Outward displacement in the lateral hippocampus and inward displacement in the medial hippocampus were enlarged with older age, lower levels of cognition and education, indicating an accentuation of the hippocampal “C” shape with age. Taken together, our findings suggest that vertex-wise analyses have higher spatial specifity and that sex, education and cognition are implicated in the differential impact of age on hippocampal subregions throughout its antero-posterior and medial-lateral axes.

Seizure ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wesley T. Kerr ◽  
Siddhika S. Sreenivasan ◽  
Corinne H. Allas ◽  
Emily A. Janio ◽  
Amir H. Karimi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  

SLEEP ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jessica Nicolazzo ◽  
Katharine Xu ◽  
Alexandra Lavale ◽  
Rachel Buckley ◽  
Nawaf Yassi ◽  
...  

Abstract Study objectives To examine if sleep symptomatology was associated with subjective cognitive concerns or objective cognitive performance in a dementia-free community-based sample. Methods A total of 1421 middle-aged participants (mean±standard deviation = 57±7; 77% female) from the Healthy Brain Project completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), Insomnia Severity Index (ISI), and Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) to measure sleep quality, insomnia symptom severity, and daytime sleepiness, respectively. Participants were classified as having no sleep symptomatology (normal scores on each sleep measure), moderate sleep symptomatology (abnormal scores on one sleep measure), or high sleep symptomatology (abnormal scores on at least two sleep measures), using established cut-off values. Analysis of covariance was used to compare objective cognitive function (Cogstate Brief Battery) and subjective cognitive concerns (Modified Cognitive Function Instrument) across groups. Results Following adjustments for age, sex, education, mood, and vascular risk factors, persons classified as having high sleep symptomatology, versus none, displayed more subjective cognitive concerns (d=0.24) but no differences in objective cognitive performance (d=0.00-0.18). Subjective cognitive concerns modified the association between sleep symptomatology and psychomotor function. The strength of the relationship between high sleep symptomatology (versus none) and psychomotor function was significantly greater in persons with high as compared with low cognitive concerns (β±SE =-0.37±0.16; p=0.02). Conclusions More severe sleep symptomatology was associated with greater subjective cognitive concerns. Persons reporting high levels of sleep symptomatology may be more likely to display poorer objective cognitive function in the presence of subjective cognitive concerns.


2017 ◽  
Vol 48 (8) ◽  
pp. 1350-1358 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. J. Laukka ◽  
D. Dykiert ◽  
M. Allerhand ◽  
J. M. Starr ◽  
I. J. Deary

AbstractBackgroundAnxiety and depression are both important correlates of cognitive function. However, longitudinal studies investigating how they covary with cognition within the same individual are scarce. We aimed to simultaneously estimate associations of between-person differences and within-person variability in anxiety and depression with cognitive performance in a sample of non-demented older people.MethodsParticipants in the Lothian Birth Cohort 1921 study, a population-based narrow-age sample (mean age at wave 1 = 79 years, n = 535), were examined on five occasions across 13 years. Anxiety and depression were measured with the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) and cognitive performance was assessed with tests of reasoning, logical memory, and letter fluency. Data were analyzed using two-level linear mixed-effects models with within-person centering.ResultsDivergent patterns were observed for anxiety and depression. For anxiety, between-person differences were more influential; people who scored higher on HADS anxiety relative to other same-aged individuals demonstrated poorer cognitive performance on average. For depression, on the other hand, time-varying within-person differences were more important; scoring higher than usual on HADS depression was associated with poorer cognitive performance relative to the average level for that participant. Adjusting for gender, childhood mental ability, emotional stability, and disease burden attenuated these associations.ConclusionsThe results from this study highlight the importance of addressing both between- and within-person effects of negative mood and suggest that anxiety and depression affect cognitive function in different ways. The current findings have implications for assessment and treatment of older age cognitive deficits.


