MRI scans show that the brains of infants and toddlers can encode memories, even if we don’t remember them as adults.
Category: neuroscience
Aging brains may struggle to clear out waste, contributing to memory loss and diseases like Alzheimer’s. But researchers have now found that improving the brain’s waste-draining vessels in old mice actually boosted their memory. Rather than targeting the brain directly, which is tricky due to the
The researchers turned to a group of molecules called acylcarnitines, which are associated with declining cognition and breaking down or metabolizing fats and proteins for energy. To test if high acylcarnitine levels in the blood could predict who’s at risk of developing Alzheimer’s, the researchers used data from a large-scale study called the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.
“It was fascinating,” the author said. “Dividing research participants into groups based on their specific acylcarnitine levels highlighted people with more severe Alzheimer’s disease and others with fewer symptoms.” This led the researchers to define a bioenergetic clock based on acylcarnitines—how old a person’s metabolism acts, compared to actual age. Higher bioenergetic age is linked to higher acylcarnitine levels, worsened Alzheimer’s pathology, cognitive decline and brain atrophy.
The researchers also quantified cognitive decline using a common test called the mini-mental state examination, on which a score below 24 out of 30 points indicates impairment. They found that people with low acylcarnitine levels to begin with declined more slowly, losing about 0.5 points less per year than people with high acylcarnitine levels. The benefit is on par with the Alzheimer’s drug lecanemab.
To some degree, a person’s bioenergetic clock ticks forward at a rate determined by their genetics, but having a healthy lifestyle—for example, eating a plant-based diet and exercising —can help keep acylcarnitine levels low, which means a younger bioenergetic age, the author explained.
They went on to identify a subgroup of participants, about 30% of the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, with older bioenergetic age but favorable genetic background. These individuals may benefit more from early lifestyle interventions designed to decrease their bioenergetic age and potentially delay or prevent the onset of Alzheimer’s.
Moving forward, the senior author hopes to home in on the lifestyle interventions most effective for lowering bioenergetic age. For example, eating a low-carb diet may help maintain metabolic health, but just how low would carbohydrate consumption have to be for a person to see benefits?
A recent study challenges the effectiveness of microdosing LSD for treating ADHD. Despite self-reported improvements, the clinical trial found no significant difference between low-dose LSD and placebo in reducing ADHD symptoms.
Scientists have found evidence suggesting that “night owls” who prefer to stay active at night may be at a greater risk for depression than “early risers” who are awake more during daylight hours.
As aging bodies decline, the brain loses the ability to cleanse itself of waste, a scenario that scientists think could be contributing to neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease, among others.
Now, researchers at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis report they have found a way around that problem by targeting the network of vessels that drain waste from the brain. Rejuvenating those vessels, they have shown, improves memory in old mice.
The study, published online in the journal Cell, lays the groundwork to develop therapies for age-related cognitive decline that overcome the challenges faced by conventional medications that struggle to pass through the blood-brain barrier to reach the brain.
Paralyzed patients in China regained mobility within 24 hours of groundbreaking brain-spinal implant surgery.
Sleep is known to contribute to the healthy functioning of the brain and the consolidation of memories. Past psychology research specifically highlighted its role in retaining episodic memories, which are memories of specific events or experiences.
Researchers at Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest Academy for Research and Education, University of Toronto and other institutes recently carried out a study to better understand the extent to which sleep transforms how we remember real-world experiences over time and what processes could underpin this transformation. Their findings, published in Nature Human Behaviour, suggest that sleep actively and selectively improves the accuracy with which we remember one-time real-world experiences.
“My lab studies real-life memory such as the memory of events that occur as part of daily experiences,” Brian Levine, senior author of the paper, told Medical Xpress. “We are interested in how these memories are transformed over time and why some elements are remembered while others are forgotten. This is hard to do with naturalistic events in peoples’ lives where we have no control over what happened. So we set up the Baycrest Tour as a controlled but naturalistic event that we could use to test memory.”
A new imaging technique is helping ultra-powerful MRI scanners detect tiny differences in the brains of patients with treatment-resistant epilepsy. In a groundbreaking study, doctors at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge used this approach to identify hidden brain lesions, allowing them to offer patients surgery that could cure their condition.
7T MRI scanners, named for their use of a 7 Tesla magnetic field, which is more than twice as strong as the 3T scanners commonly used, have previously struggled with signal blackspots in key areas of the brain. However, researchers from Cambridge and Paris have developed a technique that overcomes this issue, as detailed in a study published today (March 21) in Epilepsia.
The challenge of treating focal epilepsy.