There is now converging evidence from studies in animals and humans that the medial temporal lobes (MTLs) harbor anatomically distinct processing pathways for object and scene information. Recent functional magnetic resonance imaging studies in humans suggest that this domain-specific organization may be associated with a functional preference of the anterior-lateral part of the entorhinal cortex (alErC) for objects and the posterior-medial entorhinal cortex (pmErC) for scenes. As MTL subregions are differentially affected by aging and neurodegenerative diseases, the question was raised whether aging may affect the 2 pathways differentially. To address this possibility, we developed a paradigm that allows the investigation of object memory and scene memory in a mnemonic discrimination task. A group of young (n = 43) and healthy older subjects (n = 44) underwent functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings during this novel task, while they were asked to discriminate exact repetitions of object and scene stimuli from novel stimuli that were similar but modified versions of the original stimuli ("lures"). We used structural magnetic resonance images to manually segment anatomical components of the MTL including alErC and pmErC and used these segmented regions to analyze domain specificity of functional activity. Across the entire sample, object processing was associated with activation of the perirhinal cortex (PrC) and alErC, whereas for scene processing, activation was more predominant in the parahippocampal cortex and pmErC. Functional activity related to mnemonic discrimination of object and scene lures from exact repetitions was found to overlap between processing pathways and suggests that while the PrC-alErC pathway was more involved in object discrimination, both pathways were involved in the discrimination of similar scenes. Older adults were behaviorally less accurate than young adults in discriminating similar lures from exact repetitions, but this reduction was equivalent in both domains. However, this was accompanied by significantly reduced domain-specific activity in PrC in older adults compared to what was observed in the young. Furthermore, this reduced domain-specific activity was associated to worse performance in object mnemonic discrimination in older adults. Taken together, we show the fine-grained functional organization of the MTL into domain-specific pathways for objects and scenes and their mnemonic discrimination and further provide evidence that aging might affect these pathways in a differential fashion. Future experiments will elucidate whether the 2 pathways are differentially affected in early stages of Alzheimer's disease in relation to amyloid or tau pathology.

Background: In primary care units Frailty Ambulatory is dedicated to elderly people and is an example of health innovation. In the light of a complex rethinking of primary care, it is aimed to promote initiative medicine in the field of degenerative and chronic diseases. In short, Frailty Ambulatories have to make easier the "art" of caring elderly patients' complex needs through geriatricians and outof-hospital network services. The aim of the present study was to analyze data from 300 consecutive patients sent to our ambulatories. Methods:The starting point is caring patients and their needs. The first step is represented by over-65 year-old patients' selection according to the criteria of prefrailty and frailty (at least one Fried's criterion and the patient sent to geriatrician by general practitioner). Results:Of 300 patients, 118 (39,3%) were men, mean age 82,79 6 6,65 years old, BMI 22,176 2,15 kg/m 2 . After performing multidimensional assessment we found the following scores: MMSE 11,0562,44; ADL 0,9562,06; IADL 0,0460,188; CIRS 4,9561,72. The number of drugs used was 6,16 6 2,20. The most frequent Fried's criterion found was fatigue (97,3%, Table 1); criteria's mean/patient was 4,74 6 0,56. In 80,3% out of the patients all the five criteria were found, in 13.3% four criteria, in 6,4% three criteria (Figure 1). After bivariate relationship Fried's criteria were found to be significantly correlated to MMSE and heart failure. After multivariate analysis the relationship was kept with MMSE (beta -0,209; p¼0,0001). Conclusions: Experimental activity in Frailty Ambulatories could offer a tool able to recognize conditions of prefrailty/frailty. This can lead to a consistent and complete care response, preventing/decreasing disability conditions. Data analyses timely carried on by provincial health authority let plan the possible continuation of experimentation.Background:The locus coeruleus (LC) as the only source for norepinephrine (NE) in the human brain shows early degeneration in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The LC-NE system is involved in attentional processes and different behavioral and functional markers (e.g. evoked EEG potentials, BOLD responses, pupillary dilatation) have been identified as potential markers for LC-NEfunctionality. Here, we assessed whether these markers are characteristically altered in AD, thus providing potential surrogate markers for interventional trials targeting the LC-NE-system. Methods: We aim at including patients (planned: n¼30) with cerebrospinal fluid-biomarker evidence for AD and age-matched healthy controls (planned: n¼30). We obtain reaction times and accuracy, event-related electroencephalography (EEG) potentials (P300b), task-related pupil dilation and event-related blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) responses in a stimulus detection task (Oddball-paradigm). Additionally, structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) with neuromelanine-sensitive sequences is applied to determine a volumetric measure for the LC. Here, we present preliminary results for 15 subjects with ...