Faculty Opinions recommendation of NF-κB Immunity in the Brain Determines Fly Lifespan in Healthy Aging and Age-Related Neurodegeneration.

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dongsheng Cai
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Brain

Age-related changes in microglial physiology: the role for healthy brain ageing and neurodegenerative disorders

e-Neuroforum ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 23 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga Garaschuk
Keyword(s):  
Neurodegenerative Disorders ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Molecular Mechanisms ◽  
Brain Parenchyma ◽  
Immune Defense ◽  
Synaptic Activity ◽  
Mammalian Brain ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Brain Ageing ◽  
The Brain

AbstractMicroglia are the main immune cells of the brain contributing, however, not only to brain’s immune defense but also to many basic housekeeping functions such as development and maintenance of functional neural networks, provision of trophic support for surrounding neurons, monitoring and modulating the levels of synaptic activity, cleaning of accumulating extracellular debris and repairing microdamages of the brain parenchyma. As a consequence, age-related alterations in microglial function likely have a manifold impact on brain’s physiology. In this review, I discuss the recent data about physiological properties of microglia in the adult mammalian brain; changes observed in the brain innate immune system during healthy aging and the probable biological mechanisms responsible for them as well as changes occurring in humans and mice during age-related neurodegenerative disorders along with underlying cellular/molecular mechanisms. Together these data provide a new conceptual framework for thinking about the role of microglia in the context of age-mediated brain dysfunction.

scholarly journals Noggin rescues age-related stem cell loss in the brain of senescent mice with neurodegenerative pathology

2018 ◽  
Vol 115 (45) ◽  
pp. 11625-11630 ◽  
Author(s):  
María Díaz-Moreno ◽  
Tomás Armenteros ◽  
Simona Gradari ◽  
Rafael Hortigüela ◽  
Laura García-Corzo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Late Onset ◽  
Hippocampal Neurogenesis ◽  
Bmp Signaling ◽  
In Vitro Assays ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Samp8 Mice ◽  
The Brain

Increasing age is the greatest known risk factor for the sporadic late-onset forms of neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). One of the brain regions most severely affected in AD is the hippocampus, a privileged structure that contains adult neural stem cells (NSCs) with neurogenic capacity. Hippocampal neurogenesis decreases during aging and the decrease is exacerbated in AD, but the mechanistic causes underlying this progressive decline remain largely unexplored. We here investigated the effect of age on NSCs and neurogenesis by analyzing the senescence accelerated mouse prone 8 (SAMP8) strain, a nontransgenic short-lived strain that spontaneously develops a pathological profile similar to that of AD and that has been employed as a model system to study the transition from healthy aging to neurodegeneration. We show that SAMP8 mice display an accelerated loss of the NSC pool that coincides with an aberrant rise in BMP6 protein, enhanced canonical BMP signaling, and increased astroglial differentiation. In vitro assays demonstrate that BMP6 severely impairs NSC expansion and promotes NSC differentiation into postmitotic astrocytes. Blocking the dysregulation of the BMP pathway and its progliogenic effect in vivo by intracranial delivery of the antagonist Noggin restores hippocampal NSC numbers, neurogenesis, and behavior in SAMP8 mice. Thus, manipulating the local microenvironment of the NSC pool counteracts hippocampal dysfunction in pathological aging. Our results shed light on interventions that may allow taking advantage of the brain’s natural plastic capacity to enhance cognitive function in late adulthood and in chronic neurodegenerative diseases such as AD.

scholarly journals Age-related declines in neural distinctiveness correlate across brain areas and result from both decreased reliability and increased confusability

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Molly Simmonite ◽  
Thad A Polk
Keyword(s):  
Neural Activity ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Brain Regions ◽  
Aging Brain ◽  
Activation Patterns ◽  
Neural Representations ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Behavioural Performance ◽  
The Difference ◽  
The Brain

