In old age, lack of emotion, interest may signal brain is shrinking

“Just as signs of memory loss may signal brain changes related to brain disease, apathy may indicate underlying changes,” said Lenore J. Launer, PhD, with the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in Bethesda, MD, and a member of the American Academy of Neurology. “Apathy symptoms are common in older people without dementia. And the fact that participants in our study had apathy without depression should turn our attention to how apathy alone could indicate brain disease.”

Launer’s team used brain volume as a measure of accelerated brain aging. Brain volume losses occur during normal aging, but in this study, larger amounts of brain volume loss could indicate brain diseases.

For the study, 4,354 people without dementia and with an average age of 76 underwent an MRI scan. They were also asked questions that measure apathy symptoms, which include lack of interest, lack of emotion, dropping activities and interests, preferring to stay at home and having a lack of energy.

The study found that people with two or more apathy symptoms had 1.4 percent smaller gray matter volume and 1.6 percent less white matter volume compared to those who had less than two symptoms of apathy. Excluding people with depression symptoms did not change the results.

Gray matter is where learning takes place and memories are stored in the brain. White matter acts as the communication cables that connect different parts of the brain.

“If these findings are confirmed, identifying people with apathy earlier may be one way to target an at-risk group,” Launer said.

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Neuroscientists: Brain activity may mark beginning of memories

Using lab rats on a circular track, James Knierim, professor of neuroscience in the Zanvyl Krieger Mind/Brain Institute at Johns Hopkins, and a team of brain scientists noticed that the rats frequently paused to inspect their environment with head movements as they ran. The scientists found that this behavior activated a place cell in their brain, which helps the animal construct a cognitive map, a pattern of activity in the brain that reflects the animal's internal representation of its environment.

In a paper recently published by the journal Nature Neuroscience, the researchers state that when the rodents passed that same area of the track seconds later, place cells fired again, a neural acknowledgement that the moment has imprinted itself in the brain's cognitive map in the hippocampus.

The hippocampus is the brain's warehouse for long- and short-term processing of episodic memories, such as memories of a specific experience like a trip to Maine or a recent dinner. What no one knew was what happens in the hippocampus the moment an experience imprints itself as a memory.

"This is like seeing the brain form memory traces in real time," said Knierim, senior author of the research. "Seeing for the first time the brain creating a spatial firing field tied to a specific behavioral experience suggests that the map can be updated rapidly and robustly to lay down a memory of that experience."

A place cell is a type of neuron within the hippocampus that becomes active when an animal or human enters a particular place in its environment. The activation of the cells helps create a spatial framework much like a map, that allows humans and animals to know where they are in any given location. Place cells can also act like neural flags that "mark" an experience on the map, like a pin that you drop on Google maps to mark the location of a restaurant.

"We believe that the spatial coordinates of the map are delivered to the hippocampus by one brain pathway, and the information about the things that populate the map, like the restaurant, are delivered by a separate pathway," Knierim said. "When you experience a new item in the environment, the hippocampus combines these inputs to create a new spatial marker of that experience."

In the experiments, researchers placed tiny wires in the brains of the rats to monitor when and where brain activity increased as they moved along the track in search of chocolate rewards. About every seven seconds, the rats stopped moving forward and turned their heads to the perimeter of the room as they investigated the different landmarks, behavior called "head-scanning."

"We found that many cells that were previously silent would suddenly start firing during a specific head-scanning event," Knierim said. "On the very next lap around the track, many of these cells had a brand new place field at that exact same location and this place field remained usually for the rest of the laps. We believe that this new place field marks the site of the head scan and allows the brain to form a memory of what it was that the rat experienced during the head scan."

Knierim said the formation and stability of place fields and the newly activated place cells requires further study. The research is primarily intended to understand how memories are formed and retrieved under normal circumstances, but it could be applicable to learning more about people with brain trauma or hippocampal damage due to aging or Alzheimer's.

"There are strong indications that humans and rats share the same spatial mapping functions of the hippocampus, and that these maps are intimately related to how we organize and store our memories of prior life events," Knierim said. "Since the hippocampus and surrounding brain areas are the first parts of the brain affected in Alzheimer's, we think that these studies may lend some insight into the severe memory loss that characterizes the early stages of this disease."