2021 ◽  
Vol 598 (3) ◽  
pp. 3-17
Author(s):  
Urszula Kempińska ◽  
Anna Nowak

This article aims to present the characteristics of sex education in selected European countries. Particular attention should be paid to the need for compulsory and diligently conducted sexual education of young people as a preventive measure and a factor providing objective scientific truth. Normative systems and set of beliefs often create social taboos about sexuality. Based on the analysis of scientific sources published in Polish, French and English, this article also shows the essence of sex education in schools, as a way for young people to make the right choices, reduce the occurrence of risky behaviors and protect against and prevent sexually transmitted diseases, unplanned pregnancy and sexual violence. Acquiring true and consistent with the current state of knowledge information on the human sexual sphere should be carried out throughout life. Conducting professional sex education classes at school would be an opportunity for all students to have equal access to information on this subject. Both for those who talk to their parents and those for whom it is a taboo. The presented effects of the lack of sexual education in schools show that its reliable and professional implementation is a means of providing help to young people and their families. However, in order to change the approach of parents and students to attending classes in this subject, it is necessary to improve the quality of teaching in this subject and to make some changes to the curriculum.


2017 ◽  
Vol 38 (8) ◽  
pp. 1667-1692 ◽  
Author(s):  
PAULINE LEONARD ◽  
ALISON FULLER ◽  
LORNA UNWIN

ABSTRACTThe decision to start a new career might seem an unusual one to make in later life. However, England has seen a steady rise in numbers of workers undertaking an apprenticeship in their fifties and sixties, through a government-funded policy initiative opening up training to adults at all stages of the lifecourse. At the same time, in most Western contexts, the amalgamation of ‘older’ and ‘apprentice’ presents a challenge to normative understandings of the ‘right age’ to undertake vocational training. What is it like to make a new start as an older worker? This paper draws on new qualitative research conducted in England with older apprentices, exploring how they found the experience and management of training ‘out of step’. Inspired by Elizabeth Freeman's temporalities approach, our findings reveal how powerful norms of age-normativity routinely structure understandings, experiences and identities of older-age training for both organisations and apprentices. While these norms demand careful negotiation by both apprentices and trainers, if managed successfully older workers gain significant benefits from their training. These findings have resonance not only for England, but for other international contexts considering expanding vocational training into older age. The paper concludes that if adult training schemes are to succeed, some fundamental changes may need to be made to understandings of age and ageing within contemporary workplaces.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Diah Retno Anggraini

<em>It is estimated that around 40,000-70,000 children become victims of sexual exploitation and about 100,000 children are trafficked each year. It clearly proves the children’s lack of knowledge about sex education they should have gained in their first year from their caregivers, in this case their mothers. Entering the age of 1-2, children’s curiosity and ability to speak and to remember begin to increase quite well. This is the right time to continuously enrich their vocabularies and hone their ability to remember and speak by introducing body parts like hair, nose, knees, heels, and so on. Autism is a term used to describe a type of pervasive disorder in a child resulting in a disturbance or delay in cognition, language, behavior, communication and social interaction. Providing education and understanding is a special challenge for caregivers. This study illustrates how the role performed and displayed by the caregiver (mother) of autistic individuals in introducing the parts of body. The method used in the study is a qualitative method with case study approach by conducting observation and interview with the caregiver of autistic children. The result of the study indicates that the full role of caregiver (mother) produces autistic children with independent behavior. They can understand their body parts, maintain the hygiene of body parts and understand what body parts that may be touched and not</em>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Raihaan Patel ◽  
Clare E. Mackay ◽  
Michelle G. Jansen ◽  
Gabriel A. Devenyi ◽  
M. Clare O’Donoghue ◽  
...  

