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The Aging Mind Opportunities in Cognitive Research (2000) / Chapter Skim
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2 Neural Health
Pages 14-20

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From page 14...
... The underlying idea is that the causes of age-related cognitive decline, particularly in individuals who do not suffer from the dementias, may be found in dynamic processes that impair the health and functioning of living neurons. Although these mechanisms may eventually kill neurons, they may have deleterious cognitive effects even without causing neuronal loss, and the processes may begin well before old age.
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From page 15...
... Especially intriguing is the fact that although these three processes are implicated in dementia, they are normally beneficial to cognitive functioning: each is involved throughout life in helping to maintain the integrity of healthy neural circuits. Thus, dysfunctions in these processes, even if not leading to cell loss, may provide mechanisms for cognitive decline.
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From page 16...
... The extent to which apoptosis, inflammation, and free radical release act as beneficial as opposed to detrimental events in the central nervous system would dictate whether the neural circuit is maintained in a healthy manner or is chronically disrupted, eventually leading to neurodegenerative changes. A hypothesis worthy of investigation is that progressive dysregulation of these processes with age is intimately involved with neural dysfunction and mild cognitive impairment relatively early in life, whereas chronic activity of these events over many years leads eventually to neuronal and synaptic deficits and to dementia.
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From page 17...
... Major advances are possible from research aimed at four goals: developing quantitative markers for neuronal health and neuronal dysfunction; identifying factors that affect neural health during the aging process; devising interventions for the maintenance of healthy neurons and the rescue and repair of dysfunctional neurons; and assessing the efficacy of intervention using quantitative biomarkers. This research will identify and evaluate biochemical, behavioral, and other interventions that can help maintain neural health and, by doing that, contribute to maintaining cognitive function in older people.
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From page 18...
... Research under this element of the neural health initiative would examine the extent to which changes in brain function are due to neural dysfunction other than neural loss. These studies would examine hypotheses regarding mechanisms that underlie neural dysfunction, especially those affecting brain function and neural health through gene expression and through such homeostatic processes as apoptosis, inflammation, and oxidative activity, which may have either beneficial or detrimental effects.
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From page 19...
... , electrophysiological techniques, including single-unit recording, ensemble recording, and evoked potential studies, behavioral assays, including existing and improved cognitive tests designed to be sensitive to the integrity of specific brain regions targeted for repair, gene expression profiling using chip technology, and biochemical and molecular markers of apoptosis, inflammation, and oxidative stress. IMPLEMENTATION ISSUES The neural health initiative will require much more intensive involvement of behavioral scientists than has been typical in past neuroscience research.
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From page 20...
... Emphasis in this latter area has traditionally been placed on attempting to develop behavioral protocols for mice and rats that can be related to human cognition. It is also worth considering ways to murinize behavioral testing paradigms for humans, that is, to use types of cognitive tests with aging humans that can tap specific functions that have also been studied in rodent models (for a recent example, see Kahana et al., 19991.
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Key Terms

  • affect neural
  • cognitive decline
  • neuronal loss
  • neural dysfunction
  • dysfunctional neurons

  • free radical
  • neural network
  • health initiative
  • cell death
  • stem cells

  • central nervous
  • aging process
  • chronic apoptosis
  • cell loss
  • quantitative markers

  • healthy neurons
  • neuronal cell
  • research initiative
  • radical release
  • entorhinal cortex

  • healthy neural
  • brain regions
  • behavioral testing
  • testing paradigms
  • maintaining healthy

  • identifying factors
  • life course
  • differentiated stem
  • devising interventions
  • life experience


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