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Regular exercise changes the brain to improve memory, thinking skills

There are plenty of good reasons to be physically active. Big ones include reducing the odds of developing heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Maybe you want to lose weight, lower your blood pressure, prevent depression, or just look better. Here’s another one, which especially applies to those of us (including me) experiencing the brain fog that comes with age: exercise changes the brain in ways that protect memory and thinking skills.

In a study done at the University of British Columbia, researchers found that regular aerobic exercise, the kind that gets your heart and your sweat glands pumping, appears to boost the size of the hippocampus, the brain area involved in verbal memory and learning. Resistance training, balance and muscle toning exercises did not have the same results. The results were published this week in the British Journal of Sports Medicine.

The finding comes at a critical time. Researchers say one new case of dementia is detected every four seconds globally. They estimate that by the year 2050, more than 115 million people will have dementia worldwide.

Exercise and the brain

As I write in the May 2014 Harvard Health Letter, exercise helps memory and thinking through both direct and indirect means. The benefits of exercise come directly from its ability to reduce insulin resistance, reduce inflammation, and stimulate the release of growth factors—chemicals in the brain that affect the health of brain cells, the growth of new blood vessels in the brain, and even the abundance and survival of new brain cells.

Indirectly, exercise improves mood and sleep, and reduces stress and anxiety. Problems in these areas frequently cause or contribute to cognitive impairment.

Many studies have suggested that the parts of the brain that control thinking and memory (the prefrontal cortex and medial temporal cortex) have greater volume in people who exercise versus people who don’t. “Even more exciting is the finding that engaging in a program of regular exercise of moderate intensity over six months or a year is associated with an increase in the volume of selected brain regions,” says Dr. Scott McGinnis, a neurologist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and an instructor in neurology at Harvard Medical School.

Put it to the test

So what should you do? Start exercising! We don’t know exactly which exercise is best. Almost all of the research has looked at walking, including the latest study. “It’s likely that other forms of aerobic exercise that get your heart pumping might yield similar benefits,” says Dr. McGinnis.

How much exercise is required? The study participants walked briskly for one hour, twice a week. That’s 120 minutes of moderate intensity exercise a week. Standard recommendations advise half an hour of moderate physical activity most days of the week, or 150 minutes a week. If that seems daunting, start with a few minutes a day, and increase the amount you exercise by five or 10 minutes every week until you reach your goal.

If you don’t want to walk, consider other moderate-intensity exercises, such as swimming, stair climbing, tennis, squash, or dancing. Don’t forget that household activities can count as well, such as intense floor mopping, raking leaves, or anything that gets your heart pumping so much that you break out in a light sweat.

Don’t have the discipline to do it on your own? Try any or all of these ideas:

• Join a class or work out with a friend who’ll hold you accountable.
• Track your progress, which encourages you to reach a goal.
• If you’re able, hire a personal trainer. (Paying an expert is good motivation.)

Whatever exercise and motivators you choose, commit to establishing exercise as a habit, almost like taking a prescription medication. After all, they say that exercise is medicine, and that can go on the top of anyone’s list of reasons to work out.

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Regular aerobic exercise increases memory area of the brain in older women

Hippocampus is a focus of interest become involved because it the area of the brain in dementia research in verbal memory and learning is, but it is very sensitive to the effects of aging and neurological damage.

The researchers tested the effects of various types of exercises on the hippocampal volume of 86 women who said they had mild memory problems, known as mild cognitive impairment - and a common risk factor for dementia.

All the women were aged between 70 and 80 years old and self-employed lived at home.

As many of them were allocated equal either twice per hour long sessions of aerobic exercise (brisk walk); or strength training, such as lunges, squats and weights; or balance and muscle toning exercises for a period of six months.

The size of their hippocampus was the beginning and end of the period of six months to determine, by means of MRI scans, verbal memory and learn that capacity was assessed before and after using a validated test (RAVLT).

Only 29 of the women had before and after the MRI images, but the results showed that the overall volume of the hippocampus in the group, which completed the full six months of aerobic training is significantly greater than that of those who take the course, balance and muscle toning exercises lasted.

No such difference in hippocampal volume on strength training when compared with the balance and muscle, muscle in those seen group.

But despite an earlier finding in the same sample of women improves, that aerobic exercise was verbal memory, there some evidence that an increase of in hippocampal volume was associated with poorer verbal memory.

Say this suggests that the relationship between brain volume and cognitive performance is complex and requires further research, the authors.

