Cognitive functions of young Novosibirsk residents and metabolic syndrome

The aim of the study was to provide a population assessment of cognitive impairment patterns in a representative sample of 25–44-year-old men and women living in Western Siberia with metabolic syndrome (MS). Material and methods. A cross-sectional population survey of a random representative sample of 25–44-year-olds of both sexes (1503 people) permanently residing in Western Siberia (Novosibirsk) was performed. The study of cognitive functions was conducted in 1009 people: 463 men (45.9 %) and 546 women (54.1 %). A 10-word memorization test was performed according to the methodology proposed by A.R. Luria (unified for screening purposes), with subsequent reproduction after interfering tasks (recall), a proof-reading test (a letter modification of the Bourdon test used for screening purposes), as well as the exclusion of concepts (a verbal version of the test). The MS criteria (VNOK, 2009) were used: FROM > 80 cm in women and > 94 cm in men and 2 of the following criteria: blood pressure ≥ 130/85 mmHg, TG content ≥ 1.7 mmol/L, HDL-C < 1.0 mmol/L in men and < 1.2 mmol/L in women, LDL-C > 3.0 mmol/L, plasma hyperglycemia > 6.1 mmol/L. Results. In the surveyed sample of residents of In Novosibirsk, 25–44 years old, MS occurred in every fourth person tested for cognitive functions (26.06 %): 148 men (31.96 %) and 115 women (21.06 %), MS occurred more often in women than in men. With age, there is an increase in the frequency of MS in both sexes (p < 0.05). For MS, statistically significant associations are shown with direct memorization (1st memorization experience, p = 0.025), the number of directly memorized words (p = 0.015) and with delayed reproduction of words after an interfering task (p = 0.015) in the 10-word memorization test by A.R. Luria. The average rank, as well as the average values of these cognitive tests, were higher in individuals without MS compared to those with MS diagnosed. There were no links between MS and the indicators of the proofreading test. There were also no statistically significant associations of MS with the number of animals named in 1 min in the speech activity test when studying semantically mediated associations. Conclusion. In a population study of young people (25–44 years old) for the first time in Russia/A statistically significant deterioration of cognitive memory patterns in individuals with MS components has been proven in Siberia (Novosibirsk). This confirms the importance of the «cerebrovascular continuum» in the genesis of cognitive impairment at a young age.

Assessment of influence of attention and delayed reproduction on quality of life in patients with cerebrovascular disease on background of taking various doses of cholecalciferol

The aim of this study was evaluating the effect of the level attention and delayed reproduction on the quality of life in patients with cerebrovascular disease while taking various doses of cholecalciferol. 146 patients were examined, the average age of which was 59.8 ± 12.7 years. All patients were divided into three groups, depending on the dose of cholecalciferol administration. During the study, participants were assessed for the level of 25(OH) D, a neuropsychological examination and a study of the quality of life. Against the background of taking cholecalciferol at a dosage of 4000 IU per day, the level of 25(OH)D in blood serum signifcantly increased by 64.4 [12.5; 124.7] per cent (p < 0.001), and when taking 8000 IU per day – 131.8 [19.5; 298.4] per cent (p < 0.001) and its average value in the group reached an adequate level and amounted to 34.26 ± 11.22 ng/ml. In patients with cerebrovascular disease, the assessment of cognitive functions most often revealed violations in the assessment of delayed reproduction and attention. It was found that attention and delayed reproduction have a signifcantly signifcant relationship with most indicators in quality of life. Against the background of cholecalciferol therapy, a signifcantly signifcant improvement in attention and delayed reproduction was obtained when evaluated on neuropsychological scales, and there was also a signifcantly signifcant improvement in the quality of life when evaluated on the SF-36 questionnaire scale. Our study showed that the administration of cholecalciferol can improve the quality of life in patients with cerebrovascular disease.

