Mayo Clinic Study of Aging

ROCHESTER, Minn. – Walking is a milestone in development for toddlers, but it’s actually only one part of the complex cognitive task known as gait [...]

ROCHESTER, Minn. – A Mayo Clinic study of people who received anesthesia for surgery after age 40 found [...]

American and Chinese adults with Type 2 diabetes are at similar risk for memory impairment, Mayo Clinic and Shanghai researchers report Rochester, Minn. – Diabetes is a known risk factor for cognitive decline and dementia, age-related conditions that affect memory and thinking skills. However, little is known about how the diabetes-cognitive decline link compares across cultures. Scientists from Mayo Clinic and Huashan Hospital in Shanghai explored the association between Type 2 diabetes and cognitive impairment to find out if the relationship varies in different populations. Study participants had not been diagnosed with memory-related diseases, such as vascular dementia or Alzheimer's dementia. For the study, the researchers evaluated data from two large, ongoing, population-based studies: the Shanghai Aging Study (SAS) and the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging (MCSA). Both use similar designs and methodologies. For example, both studies recruit participants from a defined population, include an on-site, in-person evaluation, use similar or comparable tests of cognition, and include participants over age 50. The SAS uses neuropsychological tests adapted from Western tests to harmonize with Chinese culture. MEDIA CONTACT: Duska Anastasijevic, Mayo Clinic Public Affairs, 507-284-5005, newsbureau@mayo.edu

ROCHESTER, Minn. — July 12, 2012.  Activity lingers longer in certain areas of the brain in those with Alzheimer's than it does in healthy people, Mayo Clinic researchers who created a map of the brain found. The results suggest varying brain activity may reduce the risk of Alzheimer's disease. The study, "Non-stationarity in the "Resting Brain's" Modular Architecture," was presented at the Alzheimer's Association International Conference and recently published in the journal PLoS One.

Journalists: For multimedia resources, including a graphic of the Road Map, and interview with the study author, visit the Mayo Clinic News Network.

Researchers compared brain activity to a complex network, with multiple objects sharing information along pathways. "Our understanding of those objects and pathways is limited," says lead author David T. Jones, M.D. "There are regions in the brain that correspond to those objects, and we are not really clear exactly what those are. We need a good mapping or atlas of those regions that make up the network in the brain, which is part of what we were doing in this study." Researchers examined 892 cognitively normal people taking part in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging, and set out to create an active map of their brains while the people were "at rest," not engaged in a specific task. To do this, they employed task-free, functional magnetic resonance imaging to construct an atlas of 68 functional regions of the brain, which correspond to the cities on the road map. Researchers filled in the roads between these regions by creating dynamic graphic representations of brain connectivity within a sliding time window. This analysis revealed that there were many roads that could be used to exchange information in the brain, and the brain uses different roads at different times. The question to answer then, said Dr. Jones, is whether or not Alzheimer's patients used this map and these roads in a different way than their healthy peers. "What we found in this study was that Alzheimer's patients tended to spend more time using some roads and less time using other roads, biasing one over the other," he says.

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — You think your computer has a lot of memory and if you keep using your computer you may, too.

VIDEO ALERT: Click here as Dr. Geda explains the study.

Combining mentally stimulating activities, such as using a computer, with moderate exercise decreases your odds of having memory loss more than computer use or exercise alone, a Mayo Clinic study shows. Previous studies have shown that exercising your body and your mind will help your memory but the new study, published in the May 2012 issue of Mayo Clinic Proceedings, reports a synergistic interaction between computer activities and moderate exercise in "protecting" the brain function in people better than 70 years old. Researchers studies 926 people in Olmsted County, Minn., ages 70 to 93, who completed self-reported questionnaires on physical exercise, and computer use within one year prior of the date of interview. Moderate physical exercise was defined as brisk walking, hiking, aerobics, strength training, golfing without a golf cart, swimming, doubles tennis, yoga, martial arts, using exercise machines and weightlifting. Mentally stimulating activities included reading, crafts, computer use, playing games, playing music, group and social and artistic activities and watching less television. Of those activities the study singled out computer use because of its popularity, said study author Yonas E. Geda, M.D., a physician scientist with Mayo Clinic in Arizona. "The aging of baby boomers is projected to lead to dramatic increases in the prevalence of dementia," Dr. Geda said. "As frequent computer use has becoming increasingly common among all age groups, it is important to examine how it relates to aging and dementia. Our study further adds to this discussion."

ROCHESTER, Minn. — Researchers involved in the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging reported today that more than 6 percent of Americans age 70 to 89 develop mild cognitive impairment (MCI) every year. Also, the condition appears to affect men and those who only have a high school education more than women and those who have completed some higher education. People with MCI are at the stage between suffering the normal forgetfulness associated with aging and developing dementia, such as that caused by Alzheimer's disease.

VIDEO ALERT: Additional audio and video resources, including excerpts from an interview with Dr. Roberts describing the research, are available on the Mayo Clinic News Blog.

The study, "The Incidence of MCI Differs by Subtype and is Higher in Men," which was published in the Jan. 25, 2012, issue of Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology, reports that 296 of the 1,450 study participants developed MCI, an incidence rate of 6.4 percent per year overall. Among men, the incidence rate was 7.2 percent, compared with 5.7 percent per year for women. "While incidence rates for MCI have been reported previously, ours is one of the few studies designed specifically to measure the incidence of MCI and its subtypes using published criteria," says lead author Rosebud O. Roberts, M.B., Ch.B., of the Mayo Clinic Division of Epidemiology. "The statistically significant difference between incidence rates among men and women represents an important finding for those evaluating patients for MCI." The study also looked in more detail at patients with MCI, dividing them according to whether they developed amnestic MCI (aMCI) — in which the condition affects the memory domain — or non-amnestic MCI (naMCI).