But the increased risk for dementia, at the very least, aerobic exercise seems slow the shrinkage of the hippocampus and the volume in a group of women, they say.

And they recommend regular aerobic exercise to avoid mild cognitive decline, what is particularly important, given the mounting evidence indicating that regular exercise good for cognitive function and overall condition of the brain and the rising toll of dementia is.

Worldwide, afflicted, the new case of dementia every four seconds, with the number of those diagnosed will rise to set more than 115 million in 2050, they point out.

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How Our Brain Can Improve Your Memory?

Our memory can either be categorized as long term or short term. In short-term memory, your mind stores data for a short period of time, which is about a few minutes. This kind of memory is delicate and it is just natural. Your brain will soon discard it. It is estimated that the brain can only hold at least seven short-term memories, that’s why you can usually recall your call number but you need your credit card when you are purchasing something online.


Long term memory, on the other hand, involves data that you would need effort in order to retain it in your mind. You need to hold information for a long-term period because they are important, such as personal information, family details, and even data you need while working. Some data that you store for long-term memory needs an effort for you to retain.


A very popular method in concept mapping data for editing is to create a specific or a color coded story or memory map of the information you need to recall. This will greatly help you to observe the whole map of the information and can show you the relation between the pieces of data. A good information map can be very helpful and beneficial mnemonic or memory device.


However, the major flaw in using a concept map is that you can forget the entire label on a certain part of the map. A more effective method is to get the concept map, and break down the information into a numbered list of specific points. You can use this peg-like technique to recall the items on a certain list. Also, you can use the journey technique for longer lists. This technique is a version of the roman room technique in organizing ideas and recalling objects.







There are numerous ways of improving you memory such as:


Practice – with regular mind practice, your memory can be improved. Such exercises include reading, solving puzzles, games and doing logic.


Mnemonics – by employing special techniques such as mnemonics, you can easily learn information without making an extra effort to learn the entire material; most of the mnemonics are very funny such as acronyms and rhymes. For example, in memorizing the colors of the rainbow in proper order, most people can use the mnemonic ROY G. BIV (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet)

Roman Room System – this technique is usually employed in learning a new foreign language. You can easily learn words while visiting a town with common things that you can see. You can learn new nouns if you can visit the town square and try to be familiarized with the counterpart of common names.


In order to remember things for a longer period, you must relate the new data with the data you already know. Retaining information to your long-term memory stores information for longer intervals.


Improving our memory is very important for everyone. As everyone needs to think every day, memory is very important. It could be used when we want to recall the number of our friend, find the number of our locker number or to prepare for an exam. An improved memory can also give us opportunities and edge in doing our jobs. A sharp memory can also give us security.


If you have forgotten what medicine to take and have taken the wrong drug instead, you are in grave danger.

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NIH-funded Atlas Details Gene Activity of the Prenatal Human Brain

A comprehensive three-dimensional atlas of the developing human brain that incorporates gene activity along with anatomical reference atlases and neuroimaging data has released its first major report online today in Nature. This National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded resource, freely available to the public, enables researchers to answer questions related to the early roots of brain-based disorders such as autism and schizophrenia.

The recently created BrainSpan Atlas of the Developing Human Brain incorporates gene activity or expression (right) along with anatomical reference atlases (left) and neuroimaging data (not shown) of the mid-gestational human brain. In this figure, the location and expression level of the gene TGIF1 is shown of a brain from 21 weeks post-conception. Knowledge of where and when particular genes are expressed will facilitate research surrounding human brain development and disease.

This big science endeavor, which highlights the transcriptome — when and where genes are turned on in the brain — and anatomy of the human brain during mid-term pregnancy, was undertaken at the Allen Institute for Brain Science in Seattle. It is the first installment of a consortium project funded by the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), part of the NIH, called the BrainSpan Atlas of the Developing Human Brain, which aims to profile gene activity throughout the course of brain development.

“Many neuropsychiatric diseases are likely the result of abnormal brain development during prenatal life,” said lead author Ed Lein, Ph.D., of the Allen Institute. “An anatomically precise molecular atlas of the brain during this time period is a first step to understanding how the human brain develops normally and what can go wrong.”

Although animal studies have provided invaluable insights in the basic mechanisms of brain function, there are limitations that make studies based on human tissues, which are very difficult to obtain, incredibly important. One key area is the neocortex, the outermost brain region involved in higher functions such as action and thought. The neocortex is smooth in rodents; in humans and non-human primates, it is much more complexly organized, elaborately folded into grooves and wrinkles called sulci and gyri.