According to the neural dedifferentiation hypothesis, age-related reductions in the distinctiveness of neural representations contribute to sensory, cognitive, and motor declines associated with aging: neural activity associated with different stimulus categories becomes more confusable with age and behavioural performance suffers as a result. Initial studies investigated age-related dedifferentiation in the visual cortex, but subsequent research has revealed declines in other brain regions, suggesting that dedifferentiation may be a general feature of the aging brain. In the present study, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to investigate age-related dedifferentiation in the visual, auditory, and motor cortices. Participants were 58 young adults and 79 older adults. The similarity of activation patterns across different blocks of the same condition was calculated (within-condition correlation, a measure of reliability) as was the similarity of activation patterns elicited by different conditions (between-category correlations, a measure of confusability). Neural distinctiveness was defined as the difference between the mean within- and between-condition similarity. We found age-related reductions in neural distinctiveness in the visual, auditory, and motor cortices, which were driven by both decreases in within-category similarity and increases in between-category similarity. There were significant positive cross-region correlations between neural distinctiveness in different regions. These correlations were driven by within-category similarities, a finding that indicates that declines in the reliability of neural activity appear to occur in tandem across the brain. These findings suggest that the changes in neural distinctiveness that occur in healthy aging result from changes in both the reliability and confusability of patterns of neural activity.

scholarly journals Task-Induced Functional Connectivity of Picture Naming in Healthy Aging: The Impacts of Age and Task Complexity

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 161-184
Author(s):  
Perrine Ferré ◽  
Julien Jarret ◽  
Simona Maria Brambati ◽  
Pierre Bellec ◽  
Yves Joanette
Keyword(s):  
Functional Connectivity ◽  
Picture Naming ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Cognitive Activity ◽  
Naming Task ◽  
Word Production ◽  
Task Demand ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Brain ◽  
And Task

The topological organization of the brain, governed by the capacity of brain regions to synchronize their activity, allows for cost-effective performance during everyday cognitive activity. Functional connectivity is an fMRI method deemed task-specific and demand-dependent. Although the brain undergoes significant changes during healthy aging, conceptual knowledge and word-production accuracy are generally preserved. The exploration of task-induced functional connectivity patterns during active picture naming may thus provide additional information about healthy functional cerebral mechanisms that are specifically adapted to the cognitive activity at hand. The goal of this study is to assess and describe age-related differences in functional connectivity during an overt picture-naming task, as well as to compare age-related differences under complex task demand, defined by lexical frequency. Results suggest both age-specific and task-specific mechanisms. In the context of preserved behavioral performance in a picture-naming task, older adults show a complex array of differences in functional connectivity architecture, including both increases and decreases. In brief, there is increased segregation and specialization of regions that are classically assigned to naming processes. Results also expand on previous word-production studies and suggest that motor regions are particularly subject to age-related differences. This study also provides the first indication that intrinsic task demand, as manipulated by lexical frequency, interacts little with the relationship between age and functional connectivity. Together, these findings confirm the value of task-induced functional connectivity analysis in revealing the brain organization that subserves task performance during healthy aging.

scholarly journals Gut Microbiota: Critical Controller and Intervention Target in Brain Aging and Cognitive Impairment

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hui Li ◽  
Junjun Ni ◽  
Hong Qing
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Gut Microbiota ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Brain Aging ◽  
Current Trend ◽  
The Body ◽  
Dietary Interventions ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Functional Features ◽  
The Brain

