cognitive | Common News Update

Mar122021 by adminNo Comments

Study: Older adults with history of head injuries show decreased cognitive function

Health

March 11 (UPI) -- Adults who suffer head injuries in their 50s or younger produce lower-than-expected scores on cognitive tests at age 70, a study published Thursday by the Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology found. Although head injuries do not appear to contribute to Alzheimer's disease-related brain damage, they may make people more vulnerable to dementia symptoms, the researchers said. Advertisement Seventy-year-olds who had experienced a serious head injury 15 or more years earlier on average scored 46 on 93-point cognitive tests for attention and quick thinking, lower than the 48 for those without a history of head injuries, the data showed. They also had 1% smaller brain volumes and differences in brain structure, which may explain the subtle cognitive differences compar...

Oct42020 by adminNo Comments

Study: Fecal transplant may one day be used to reverse cognitive decline

Science

Oct. 2 (UPI) -- New research suggests fecal transplants could one day be used to reverse the cognitive decline that comes with aging. When researchers performed fecal transplants from older to younger mice, they found the recipients suffered declines in spatial learning and memory. Scientists published the results of their experiments this week in the journal Microbiome. Advertisement The authors of the new study suggest a similar transplantation from young to old mice could potentially reverse the cognitive decline. "Aging is an inevitable process that starts immediately after birth and ultimately leads to physical health problems as well as a decline in psychological well-being and cognitive function," study co-author David Vauzour said in a news release. "Research has shown that the a...

Apr142020 by adminNo Comments

Faster cognitive decline in black people linked to high blood pressure

Health

April 13 (UPI) -- Black people experience significantly faster declines in cognitive function than white people, perhaps because of higher blood pressure, a new analysis suggests. Black people see faster drops in global cognition, a commonly used measure of brain function, and memory than white people as they age, according to an article published Monday by JAMA Neurology. Researchers say these declines occurred because of higher blood pressure, and progress faster as blood pressure rises. "African-Americans' higher blood pressure levels appear to explain their faster cognitive decline in later-life compared with whites," Dr. Deborah A. Levine, an associate professor of medicine at the University of Michigan Medical School, told UPI. "Improved control of high blood pressure in African-Am...

Mar272020 by adminNo Comments

Study: Cognitive ability is a whole-brain phenomenon

Science

March 27 (UPI) -- New research suggests intelligence, or general cognitive ability, can't be traced to a single region of the brain. According to an international team of neuroscientists, cognitive intelligence is a whole-brain phenomenon. For the study, researchers used diffusion tensor imaging to study whether small variations in the the neural wiring systems of test subjects could account for differences in IQ. The international survey involved the brain scans and IQ tests of 1,717 participants from all over the world, including healthy subjects and patients with schizophrenia. Scientists at the National University of Ireland Galway used novel statistical methods to synchronize and analyze the data collected by participating researchers. "To date, this is the largest meta-analysis stu...

Jun202019 by adminNo Comments

Squeezing blood vessels may lead to Alzheimer’s cognitive decline

Health

June 20 (UPI) -- Researchers may be closer to discovering a cause of cognitive decline brought on by Alzheimer's disease, a new study says. The constriction of cells surrounding blood vessels may cause decreased blood flow to the brain, which has already been linked to Alzheimer's disease, according to research published Thursday in the journal Science. "Since reduced blood flow is the first clinically detectable sign of Alzheimer's, our research generates new leads for possible treatments in the early phase of the disease," Ross Nortley, a researcher at University College London and study lead author, said in a news release. The researchers analyzed capillaries in human brain tissue affected by Alzheimer's and in mice engineered to grow a pathology for the disease. They applied a protei...