A study involving 218 participants aged 18-88 has looked at the effects of age on the brain activity of participants viewing an edited version of a 1961 Hitchcock TV episode (given that participants viewed the movie while in a MRI machine, the 25 minute episode was condensed to 8 minutes).
While many studies have looked at how age changes brain function, the stimuli used have typically been quite simple. This thriller-type story provides more complex and naturalistic stimuli.
In a series of experiments involving college students, drawing pictures was found to be the best strategy for remembering lists of words.
A randomized clinical trial involving 103 teenage athletes who sustained concussions while playing sports found that those who underwent a supervised, aerobic exercise program took significantly less time to recover compared to those who instead engaged in mild stretching.
A study involving more than 2,500 older adults (65+) found that the rate of worsening vision was associated with the rate of cognitive decline. More importantly, vision has a stronger influence on cognition than the reverse.
The study finding suggests maintaining good vision through the prevention and treatment of vision disorders in old persons may be a strategy to lessen age-related cognitive changes.
https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2018-06/jn-via062718.php
An Australian study involving 102 older adults (60-90) has concluded that physical fitness and arterial stiffness account for a great deal of age-related memory decline.
A study in which 64 sedentary older adults (aged 60-88) participated in a 12-week exercise program found that those who engaged in high-intensity interval training (HIIT) saw an improvement of up to 30% in memory performance while participants who engaged in moderate-intensity aerobic exercise saw no improvement, on average.
Moreover, improvements in fitness levels directly correlated with improvement in memory performance.
Participants participated in three sessions per week. A control group engaged in stretching only.
DNA data from more than 48,000 patients and 139,000 healthy controls from four different ethnic groups has identified seven new genetic regions associated with type 2 diabetes.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-02/uoo-sng020714.php
A Swedish study has found that those who ate poor breakfasts as year 9 students had a higher incidence of metabolic syndrome 27 years later, compared with those who ate more substantial breakfasts.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-01/uu-pbi012914.php
Analysis of 5715 cases from the National Alzheimer's Coordinating Center (NACC) database has found that nearly 80% of more than 4600 Alzheimer's disease patients showed some degree of vascular pathology, compared with 67% of the controls, and 66% in the Parkinson's group. The link was especially strong for younger patients with Alzheimer’s.
Analysis of data from 237 patients with mild cognitive impairment (mean age 79.9) has found that, compared to those carrying the ‘normal’ ApoE3 gene (the most common variant of the ApoE gene), the ApoE4 carriers showed markedly greater rates of shrinkage in 13 of 15 brain regions thought to be key components of the brain networks disrupted in Alzheimer’s.
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2014-01/rson-gva010714.php