Chronic degenerative conditions are very common in the elderly. According to medical literature, there is a correlation between cognitive impairment among elders and arterial hypertension/hyperglycemia which in turn are common diseases among the elderly population worldwide. Nonetheless, data on the association between cognitive impairment and Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) remains controversial.OBJECTIVETo compare the cognitive status of Brazilian elderly outpatients with and without MetS.METHODSA cross-sectional case-control study with 49 subjects (25 MetS and 24 controls) who underwent a global geriatric and neuropsychological assessment was carried out. The scores for cognitive abilities (sustained attention, alternating attention, immediate memory, working memory, memory - immediate recall, memory - delayed recall, memory - recognition, executive function, ideomotor praxis, constructive praxis, naming ability, verbal fluency) were compared with the data for the normal population and differences between case and control groups were analyzed using Student's t-test or the Mann-Whitney test.RESULTSForty-five patients (91.8%) were female, with a mean age of 73.9±5.9 years, and 3.0±1.0 years of schooling. A significant difference (p<0.01) was found between case and control groups regarding the MetS components. For cognitive abilities, no statistically significant difference was detected between the groups and all subjects presented low cognitive scores.CONCLUSIONThe results obtained in the present study showed that MetS was not associated with cognitive impairment in this population. Further prospective studies are necessary to investigate the influence of well-controlled MetS on cognitive performance among elders.

Our results provide an early biomarker of the possible development of cognitive impairment, particularly in the executive function, of elderly individuals suffering from MetS. These findings also point to an up or down regulation which could be interpreted as compensatory mechanism for possible brain tissue burden caused by MetS.

The 1990s were marked as the Decade of the Brain, in response to rapidly increasing interest, by lay audience and scientists alike, on the study of neuroscience (Herculano-Houzel, 2002). From this decade onward, neuroscience gained prominence in the general public; despite this increased interest, however, a decline in the interest of young people in pursuing scientific careers in general and a widespread scientific ignorance in the general populace were observed worldwide in the last 30 years (Gouw et al., 2016; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, 2016;Osborne et al., 2003). In this context, outreach programs which promote positive and favorable attitudes toward (neuro)science and (neuro)scientists, as well as a generally favorable attitude toward learning science, is an emerging matter of concern (Sperduti et al., 2012). Attitudes are important affective-motivational components of science education which include "the feelings, beliefs and values held about an object that may be the enterprise of science, school science, the impact of science on society or scientists themselves" (Dekker et al., 2012;

Structural imaging of the brain is the most widely used diagnostic tool for investigating neurodegenerative diseases. More advanced structural imaging techniques have been applied to early or prodromic phases, but they are expensive and not widely available. Therefore, it is highly desirable to search for noninvasive, easily accessible, low-cost clinical biomarkers suitable for large-scale population screening, in order to focus on making diagnoses at the earliest stages of the disease. In this scenario, imaging studies focusing on the structures of the retina have increasingly been used for evaluating neurodegenerative diseases. The retina shares embryological, histological, biochemical, microvascular and neurotransmitter similarities with the cerebral cortex, thus making it a uniquely promising biomarker for neurodegenerative diseases. Optical coherence tomography is a modern noninvasive imaging technique that provides high-resolution two-dimensional cross-sectional images and quantitative reproducible three-dimensional volumetric measurements of the optic nerve head and retina. This technology is widely used in ophthalmology practice for diagnosing and following up several eye diseases, such as glaucoma, diabetic retinopathy and age-related macular degeneration. Its clinical impact on neurodegenerative diseases has raised enormous interest over recent years, as several clinical studies have demonstrated that these diseases give rise to reduced thickness of the inner retinal nerve fiber layer, mainly composed of retinal ganglion cells and their axons. In this review, we aimed to address the clinical utility of optical coherence tomography for diagnosing and evaluating different neurodegenerative diseases, to show the potential of this noninvasive and easily accessible method.