The degree of severity and structure of cognitive disorders in patients with cerebrovascular disease, depending on the level of 25-hydroxycalciferol

BACKGROUND: In recent years, a significant increase in cerebrovascular pathology, which is often accompanied by cognitive deficits, has been noted all over the world. AIM: The aim of this study is to determine the severity and structure of cognitive disorders depending on the level of 25(OH)D in patients with cerebrovascular disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS: 146 patients with cerebrovascular disease aged from 30 to 80 years were examined. The comparison group consisted of 40 patients, comparable in age and gender, without the studied pathology. During the study, the level of 25(OH)D, interleukin-6, highly sensitive C-reactive protein in the peripheral blood was determined in patients and a neuropsychological examination was performed. RESULTS: In patients with cerebrovascular disease, the level of 25(OH)D it was lower in comparison with patients without this pathology. Patients with higher rates of inflammatory factors had significantly lower concentrations of 25(OH)D in the peripheral blood. The study revealed a correlation between the level of 25(OH)D in peripheral blood and the results of neuropsychological testing: direct MMSE, MoCA, FAB and reverse Schulte tables (performance). When assessing cognitive disorders in patients with cerebrovascular disease, according to the results of neuropsychological testing, it was possible to identify significantly significant differences between the main and the comparison group according to the following scales: MMSE (p = 0.04), MoCA (p = 0.001), FAB (p = 0.007), Schulte Tables (performance) (p = 0.06), respectively. When interpreting the MMSE scale, significantly significant differences between the groups were found in the attention assessment (p = 0.03), and in the analysis of the MoCA scale in the sections delayed reproduction (p = 0.03) and conceptualization (p = 0.04), respectively. In patients with cerebrovascular disease, memory is most affected by the type of delayed reproduction failure, which was observed in 53-76% of cases in our study. CONCLUSIONS: The study found that the higher the concentration of 25(OH)D and the lower the level of interleukin-6 and highly sensitive CRP in the peripheral blood, the less likely it is to develop cognitive disorders. In patients with cerebrovascular disease, memory is most affected by the type of delayed reproduction failure.

How does working memory store more information at larger set sizes? A composite code model.

A central feature of working memory is its limited capacity in terms of the amount of information that can be simultaneously maintained. Despite this, many studies observe an increase in the total amount when more items are maintained (set size), as measured by Shannon information. We propose the composite code model which maintains this fixed capacity assumption but demonstrates increasing observed information across set sizes. This relies on the hierarchical organisation of the visual system, in which higher-order information is abstracted about simple study displays. Using Bayesian inference, target responses can be inferred from knowledge about non-targets. We tested this model against our own data from a delayed reproduction task and those of published open data sets. We found initial support for the model, with its predictions matching those of the observed effects.

Clinical and Dynamic Features and Prognostic Value of Non-Cognitive Psychopathological Symptoms in Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI)

Background: high prevalence of pre-dementia cognitive disorders (in particular mild cognitive impairment, MCI) in older people, unfavorable predictive value of MCI with a high risk of conversion to dementia, lack of a unified view of facultative, noncognitive psychopathological symptoms (NPS) in its syndromic structure, their clinical heterogeneity, close relationships with mild cognitive impairment syndrome is actualized by the analysis of the mutual influence of the components of MCI syndromes.The aim: to investigate clinical and dynamic features and determine the prognostic value of non-cognitive psychopathological symptoms in MCI, including various psychopathological symptoms (affective, psychotic, behavioral disorders).Patients and methods: a comparative dynamic prospective selective observational study of 264 older patients with MCI was carried out. The main study group included 189 patients with NPS; compared group made up 75 cases with MCI represented only by cognitive impairments. Repeated clinical, psychopathological and psychometric assessments (MMSE, MoCa, NPI) were performed at 12 and 24 months. Results: differences were revealed in the structure and dynamics of cognitive indicators in patients with dominance of affective, psychotic or behavioral symptoms. Patients with affective symptoms showed low scores on subtests of line drawing, phonemic fluency, and ability to verbal categorization (p < 0.05). In these individuals, with repeated measurements, the indices of delayed reproduction, retention, abstract thinking were significantly reduced in comparison with the results of the rest of the study participants (p < 0.05). Patients with psychotic symptoms showed the lowest indices of delayed reproduction, spatial-visual, speech tests, false reproductions both at the initial assessment and in the dynamics of observation (p < 0.05). But their parameters of counting, attention, working memory, “recognition” are higher in them than in representatives of other psychopathological subgroups (p < 0.05). It was found that mild cognitive impairment without psychopathological inclusions has a lower tendency to transform into dementia over a two-year follow-up period than MCI, in the structure of which non-cognitive psychopathological symptoms are present.Conclusions: non-cognitive psychopathological symptoms of MCI are heterogeneous in terms of clinical and dynamic characteristics. The structure and dynamics of cognitive indicators is different in the affective, psychotic, behavioral subgroups of patients with MCI. Individuals with affective pathology had the highest rate of MCI conversion to dementia. In patients with MCI without neuropsychiatric symptoms, a favorable course of cognitive impairment was more common than in patients with MCI with non-cognitive psychopathological symptoms.