Further differences in developmental compartments of this area exist between humans and non-human primates. The aim of this highly detailed atlas was to analyze all genes at this level of granularity, allowing meaningful analysis of the molecular underpinnings of human cortical development. Many psychiatric disorders show altered gene activity in the cortex, possibly highlighting changes that occurred during development of this region.

Lein and other researchers studied four donated, intact, high-quality human prenatal brains from preterm stillbirths — two from 15–16 weeks and two from 21 weeks post-conception – as a framework for their atlas. Contributing labs provided data from a variety of genomic and imaging techniques.

The BrainSpan Atlas aims to inspire new hypotheses regarding human brain development, and has already led to some surprising findings. For example, the study authors found significant differences between mouse and human brains in the subplate zone, a developmentally transient structure critical for proper cortical development. On the other hand, the researchers expected to find a unique molecular signature for the outer portion of the subventricular zone, an area which is not found in mice and which contains a hugely expanded pool of neuronal stem cells that give rise to our greatly expanded neocortex. Surprisingly, despite its much larger size, no significant differences were found between this zone and the inner portion of this layer that is conserved from mouse to human.

“The BrainSpan Atlas becomes very powerful when one can understand where and when a particular gene is used — for instance, is it active in precursor cells or in the neurons derived from them?” said Lein, who gave the example that autism candidate genes are expressed very early in in the cortex. Knowledge of the time and location of these genes may lead to future treatment targets and early interventions for this brain disorder, he added.

The BrainSpan Atlas already is making inroads in research surrounding human brain development and disease.

“Although the many genes associated with autism and schizophrenia don’t show a clear relationship to each other in the adult brain, the BrainSpan Atlas reveals how these diverse genes are connected in the developing brain,” said NIMH Director Thomas R. Insel, M.D. “Findings of what goes on early in the prenatal brain can lead to the development of biomarkers for diagnosing brain disorders and for matching patients to treatment options most likely to be successful.

“This atlas is a clear example of the progress that can be made when the public and private sectors work together,” Insel said. “On this first anniversary of the BRAIN Initiative, we are encouraged to see the impact the BrainSpan Atlas is already making on brain research.”

The resource is freely available for viewing, searching, and data mining for gene activity patterns as part of the BrainSpan Atlas of the Developing Human Brain Developing Human Brain , and can also be found via the Allen Brain Atlas data portal Allen Brain Atlas data portal .

The mission of the NIMH is to transform the understanding and treatment of mental illnesses through basic and clinical research, paving the way for prevention, recovery, and cure. For more information, visit http://www.nimh.nih.gov.

About the National Institutes of Health (NIH): NIH, the nation's medical research agency, includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. NIH is the primary federal agency conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and is investigating the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit www.nih.gov.

NIH...Turning Discovery Into Health^®

Reference

Transcriptional landscape of the prenatal human brain. Miller JA, Ding S-L, Sunkin SM, Smith KA, Ng L, Szafer A, Ebbert A, Riley ZL, Aiona K, Arnold JM, Bennet C, Bertagnolli D, Brouner K, Butler S, Caldejon S, Carey A, Cuhaciyan C, Dalley RA, Dee N, Dolbeare TA, Facer BAC, Fend D, Fliss TP, Gee G, Goldy J, Gourley L, Gregor BW, Gu G, Howard RE, Jochim JM, Kuan CL, Lau C, Lee C-K, Lee F, Lemon TA, Lesnar P, McMurray B, Mastan N, Mosqueda NF, Naluai-Cecchini T, Ngo N-K, Nyhus J, Oldre A, Olson E, Parente J, Parker PD, Parry SE, Player AS, Pletikos M, Reding M, Royall JJ, Roll K, Sandman D, Sarreal M, Shapouri S, Shapovalova NV, Shen EH, Sjoquist N, Slaughterbeck CR, Smith M, Sodt AJ, Williams D, Zöllei L, Fischl B, Gerstein MB, Geschwind DH, Glass IA, Hawrylycz MJ, Hevner RF, Huang H, Jones AR, Knowles JA, Levitt P, Phillips JW, Sestan N, Wohnoutka P, Dang C, Bernard A, Hohmann JG, Lein ES. Nature, April 2, 2014.

Grant number: MH089921

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