Background: The new Mild Cognitive Impairment criteria have emphasized impairment of episodic memory characteristic of amnesic syndrome of hippocampal type. The concept of "MCI due to Alzheimer's Disease" has been used to identify those symptomatic but nondemented individuals whose primary underlying pathophysiology is AD. The objective of the study was to review episodic memory performance and frequency of abnormality in a sample of elderly subjects previously classified as cognitively intact. Methods: 218 community elderly subjects were selected between 2008 and 2010 for a study of normal aging. Subjects had no significant clinical condition and showed normal cognitive performance considering the inclusion criteria (normal scores in 90% of the applied tests including the Mini Mental + normal functional status + no cognitive complaint). All participants were briefly tested for hearing and vision with quick screenings. Episodic memory was assessed by the free recall of the word list test. Conclusions: Frequency of episodic memory abnormality assessed by a verbal task was relatively high in this sample. Independent on absence of cognitive complaint, it is important to consider episodic memory for those with impaired performance.Background: Chronic degenerative health states are very common in the elderly. According to medical literature there is a correlation between elders' cognitive impairment and arterial hypertension/hyperglycemia which are common diseases in the elderly population worldwide. Metabolic Syndrome (MetS) could be related to brain vascular changes and cognitive impairment in elders. Previous studies have shown impaired brain vascularization as a predictor of dementia. Methods: This study was developed with 36 patients (15 MetS and 21 controls) who completed an entry survey of a one-year longitudinal case-control study. They were assessed using a global geriatric evaluation, a neuropsychological battery, fMRI (BOLD-blood oxygen level dependent). To analyze differences between groups, it was applied Mann-Whitney test to explore cognitive abilities and ANOVA test for BOLD findings. Results: 92 percent were female, mean age, 7464 years, and mean score of the Mini-Mental Status Examination 2662. Regarding cognitive performance, these groups were statistically different in the sustained attention ability which was lower in individuals with MetS than controls (-4.863.5 vs. -2.863.6; P¼0.04, table 1). Both groups showed high levels of oxygen uptake in incongruent tasks in the following areas (figure 1): bilateral anterior cingulate, middle and inferior frontal gyros and bilateral insula. Controls showed more intense neurovascular coupling when stimulus was incongruent than when it was congruent (P<0.05) in: edge of intraparietal sulcus, supramarginal gyrus, precuneus and cuneus (occipital lobe), bilateral cerebellum, fusiform gyrus, right thalamus and pons. Conclusions: Elderly patients with MetS showed both lower sustained attention ability and neurovascular coupling in cognitive tasks in parietal and oc...

Background: Sleep is a special physiological state that occurs cyclically. The probable role of sleep in our organic functions remains to be explored to clarify the impact of sleep on brain functions. Sleep deprivation is known to affect all parts of the brain separately and independently, but further research is needed on the impact of sleep disorders on attention, particularly the specific types of attention that are most affected, and whether there is such a correlation. Objective: To conduct a systematic review of the possible correlation between sleep disorders and attentional performance. Methods: A systematic review and search at PubMed, SciELO, and Cochrane scientific databases for articles published in the last 10 years was carried out using the following keywords: sleep, attention, and attentional performance. Inclusion criteria were the use of attention tests and sleep disorders. Of the 1398 articles found, 15 were selected and included in this review. Results: The number of publications evaluating sleep and sleep disorders has increased, but is still limited. Of all the functions normally assessed, patients with sleep disorders perform worse on attention tasks, especially with sustained attention. However, these data require further investigation due to the complexity and diversity of the disorders, the small sample size of the included studies, and the fact that few studies used standardized tests. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that the correlation between sleep and attention is strong but limited. Few studies are devoted exclusively to the extent to which sleep disorders interferes with attention.

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is one of the most common causes of early-onset dementia with primary progressive aphasia (PPA) being the second-most-frequent form of this degenerative disease. Despite the similarity with progressive dementia (especially in early stages of Alzheimer´s disease), three types of PPA can be differentiated: semantic, agrammatic and logopenic (subtype discussed in this study). To date, no medications have been shown to improve or stabilize cognitive deficits in patients with PPA. We report the case of a 62-year-old woman with difficulty naming objects and planning. An interdisciplinary evaluation, including imaging and lab exams, together with neuropsychological and personality assessments, confirmed that the patient had logopenic PPA on the basis of repetition difficulty, phonemic and semantic paraphasias and absence of agrammatism. The timing of the assessment in this case, along with the resources available and commitment of an integrated interdisciplinary team, allowed a differential diagnosis (from other classical dementias) to be reached.

The growing interest for nonpharmacological treatment alternatives to older people with mild cognitive impairment or dementia has increased exponentially for the past few years; in this context, dance therapy is an effective therapeutic tool in improving the cognition of older people. The aim of this study was to verify whether dance therapy is a viable tool in promoting benefits with regard to the cognition and mood of older people with cognitive impairment. A database search covering the past 10 years was carried out. Result: The search found 193 papers; after title, abstract, and duplicity analysis, 14 of those were selected, of which 10 were fully revised. The studies showed positive results regarding the improvement of cognitive function after dance stimulations, as well as beneficial effects on the mood of older people with cognitive impairment.