THE AGING BRAIN IS MORE ACTIVE THAN A YOUNG BRAIN.
One of the first things we learned about aging minds when we began to study brain activity is that the brains of older individuals were typically more active than those of younger adults when performing cognitive tasks.
DLBS SCIENTISTS ARE DISCOVERING HOW BRAINS TRANSFORM FROM HEALTH TO DISEASE.
DLBS scientists can see changes in the size of brain structures, neural activity, and changes in markers of health and disease, including the plaques and tangles of Alzheimer’s disease.
MIDDLE AGE FUNCTION MAY PREDICT FUTURE COGNITIVE HEALTH.
The DLBS is focused on finding a neural footprint in middle age that predicts who will maintain a healthy mind in old age and who is at risk. Almost no studies of the middle-aged brain exist! Yet, middle age is almost surely where we must intervene to prevent Alzheimer’s disease.
SOME BRAIN SYSTEMS AGE MORE QUICKLY THAN OTHERS.
Virtually nothing is known about when in the lifespan a shift to an “old brain” pattern of activity occurs. We are consistently finding that some major differences are observed in middle age (mentally-challenging, task-based activity), whereas other differences are not found until very late adulthood–in the 80s (decline in neural activity in striatal dopaminergic systems).
OLDER ADULTS HAVE “FUZZY” REPRESENTATIONS OF CATEGORIES IN THEIR BRAINS.
We have reported compelling evidence suggesting that the aging brain represents categories (e.g., faces or houses) in a fuzzy, less distinct way than young adults in visual pathways of the brain. This loss of neural sharpness is a fundamental problem that contributes to poor cognition in older adults.
THE PARADOX OF COGNITIVELY-NORMAL ADULTS WHO HARBOR MARKERS OF ALZHEIMER’S IN THEIR BRAINS.
Surprisingly, many healthy adults carry amyloid proteins in their brain. Amyloid deposits are the “plaques” that are characteristic of Alzheimer’s disease. For the first time in history, we can see these amyloid plaques on living brains using PET imaging.
DYSFUNCTION IN THE SPECIALIZED FUSIFORM AREA WITH AGE AND AMYLOID DEPOSITION.
New brain imaging research from the Park Aging Mind Lab finds that healthy adults with high levels of amyloid plaque on their brain show reduced neural activity in a brain region specialized for recognizing faces. These results suggest that decreased activity in the face regions of the brain could be another early predictor of Alzheimer’s disease.