How does working memory store more information at larger set sizes? A composite code model.

A central feature of working memory is its limited capacity in terms of the amount of information that can be simultaneously maintained. Despite this, many studies observe an increase in the total amount when more items are maintained (set size), as measured by Shannon information. We propose the composite code model which maintains this fixed capacity assumption but demonstrates increasing observed information across set sizes. This relies on the hierarchical organisation of the visual system, in which higher-order information is abstracted about simple study displays. Using Bayesian inference, target responses can be inferred from knowledge about non-targets. We tested this model against our own data from a delayed reproduction task and those of published open data sets. We found initial support for the model, with its predictions matching those of the observed effects.

Description of first nursery area for a pygmy devil ray species (Mobula munkiana) in the Gulf of California, Mexico

Munk’s pygmy devil rays (Mobula munkiana) are medium-size, zooplanktivorous filter feeding, elasmobranchs characterized by aggregative behavior, low fecundity and delayed reproduction. These traits make them susceptible to targeted and by-catch fisheries and are listed as Vulnerable on the IUCN Red List. Multiple studies have examined fisheries impacts, but nursery areas or foraging neonate and juvenile concentrations have not been examined. This study describes the first nursery area for M. munkiana at Espiritu Santo Archipelago, Mexico. We examined spatial use of a shallow bay during 22 consecutive months in relation to environmental patterns using traditional tagging (n = 95) and acoustic telemetry (n = 7). Neonates and juveniles comprised 84% of tagged individuals and their residency index was significantly greater inside than outside the bay; spending a maximum of 145 consecutive days within the bay. Observations of near-term pregnant females, mating behavior, and neonates indicate an April to June pupping period. Anecdotal photograph review indicated that the nursery area is used by neonates and juveniles across years. These findings confirm, for the first time, the existence of nursery areas for Munk’s pygmy devil rays and the potential importance of shallow bays during early life stages for the conservation of this species.

Metabolic Cost of a Nutritional Symbiont Manifests in Delayed Reproduction in a Grain Pest Beetle

Animals engage in a plethora of mutualistic interactions with microorganisms that can confer various benefits to their host but can also incur context-dependent costs. The sawtoothed grain beetle Oryzaephilus surinamensis harbors nutritional, intracellular Bacteroidetes bacteria that supplement precursors for the cuticle synthesis and thereby enhance desiccation resistance of its host. Experimental elimination of the symbiont impairs cuticle formation and reduces fitness under desiccation stress but does not disrupt the host’s life cycle. For this study, we first demonstrated that symbiont populations showed the strongest growth at the end of metamorphosis and then declined continuously in males, but not in females. The symbiont loss neither impacted the development time until adulthood nor adult mortality or lifespan. Furthermore, lifetime reproduction was not influenced by the symbiont presence. However, symbiotic females started to reproduce almost two weeks later than aposymbiotic ones. Thus, symbiont presence incurs a metabolic and context-dependent fitness cost to females, probably due to a nutrient allocation trade-off between symbiont growth and sexual maturation. The O. surinamensis symbiosis thereby represents an experimentally amenable system to study eco-evolutionary dynamics under variable selection pressures.