AbstractWhile all individuals are susceptible to age-related cognitive decline, significant inter- and intra-individual variability exists. However, the sources of this variation remain poorly understood. Here, we examined the association between 30-year trajectories of cognitive decline and multimodal indices of brain microstructure and morphology in older age. We used the Whitehall II Study, an extensively characterised cohort using 3T brain magnetic resonance images acquired at older age (mean age = 69.52 ± 4.9) and 5 repeated cognitive performance assessments between mid-life (mean age = 53.2 ± 4.9 years) and late-life (mean age = 67.7 ± 4.9). Using non-negative matrix factorization, we identified 10 brain microstructural components that integrate measures of cortical thickness, surface area, fractional anisotropy, and mean and radial diffusivities. We observed two modes of variance that describe the association between cognition and brain microstructure. The first describes variations in 5 microstructural components associated with low mid-life performance across multiple cognitive domains, decline in reasoning abilities, but a relative maintenance of lexical and semantic fluency from mid-to-late life. The second describes variations in 5 microstructural components that are associated with low mid-life performance in lexical fluency, semantic fluency and short-term memory performance, but a retention of abilities in multiple domains from mid-to-late life. The extent to which a subject loads onto a latent variables predicts their future cognitive performance 3.2 years later (mean age = 70.87 ± 4.9). This data-driven approach highlights a complex pattern of brain-behavior relationships, wherein the same individuals express both decline and maintenance in function across cognitive domains and in brain structural features.Significance StatementAlthough declines in cognitive performance are an established aspect of aging, inter- and intra-individual variation exists. Nevertheless, the sources of this variation remain unclear. We analyse a unique sample to examine associations between 30-year trajectories of cognitive decline and multimodal indices of brain anatomy in older age. Using data-driven techniques, we find that age-related cognitive decline is not uniform. Instead, each individual expresses a mixture of maintenance and decline across cognitive domains, that are associated with a mixture of preservation and degeneration of brain structure. Further, we find the primary determinants of late-life cognitive performance are mid-life performance and higher brain surface area. These results suggest that early and mid-life preventative measures may be needed to reduce age-related cognitive decline.


2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-7 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hsi-Che Shen ◽  
Yi-Chun Hu ◽  
Yu-Fen Chen ◽  
Tao-Hsin Tung

Purpose. To evaluate sex-related differences in the prevalence of and cardiovascular risk factors related to gallstone disease (GSD) in an elderly agricultural and fishing population of Taipei, Taiwan.Methods. The study sample consisted of 6511 healthy elderly participants (3971 men and 2540 women) who were voluntarily admitted to a teaching hospital for a physical checkup in 2010. The participants’ blood samples and real-time ultrasound fatty liver results were collected.Results. The prevalence of GSD in the study population was 13.2%, which increased significantly with population age (P<.0001). Women were associated with significantly higher GSD prevalence than men (14.8% versus 12.2%; for the chi-square test,P=.003). In a multiple logistic regression analysis, female sex, older age, and metabolic syndrome (MetS) were significantly associated with GSD. Multiple logistic regression analysis also revealed that obesity (odds ratioOR=1.26, 95% confidence interval (CI): 1.09–1.44) and metabolic factors (one or 2 versus none,OR=1.48, 95% CI: 1.08–1.76) were significantly associated with GSD in women but not in men.Conclusion. In the study population, female sex, older age, and MetS were associated with higher GSD prevalence. The population exhibited other sex-related differences.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (5) ◽  
pp. 8-12
Author(s):  
T. Yu. Vladimirova ◽  
◽  
A. B. Martynova ◽  

The significance of asymmetric sensorineural hearing loss (ASNHL) is due to a special approach to diagnosis, followed by the process of hearing aids and auditory rehabilitation. Currently, there is no standard audiometric criterion for determining the forms of asymmetry, which significantly affects the assessment of the prevalence of ASNHL. The study aimed to assess the prevalence and classification of ASNHL forms in the older age group using two methods of calculation: 1) the difference in the average hearing threshold at speech frequencies (in the range of 0,5–4 kHz) ≥15 dB was detected in 14,14% of cases; 2) the different degree of hearing loss, according to the International classification, in the right and left ear was 35,98%. In most cases, asymmetry was manifested by bilateral sensorineural hearing loss of varying severity, prevailing in the group of long-livers – 82,6%. Given the potentially high prevalence of asymmetry depending on the audiological criterion, the results of the work are a reason for further research in the development of a unified method for verifying a clinically significant form of ASNHL.


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