The current trend for the rapid growth of the global aging population poses substantial challenges for society. The human aging process has been demonstrated to be closely associated with changes in gut microbiota composition, diversity, and functional features. During the first 2 years of life, the gut microbiota undergoes dramatic changes in composition and metabolic functions as it colonizes and develops in the body. Although the gut microbiota is nearly established by the age of three, it continues to mature until adulthood, when it comprises more stable and diverse microbial species. Meanwhile, as the physiological functions of the human body deteriorated with age, which may be a result of immunosenescence and “inflammaging,” the guts of elderly people are generally characterized by an enrichment of pro-inflammatory microbes and a reduced abundance of beneficial species. The gut microbiota affects the development of the brain through a bidirectional communication system, called the brain-gut-microbiota (BGM) axis, and dysregulation of this communication is pivotal in aging-related cognitive impairment. Microbiota-targeted dietary interventions and the intake of probiotics/prebiotics can increase the abundance of beneficial species, boost host immunity, and prevent gut-related diseases. This review summarizes the age-related changes in the human gut microbiota based on recent research developments. Understanding these changes will likely facilitate the design of novel therapeutic strategies to achieve healthy aging.

scholarly journals NF-κB Immunity in the Brain Determines Fly Lifespan in Healthy Aging and Age-Related Neurodegeneration

Cell Reports ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 836-848 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ilias Kounatidis ◽  
Stanislava Chtarbanova ◽  
Yang Cao ◽  
Margaret Hayne ◽  
Dhruv Jayanth ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Brain

scholarly journals Neuropathological approaches to cerebral aging and neuroplasticity

2013 ◽  
Vol 15 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-43 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Adult Neurogenesis ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Brain Plasticity ◽  
Hippocampal Formation ◽  
Memory Function ◽  
Elderly Subjects ◽  
Preclinical Alzheimer’S Disease ◽  
Age Related ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Age Related Changes

Cerebral aging is a complex and heterogenous process related to a large variety of molecular changes involving multiple neuronal networks, due to alterations of neurons (synapses, axons, dendrites, etc), particularly affecting strategically important regions, such as hippocampus and prefrontal areas. A substantial proportion of nondemented, cognitively unimpaired elderly subjects show at least mild to moderate, and rarely even severe, Alzheimer-related lesions, probably representing asymptomatic preclinical Alzheimer's disease, and/or mixed pathologies. While the substrate of resilience to cognitive decline in the presence of abundant pathologies has been unclear, recent research has strengthened the concept of cognitive or brain reserve, based on neuroplasticity or the ability of the brain to manage or counteract age-related changes or pathologies by reorganizing its structure, connections, and functions via complex molecular pathways and mechanisms that are becoming increasingly better understood. Part of neuroplasticity is adult neurogenesis in specific areas of the brain, in particular the hippocampal formation important for memory function, the decline of which is common even in "healthy" aging. To obtain further insights into the mechanisms of brain plasticity and adult neurogenesis, as the basis for prevention and potential therapeutic options, is a major challenge of modern neurosciences.

scholarly journals Reduced Listener-speaker Neural Coupling Underlies Speech Understanding Difficulty in Older Adults

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
lanfang liu ◽  
Xiaowei Ding ◽  
Hehui Li ◽  
Qi Zhou ◽  
Dingguo Gao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Healthy Aging ◽  
Real Life ◽  
Speech Comprehension ◽  
Speech Understanding ◽  
Age Related ◽  
Audio Recordings ◽  
Neural Coupling ◽  
The Brain

Abstract An increasing number of studies have highlighted the importance of listener-speaker neural coupling in successful verbal communication. Whether the brain-to-brain coupling changes with healthy aging and the possible role of this change in the speech comprehension of older adults remain unexplored. In this study, we scanned with fMRI a young and an older speaker telling real-life stories, and then played the audio recordings to a group of young (N = 28, aged 19-27y) and a group of older adults during scanning (N = 27, aged 53-75y), respectively. The older listeners understood the speech less well than did the young listeners, and the age of the older listeners was negatively correlated with their level of speech understanding. Compared to the young listener-speaker dyads, the older dyads exhibited reduced neural couplings in both linguistic and extra-linguistic areas. Moreover, within the older group, the listener’s age was negatively correlated with the overall strength of interbrain coupling, which in turn was associated with reduced speech understanding. These results reveal the deficits of older adults in achieving neural alignment with other brains, which may underlie the age-related decline in speech understanding.

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