COGNITIVE FUNCTIONS AND STRUCTURE OF DISORDERS IN PATIENTS WITH HYPERTENSION

Age and heredity, cardiovascular disease, especially arterial hypertension is an important risk factor for cognitive impairment. The aim of the study is to determine the features of the development and structure of cognitive impairment in patients with controlled stage II arterial hypertension using a battery of neuropsychological tests. The main group of the study consisted of 157 patients with hypertension and CI, mean age of the group was 52.3±0.68 years. After research using a battery of neuropsychological tests, data were obtained on the presence of cognitive disorders in 32.22 % of cases. According to the MoCA test in patients with hypertension there was a decrease in scores on all subscales compared to healthy, but the largest deviations (over 20% of the maximum score) were observed in the ability to serial subtraction (35.0 %), delayed reproduction (27,0 %), abstraction (by 24.0 %), in visual-constructive / executive skills (by 21.0 %). All patients with hypertension with detected CI were violations of the concentration of the excitatory process in the visual and motor analyzers. Thus, only 2 patients (1.3 %) performed tasks without errors in 5 sectors (normal), up to 4 sectors coped with counting 28 (17.8 %) patients, up to 3 sectors - 65 (41.4 %), up to 2 sector - 56 (35.7%), another 6 (3.8%) patients aged 55 to 65 years could not complete the task without errors - by method F.E. Rybakov.The level of attention and speed of sensor motor reactions was carried out according to the method of "Schulte Tables". Patients were characterized by rapid fatigue, uneven performance of the task, refusal to perform further due to fatigue and inability to concentrate. The average time of the task in patients of the main group throughout the study exceeded the data of patients in the comparison group by 1.3-1.6 times), and almost healthy individuals - 1.4-1.7 times.Patients with hypertension have disorders at different levels of higher brain functions and correspond to all areas of human cognitive activity, but the most affected are neurodynamic processes (the ability to concentrate, the speed of psychomotor reactions) and verbal memory, which affect efficiency and success in work, and this is important for medical rehabilitation and maintaining the mental health of patients.

Relationship of actual nutrition with estimates of the cognitive function of the population of Novosibirsk

Objective. To study in cross-sectional research the association of actual nutrition with estimates of cognitive function (CF) in the population of men and women of middle and older age (45–69 years).Materials and methods. The study was conducted in the framework of the international project HAPIEE on a random subsample (2,159 men, 2,525 women) of residents of Novosibirsk. Evaluation of CF was carried out using standard methods (test for direct reproduction of 10 words, test for speech activity (associative thinking) and test for delayed reproduction). Nutrition data was obtained from population surveys in the HAPIEE project using a questionnaire to assess the frequency of food consumption. Statistical data processing was performed using the SPSS 13.0 application package. The GLM procedure was used, allowing to take into account the influence of related factors. Differences were considered statistically significant at p < 0.05.Results. The presence of a significant correlation between the actual nutrition with standardization by age, body mass index and level of education with CF estimates was found. It has been shown that higher consumption of fruits and vegetables was significantly associated with higher scores in both men and women. Women, unlike men, also showed significantly higher CF estimates for consumption of rice, meat products and dairy products. In addition, there was a negative association of CF with the consumption of a number of products. Men showed a significant decrease in the estimates of CF with the consumption of sugar and fats; in women, in the consumption of white bread, sugar and fat.Conclusion: the results of our study showed the presence of a significant association of CF estimates with the level of consumption of a number of products, both positive and negative, in middle-aged and older people. These data may be useful in the development of nutritional recommendations for the prevention of violations of CF.