Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
July 2, 2019
Danilo Forghieri Santaella, Joana Bisol Balardin, Rui F. Afonso et al.
37 citations
Long-term elderly Hatha Yoga practitioners show greater functional connectivity between the medial prefrontal cortex and the right angular gyrus, key nodes of the default mode network, compared to non-practitioners matched for age, education, and physical activity. This cross-sectional study of 20 women who practiced yoga at least twice weekly for eight or more years and 20 yoga-naïve controls found no group differences in cognitive screening, depression scores, or daily living activities. The enhanced anteroposterior connectivity within the default mode network may reflect a neural correlate of healthier cognitive aging associated with sustained yoga practice.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
January 1, 2025
Alexa L Wright, Aldis P Weible, Olivia B Estes et al.
1 citation
In a 5XFAD mouse model of Alzheimer's disease, ketamine—given either as a single acute injection or as chronic daily doses over 15 weeks—did not reduce amyloid plaque load or improve performance on an auditory gap detection task, an early behavioral biomarker of Alzheimer's in both mice and humans. Chronic ketamine increased startle responses in the 5XFAD mice, but this likely reflected effects on stress or habituation rather than a rescue of Alzheimer's-related deficits. Strong correlations between gap detection deficits and plaque accumulation in the auditory cortex and caudal pontine reticular nucleus confirmed the validity of gap detection as an early Alzheimer's biomarker. Ketamine did not alter these correlations, indicating no beneficial effect on network disruption or sensory-behavioral deficits in this model.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
May 30, 2023
Ioulietta Lazarou, V. Oikonomou, Lampros Mpaltadoros et al.
Meditation practices, specifically Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) and a culturally adapted Kirtan Kriya meditation, produce distinct changes in brain wave patterns that differ across the Alzheimer's disease spectrum. In healthy older adults, theta brain waves at four electrode sites (TP9, TP10, AF7, AF8) were statistically significantly reduced during Kirtan Kriya meditation compared to a resting state. The study involved 40 participants: 13 healthy controls, 14 with subjective cognitive decline, and 13 with mild cognitive impairment. Using a portable Muse EEG headband in a smart-home environment, the findings suggest that brain wave parameters can help discriminate early cognitive decline without medical support.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
January 1, 2023
Jessica Pommy, Colette M Smart, Andrew M Bryant et al.
Mindfulness meditation may improve neurovascular health in older adults through three potential mechanisms: directly increasing resting-state cerebral blood flow, indirectly reducing neuroinflammation via stronger default-mode network connectivity, and a top-down control pathway that combines both direct and indirect effects. This review first examines resting-state fMRI studies in older adults, then uses those findings to interpret task-based fMRI studies in clinical and healthy adult samples. The proposed mechanisms offer a framework for understanding how mindfulness could counteract age-related neurovascular decline.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
January 1, 2022
Magnus Bein, Myriam Lesage, Elena Dikaios et al.
Late-life depression affects up to 18% of older adults and is linked to elevated dementia risk. Mindfulness-based cognitive therapy (MBCT) may help treat depressive symptoms and cognitive deficits in this population, but a definitive randomized controlled trial has not yet been conducted. This protocol describes a multi-site blinded trial comparing MBCT to an active control, a Health Enhancement Program, in 213 patients with late-life depression. Changes in depression severity, processing speed, executive functioning, and brain biomarkers will be assessed at baseline, post-intervention (8 weeks), and 26 weeks after baseline. The study will evaluate MBCT's potential to improve depression, cognitive impairments, and neurobiological markers.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
January 1, 2022
Raul Vicente, Michael Rizzuto, Can Sarica et al.
An 87-year-old patient dying from cardiac arrest after a traumatic brain injury showed a surge in high-frequency gamma brain waves on EEG, even after blood flow to the brain stopped. Gamma power increased before cardiac arrest, and after arrest, relative gamma power remained higher than during the patient's baseline. Cross-frequency coupling showed gamma activity modulated by alpha and theta rhythms, strongest after left-sided brain suppression and after cardiac arrest. These findings suggest the dying human brain can generate coordinated neural activity during the near-death period, offering the first human evidence from a real-life clinical setting.
Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience
January 15, 2016
Davide eLaneri, Verena eSchuster, Bruno eDietsche et al.
Mindfulness meditation may alter white matter microstructure and help reduce age-related white matter degeneration in brain regions linked to mindfulness. Diffusion tensor imaging scans of 64 meditators and non-meditators showed group differences and a group-by-age interaction in white matter adjacent to the thalamus, insula, amygdala, hippocampus, and anterior cingulate cortex. The findings offer preliminary evidence that mindfulness practice could affect white matter connectivity and potentially counteract age-related decline in key brain areas.