BrainBlog

From the College of Physicians of Philadelphia website : 23 February 2006 6:00 PM 19 South 22nd Street, Philadelphia Section on Medicine and the Arts Salon. "Alzheimer's Narratives: Voicing the Experience of Patients and Families." David H. Flood, Ph.D., Professor, Health and Society Programs, Drexel University and Rhonda L. Soricelli, M.D., Chair, Section on Medicine and the Arts. This illustrated presentation will show that through analyses of Alzheimer's narratives - those written by patients as they descend into the disease, by caregivers as they struggle to cope, and by writers who enter imaginatively into the lives of those affected - we can come to a better understanding of the disease and its dreadful impact. Jason Karlawish, MD, Fellow, Institute on Aging, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine and Danita Vetter, MA, Vice-President of Programs and Education, Delaw...

Alexander NB, Ashton-Miller JA, Giordani B, Guire K, & Schultz AB. Age differences in timed accurate stepping with increasing cognitive and visual demand: A walking trail making test. Jounal of Gerontology: A Biological Sciences and Med Sciences. 2005 Dec; 60(12): 1558-1562. BACKGROUND: Impaired vision, cognition, and divided attention performance predict falls. Requiring both visual and cognitive input, the ability to step accurately is necessary to safely traverse challenging terrain conditions such as uneven or slippery surfaces. We compared healthy young and older adults in the time taken to step accurately under conditions of increasing cognitive and visual demand. METHODS: Healthy Young (n = 42, mean age 21) and Older (n = 37, mean age 70) participants were required to step accurately on an instrumented walkway under conditions of increasing visual and cognitive demand. Based on the paper-and-pencil neuropsychological test, the Trail Making Test (P-TMT) A and B, participan...

The 34th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society (INS) will take place in Boston from the 1st through the 4th of February. The conference occurs at the Boston Marriott Copley Place. Details can be found on the INS website on the webpage for the meeting . - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

Today's Sunday Morning on CBS has as one of its features a report about mental-gym approaches and video games designed to try to keep the functioning of the aging brain as healthy as can be. The piece includes an interview with the founder of Posit Science, an interview with a functional MRI researcher from Stanford, and a look at constraint-induced (CI) therapy. - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

From The Philadelphia Inquirer : Neuroscientist Ira Black, stem-cell expert The Philadelphia Inquirer 11 January 2006 link Associated Press NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. - Ira Black, 64, an internationally recognized clinical neuroscientist and a founding director of the Stem Cell Institute of New Jersey, died yesterday. A spokeswoman for the university hospital where Dr. Black taught said he had died at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. The cause of death was not disclosed. Since 1990, Dr. Black, who lived in Princeton, was chairman of the neuroscience and cell biology department at the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School. The state-sponsored Stem Cell Institute was established nearby in May 2004. Stem-cell research is an emerging science that advocates say could bring revolutionary therapies to a variety of disorders, including paralysis and Alzheimer's. Gov. Codey, a champion of public funding for such research, said yesterda...

Dr. Thomas Perls gives a lecture entitled, Deciphering Exceptional Longevity: What we've Learned from the New England Centenarian Study at the University of Pennsylvania. The event begins at 2:00 pm. Additional information can be found at the online flyer for the event . - Anthony H. Risser | neuroscience | neuropsychology | brain

den Heijer T, Geerlings MI, Hoebeek FE, Hofman A, Koudstaal PJ, & Breteler MM. Use of hippocampal and amygdalar volumes on magnetic resonance imaging to predict dementia in cognitively intact elderly people. Archives of General Psychiatry. 2006 Jan; 63(1): 57-62. Author Affiliations: Departments of Epidemiology and Biostatistics and Neurology, Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. CONTEXT: The recent focus on the development of preventive interventions for Alzheimer disease has fueled the search for biomarkers of presymptomatic disease. Patients with Alzheimer disease and mild cognitive impairment have marked atrophy of the hippocampus and amygdala compared with healthy elderly people. Whether atrophy of these structures is also present in persons without cognitive impairment who later develop dementia is unknown. OBJECTIVE: To assess whether volumetric assessment of the hippocampus and amygdala using magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) predicts dementia in elderly pe...