News bites

Brain fitness programs may help frail elderly walk faster
On the subject of the benefits of walking for seniors, it’s intriguing to note a recent pilot study that found frail seniors who walked slowly (no faster than one meter per second) benefited from a brain fitness program known as Mindfit. After eight weeks of sessions three times weekly (each session 45-60 minutes), all ten participants walked a little faster, and significantly faster while...
September, 2010
Walking speed and balance may be improved in seniors through a brain training program. Research has indicated that a common pathology underlies cognitive impairment and gait and balance problems.
More support for the benefits of walking for older brains
A study involving 65 older adults (59-80), who were very sedentary before the study (reporting less than two episodes of physical activity lasting 30 minutes or more in the previous six months), has found that those who joined a walking group improved their cognitive performance and the connectivity in important brain circuits after a year. However, those who joined a stretching and toning group...
September, 2010
Many studies have now shown that walking helps older brains fight cognitive decline, but a new study shows that this is also associated with improved connectivity in important brain networks.
Post-traumatic stress disorder increases dementia risk
A study involving over 180,000 older veterans (average age 68.8 at study start), of whom 29% had PTSD, has revealed that those with PTSD had a significantly greater risk of developing dementia. Over the seven years of the study, 10.6% of the veterans with PTSD developed dementia compared to 6.6% of those without PTSD. When age was used as the time scale, the risk for those with PTSD was more than...
September, 2010
A very large study has found that military veterans with PTSD were twice as likely to develop dementia in old age, compared to vets without PTSD.
Light shed on the cause of the most common learning disability
Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is the most common cause of learning disabilities, caused by a mutation in a gene that makes a protein called neurofibromin. Mouse research has now revealed that these mutations are associated with higher levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA in the medial prefrontal cortex. Brain imaging in humans with NF1 similarly showed reduced activity in the...
September, 2010
The discovery that the mutated NF1 gene inhibits working memory through too much GABA in the prefrontal cortex offers hope for an effective therapy for those with the most common learning disability.
Healthy diet could slow or reverse early effects of Alzheimer's disease
Following on from previous research with mice that demonstrated that a diet rich in methionine could increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's Disease through its effect on homocysteine levels, a new study has found that these effects were reversible if the mice then switched to a healthier diet. The mice, after five months on a methionine-rich diet, were divided into two groups, with one group...
August, 2010
A mouse study demonstrates that the right diet can reverse Alzheimer’s damage in the early stages.
Obesity and body shape linked to poorer brain function in older women
A very large study of older women has found that although there was a small downward trend in cognitive function (as measured by the MMSE) with increasing obesity, this trend was almost entirely driven by those with a waist-hip ratio below 0.78 — that is, for women who carry excess weight around their hips, known as pear shapes (as opposed to carrying it around the waist, called apple...
August, 2010
The association between obesity and reduced cognitive function appears to only occur, in older women at least, in those whose excess weight is carried on their hips, not their waist.
Music aids Alzheimer's patients in remembering new information
The study involved 13 patients and 14 controls, who listened to either spoken lyrics or lyrics sung with full musical accompaniment while reading the printed lyrics on a screen. The 40 lyrics were four-line excerpts of children’s songs, all characterized by having simple, unrepeated lyrics, repetitive melodies, and a perfect end-rhyme scheme for the four lines. The participants were then...
August, 2010
A small study has found that music can help patients with Alzheimer's disease recognize verbal information.
Special care plan does not slow decline in patients with Alzheimer's
A study involving over 1100 patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease at 50 French clinics has revealed that receiving a comprehensive care plan involving regular 6-monthly assessments (with standardised guidelines for the management of problems) produced no benefits compared to receiving the usual care (an annual consultation). After two years, there was no significant difference in...
August, 2010
A large French study has found no evidence that special care plans for dementia patients improve the outcomes.
Muted emotions misleading in Alzheimer's disease
A small study suggests that the apathy shown by many Alzheimer's patients may not simply be due to memory or language problems, but to a decreased ability to experience emotions. The seven patients were asked to rate pictures of positive and negative scenes (such as babies and spiders) by putting a mark closer or further to either a happy face or a sad face emoticon. Closeness to the face...
August, 2010
Indications that blunted emotions are part of Alzheimer’s are a warning not to assume that reduced emotional response is a sign of depression.
Depression increases risk of dementia
Data from the long-running Framingham Heart Study has revealed that depression significantly increased the risk of developing dementia. Of the 125 people (13%) who were classified as having depression at the start of the study, 21.6% had developed dementia by the end of the study (17 years later). This compares to around 16.6% of those who weren’t depressed. When age, gender, education,...
August, 2010
New data from a large long-running study provides more conclusive evidence that depression is indeed a risk factor for dementia.