PURPOSE This study was designed to evaluate potential preventive effects of meditation or exercise on incidence, duration, and severity of acute respiratory infection (ARI) illness.METHODS Community-recruited adults aged 50 years and older were randomized to 1 of 3 study groups: 8-week training in mindfulness meditation, matched 8-week training in moderate-intensity sustained exercise, or observational control. The primary outcome was area-under-the-curve global illness severity during a single cold and infl uenza season, using the Wisconsin Upper Respiratory Symptom Survey (WURSS-24) to assess severity. Health care visits and days of missed work were counted. Nasal wash collected during ARI illness was assayed for neutrophils, interleukin-8, and viral nucleic acid. RESULTSOf 154 adults randomized into the study, 149 completed the trial (82% female, 94% white, mean age 59.3 ± 6.6 years). There were 27 ARI episodes and 257 days of ARI illness in the meditation group (n = 51), 26 episodes and 241 illness days in the exercise group (n = 47), and 40 episodes and 453 days in the control group (n = 51). Mean global severity was 144 for meditation, 248 for exercise, and 358 for control. Compared with control, global severity was signifi cantly lower for meditation (P = .004). Both global severity and total days of illness (duration) trended toward being lower for the exercise group (P = .16 and P = .032, respectively), as did illness duration for the meditation group (P = .034). Adjusting for covariates using zero-infl ated multivariate regression models gave similar results. There were 67 ARI-related days of-work missed in the control group, 32 in the exercise group (P = .041), and 16 in the meditation group (P <.001). Health care visits did not differ signifi cantly. Viruses were identifi ed in 54% of samples from meditation, 42% from exercise, and 54% from control groups. Neutrophil count and interleukin-8 levels were similar among intervention groups. CONCLUSIONSTraining in meditation or exercise may be effective in reducing ARI illness burden.

We report an experimental study of the factors that elicit manual interference in a patient with so-called "anarchic hand" behaviour in everyday life (Della Sala, Marchetti, & Spinnler, 1991, 1994) due to corticobasilar degeneration. The patient, ES, showed problems with both hands. We used tests in which ES had to respond to a left-side object with her left hand and to a right-side object with her right hand; manual interference responses occurred when she used the left hand to respond to the right-side object and the right hand to respond to left-side objects. In reaching tasks, interference responses were determined by stimulus familiarity and by the spatial relations between the hand of response and the part of the object used for action (the handle of the cup). In pointing tasks interference responses were affected by both effector and spatial uncertainty. Right hand responses were affected particularly by familiarity, and left hand responses by effector and spatial uncertainty. The results demonstrate that visual affordances (determined by object-hand compatibility) and visual familiarity can directly activate motor responses. Hand differences are discussed in terms of hemispheric specialisation for different components of motor action.

Objective To examine the association of cholesterol with cognitive functioning in oldest old community dwelling individuals with and without the APOE4 allele. Method 185 non-demented community dwelling individuals (≥ 85) were assessed with a broad neuropsychological battery. Bloods were drawn to assess total, LDL, and HDL cholesterol, as well as for APOE genotyping. Results In contrast to our expectations, high total cholesterol and high LDL cholesterol were associated with higher memory scores for non-carriers of the APOE4 allele. No significant associations between cognitive performance and lipid profile were found for carriers of the APOE4 allele. Conclusions In oldest old non-demented non-carriers of the APOE4 allele, high cholesterol is associated with better memory function. Further examination of the role of APOE genotype on the association between cholesterol and cognitive performance, especially in the oldest old, is warranted.

No abstract

Objectives It is unclear why duration of type 2 diabetes (T2D) is associated with increased cognitive compromise. High hemoglobin A1c (HbA1c) has also been associated with dementia, and is the primary contributor to T2D complications. Here we investigated whether the association of duration of T2D with cognitive functioning is modulated by hemoglobin A1C levels. Methods This study examined non-demented community dwelling T2D elderly (n=897) participating in the Israel Diabetes and Cognitive Decline study, who were assessed with a broad neuropsychological battery. Subjects were all from the Maccabi Healthcare Services which has a Diabetes Registry with complete HbA1c measurements since 1998. Partial correlations were performed to examine the modulating effect of HbA1c on the relationship of duration of T2D with five cognitive measures, controlling for sociodemographic and cardiovascular risk factors. Results An interaction of duration of T2D with HbA1c was associated with executive functioning (p=.006), semantic categorization (p=.019), attention/working memory (p=.011), and overall cognition (p=.006), such that the associations between duration of T2D and cognitive impairment increased as HbA1c levels increased—but not for episodic memory (p=.984). Conclusions Since duration of T2D was associated with cognition in higher HbA1c levels and overall no associations were found in lower HbA1c levels, our results suggest that individuals with T2D may limit their risk of future cognitive decline by maintaining long-term good glycemic control.

No abstract

Caffeine intake may have a beneficial role in cognitive functioning of elderly adults with T2D, which may be moderated by age. Greater GM volume may be a mechanism underlying the association of higher caffeine intake with better cognitive function.

Excessive alcohol intake is associated with a multitude of health risks, especially for women. Recent studies in animal models indicate that the female brain is more negatively affected by alcohol, compared to the male brain. Among other regions, excessive alcohol consumption damages the frontal cortex, an area important for many functions and decision making of daily life. The objective of the present study was to determine whether the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC) in female rats is selectively vulnerable to alcohol-induced damage. In humans, loss of prefrontal grey matter resulting from heavy alcohol consumption has been documented, however this volume loss is not necessarily due to a decrease in the number of neurons. We therefore quantified both number and nuclear volume of mPFC neurons following binge alcohol, as well as performance and neuronal activation during a prefrontal-dependent behavioral task. Adult male and female Long-Evans rats were assigned to binge or control groups and exposed to ethanol using a well-established 4-day model of alcohol-induced neurodegeneration. Both males and females had significantly smaller average neuronal nuclei volumes than their respective control groups immediately following alcohol binge, but neither sex showed a decrease in neuron number. Binged rats of both sexes initially showed spatial working memory deficits. Although they eventually achieved control performance, binged rats of both sexes showed increased c-Fos labeling in the mPFC during rewarded alternation, suggesting decreased neural efficiency. Overall, our results substantiate prior evidence indicating that the frontal cortex is vulnerable to alcohol, but also indicate that sex-specific vulnerability to alcohol may be brain region-dependent.