Search results for "Function"

2020

Motor control is associated with suppression of oscillatory activity in alpha (8–12 Hz) and beta (12–30 Hz) ranges and elevation of oxygenated hemoglobin levels in motor-cortical areas. Aging leads to changes in oscillatory and hemodynamic brain activity and impairments in motor control. However, the relationship between age-related changes in motor control and brain activity is not yet fully understood. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate age-related and task-complexity-related changes in grip force control and the underlying oscillatory and hemodynamic activity. Sixteen younger [age (mean ± SD) = 25.4 ± 1.9, 20–30 years] and 16 older (age = 56.7 ± 4.7, 50–70 years) healthy men were…

Physical activity is associated with better global cognition and frontal function in overweight/obese older adults with metabolic syndrome

2019

Background There is epidemiological evidence of an association between the metabolic syndrome (MetS), a cluster of cardiovascular risk factors related to central adiposity and insulin resistance, and cognitive impairment and dementia. On the other hand, there is evidence for a beneficial effect of physical activity on cognitive outcomes in older adult populations. In a cross-sectional study, we evaluated the relationship between aerobic physical activity and cognition in a cohort of overweight/obese older adults with MetS at risk for dementia. Cognitive function was assessed in a subsample of 82 subjects (men 55–75 y; women 60–75 y), with MetS and a BMI ≥27 to < 40 kg/m2 enrolled in the PRE…

Influence of Duration of Experiment on Rate of Uptake of Radioactive Potassium in Smooth Muscle

1963

THE rates of uptake and loss of radioactive tracers by excitable tissues can often be described by a function involving one exponential term1–3, but over relatively long periods deviations have been observed from such a simple course4–7. The rates of exchange towards the end of such periods are commonly slower than would be predicted from the initial rates and two general causes for this behaviour have been suggested: either the rates are, in fact, diminishing during the course of an experiment or the tissue is not behaving uniformly. This latter possibility has been extensively investigated1,8–15, because biological material shows an obvious lack of uniformity, and because deviations from …

Mild to moderate chronic airways disease does not carry an excess risk of cognitive dysfunction

2003

Whether chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) carries a risk of cognitive dysfunction prior to the onset of arterial hypoxemia is not known. Our objective was to assess both the prevalence and main correlates of subclinical cognitive dysfunction in older patients with non-hypoxemic COPD.Home-dwelling non-demented subjects over 64 years of age consecutively attending 24 outpatient Departments of Respiratory Medicine or Geriatrics because of COPD (N = 233), asthma (N = 203), non-obstructive bronchitis (N = 92) or chronic non-respiratory and non-dementing diseases (controls, N = 1080) underwent a multidimensional assessment. Cognitive status was assessed by the Mini-Mental State Examina…

Cardiac Micro–Computed Tomography Imaging of the Aging Coronary Vasculature

2012

Background— Alterations at the level of the coronary circulation with aging may play an important role in the evolution of age-associated changes in left ventricular (LV) fibrosis and function. However these age-associated changes in the coronary vasculature remain poorly defined primarily due to the lack of high resolution imaging technologies. The current study was designed to utilize cardiac micro–computed tomography (micro-CT) technology as a novel imaging strategy, to define the 3-dimensional coronary circulation in the young and aged heart and its relationship to LV fibrosis and function. Methods and Results— Young (2 months old; n=10) and aged (20 months old; n=10) Fischer rats unde…

Balance control in aging: improvements in anticipatory postural adjustments and updating of internal models

2015

International audience; Postural stability of older subjects can be estimated during orthostatic equilibrium. However, dynamic equilibrium is also important to investigate risks of fall. It implies different interpretations of measures given by force plates. Same dependant variables (e.g. center of pressure displacement) cannot be interpreted the same ways depending of the type of equilibrium that is investigated. In particular, sways increases during dynamic equilibrium and before movement execution may reflect an improvement of feedforward control.

2021

Introduction: Functional imaging studies have demonstrated the recruitment of additional neural resources as a possible mechanism to compensate for age and Alzheimer’s disease (AD)-related cerebral pathology, the efficacy of which is potentially modulated by underlying structural network connectivity. Additionally, structural network efficiency (SNE) is associated with intelligence across the lifespan, which is a known factor for resilience to cognitive decline. We hypothesized that SNE may be a surrogate of the physiological basis of resilience to cognitive decline in elderly persons without dementia and with age- and AD-related cerebral pathology.Methods: We included 85 cognitively normal…

Opiate-induced dopamine release is modulated by severity of alcohol dependence: an [(18)F]fallypride positron emission tomography study.

2011

Background Preclinical data implicate the reinforcing effects of alcohol to be mediated by interaction between the opioid and dopamine systems of the brain. Specifically, alcohol-induced release of β-endorphins stimulates μ-opioid receptors (MORs), which is believed to cause dopamine release in the brain reward system. Individual differences in opioid or dopamine neurotransmission have been suggested to be responsible for enhanced liability to abuse alcohol. In the present study, a single dose of the MOR agonist remifentanil was administered in detoxified alcohol-dependent patients and healthy control subjects to mimic the β-endorphin-releasing properties of ethanol and to assess the effect…

0149: Agonistic anti β3-adrenoceptor antibodies do not affect the β1-adrenoceptor-mediated inotropy and the β3 adrenoceptor-mediated vasorelaxation i…

2014

Cardiac activity of autoantibodies (AABs) directed against β1-adrenoceptor (β1-AR) has been proposed to play an important role in the pathogenesis of dilated cardiomyopathy. Our previous work has shown that the immunization of rats with the second extracellular loop (ECII) of β1-AR induced endothelial dysfunction in aorta and mesenteric arteries. However, until now, no study has explored the cardiovascular effects of β3-AABs alone or combined with β1-AABs.AimTo evaluate whether β3-AABs possess β3-AR agonistic effect and whether active immunization producing β3-AABs and/or β1-AABs has deleterious effects on cardiac and vascular reactivity in Lewis rats.MethodsLewis rats were immunized for 3 …

The Transcription Factor T-bet Is Induced by IL-15 and Thymic Agonist Selection and Controls CD8αα+ Intraepithelial Lymphocyte Development

2014

Summary CD8αα + intraepithelial lymphocytes (IELs) are instrumental in maintaining the epithelial barrier in the intestine. Similar to natural killer cells and other innate lymphoid cells, CD8αα + IELs constitutively express the T-box transcription factor T-bet. However, the precise role of T-bet for the differentiation or function of IELs is unknown. Here we show that mice genetically deficient for T-bet lacked both TCRαβ + and TCRγδ + CD8αα + IELs and thus are more susceptible to chemically induced colitis. Although T-bet was induced in thymic IEL precursors (IELPs) as a result of agonist selection and interleukin-15 (IL-15) receptor signaling, it was dispensable for the generation of IEL…