I found a research article called "Memory Research: New Study Outlines how to Delay Cognitive Decline." Currently, we could be facing a dementia epidemic. Dementia is a disease in which there is a great loss of cognitive ability, and it is a disease that is very common in individuals that are sixty-five years of age or older. It is expected that dementia will drastically rise over the next forty years. Since we don have any cure for dementia, it is important to determine if there are some practical ways to delay or stop the onset of dementia. In a research study called "The effects of Mental Activity and Exercise on Cognitive Function in Older Adults Who Self-Report a Recent Decline in Memory or Thinking," the researchers wanted to test how exercise and mental activity affects cognitive function in older and inactive adults who have reported that they have reduced ability in thinking or memory. They hypothesize that combing mental and physical activity will significantly improve the cognitive abilities of senior citizens as compared to performing a mental or physical activity only. One thing that they test is to determine if cognitive function significantly improves at all with exercise and mental activity. Furthermore, if cognitive function increases, they want to determine if performing certain aerobic exercises or intense mental activities like computer exercise had a greater effect towards improving cognitive function than other activities like stretching and watching educational DVDs.
After the study, the researchers found that aerobic and intensive computer simulations do not have the most significant improvement. from the four groups. In the 12 week study, because cognitive scores increased with no significant difference between the intervention and control group, it suggests that the amount of activity (physical/mental) is of more importance that the type of activity.
I found that this article is similar to some of the points in Professor Brann's lecture. Professor Brann discussed some of the scientific causes for cognitive decline. For example, she discussed how aging modulates expression of cell stage proteins. There are fewer GAP-43 proteins in older animals than younger animals, and there is more OMP in aged animals vs. young animals. Fewer cells have made a fate decision in older animals. She also found that in young animals, growth associated proliferation in VNE decreases with age. She observed the CE region and saw that proliferation in VNE decreases with age. She also saw that proliferation in MOE decreases with age, regardless of zone. Thus, proliferation declines with age in normal animals.
I feel that there is a connection between Professor Brann's article and the journal article that I found, because while Professor Brann goes into greater detail of the causes of cognitive decline, the article I found discusses a study that shows how we can slow the process of cognitive decline.
The article that I found can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/memory-research_n_3003587.html
After the study, the researchers found that aerobic and intensive computer simulations do not have the most significant improvement. from the four groups. In the 12 week study, because cognitive scores increased with no significant difference between the intervention and control group, it suggests that the amount of activity (physical/mental) is of more importance that the type of activity.
I found that this article is similar to some of the points in Professor Brann's lecture. Professor Brann discussed some of the scientific causes for cognitive decline. For example, she discussed how aging modulates expression of cell stage proteins. There are fewer GAP-43 proteins in older animals than younger animals, and there is more OMP in aged animals vs. young animals. Fewer cells have made a fate decision in older animals. She also found that in young animals, growth associated proliferation in VNE decreases with age. She observed the CE region and saw that proliferation in VNE decreases with age. She also saw that proliferation in MOE decreases with age, regardless of zone. Thus, proliferation declines with age in normal animals.
I feel that there is a connection between Professor Brann's article and the journal article that I found, because while Professor Brann goes into greater detail of the causes of cognitive decline, the article I found discusses a study that shows how we can slow the process of cognitive decline.
The article that I found can be found here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/04/03/memory-research_n_3003587.html
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