Human adult neurogenesis loss corresponds with cognitive decline during epilepsy progression.

Mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (MTLE) is a syndromic disorder presenting with seizures and cognitive comorbidities. Although seizure etiology is increasingly understood, the pathophysiological mechanisms contributing to cognitive decline and epilepsy progression remain less recognized. We have previously shown that adult hippocampal neurogenesis dramatically declines in MTLE patients with increased disease duration.

The Power of Play: Examining the Impact of a School Yard Playground on Attitudes Toward School and Peer Relationships Among Elementary School Students in Chennai, India.

School environments may impact elementary school students' attachment levels to school as well as their mental and emotional well-being. Yet investments in recess/play infrastructure lag commitments to academic resources, particularly in developing countries. The main objective was to examine the impact of installing playground equipment, in the school yard, on students' attitudes toward school, peers, and the capacity to play of elementary-school children in an underserved, inner-city school in Chennai, India.

Brain delivery of supplemental docosahexaenoic acid (DHA): A randomized placebo-controlled clinical trial.

Background: Past clinical trials of docosahexaenoic Acid (DHA) supplements for the prevention of Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia have used lower doses and have been largely negative. We hypothesized that larger doses of DHA are needed for adequate brain bioavailability and that APOE4 is associated with reduced delivery of DHA and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) to the brain before the onset of cognitive impairment.

Methods: 33 individuals were provided with a vitamin B complex (1 mg vitamin B12, 100 mg of vitamin B6 and 800 mcg of folic acid per day) and randomized to 2,152 mg of DHA per day or placebo over 6 months.

Cognitive effects of estradiol after menopause: A randomized trial of the timing hypothesis.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that effects of estrogen-containing hormone therapy on cognitive abilities differ between postmenopausal women near to, and further from, menopause.

Methods: In this randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, healthy women within 6 years of menopause or 10+ years after menopause were randomly assigned to oral 17β-estradiol 1 mg/d or placebo. Women with a uterus received cyclic micronized progesterone vaginal gel or placebo.

Associations between urine excretion of isoflavonoids and cognition in postmenopausal women in the Women's Isoflavone Soy Health clinical trial.

Objectives: To determine effect of change in urine excretion of isoflavonoids on cognitive change.

Design: Post hoc analysis of isoflavonoid exposure (mean 2.7 years) during the randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind Women's Isoflavone Soy Health trial.

Cognition, mood, and physiological concentrations of sex hormones in the early and late postmenopause.

Variations in the hormonal milieu after menopause may influence neural processes concerned with cognition, cognitive aging, and mood, but findings are inconsistent. In particular, cognitive effects of estradiol may vary with time since menopause, but this prediction has not been assessed directly using serum hormone concentrations. We studied 643 healthy postmenopausal women not using hormone therapy who were recruited into early (<6 y after menopause) and late (10+ y after menopause) groups.

Longitudinal verbal fluency in normal aging, preclinical, and prevalent Alzheimer's disease.

Background: Few longitudinal studies evaluate differences in patterns of change of category compared to letter fluency across the spectrum of cognitive impairment.

Methods: We compared change in category (animal and supermarket) and letter (F, A, S) fluency among 239 participants in 3 groups: remained cognitively normal throughout follow-up (n = 96), developed Alzheimer's Disease (AD; preclinical AD, n = 21), and with AD at initial testing (prevalent AD, n = 122).

Results: At baseline, prevalent and preclinical AD groups scored lower on animal than letter fluency.

Transcriptome analysis of synaptoneurosomes identifies neuroplasticity genes overexpressed in incipient Alzheimer's disease.

In Alzheimer's disease (AD), early deficits in learning and memory are a consequence of synaptic modification induced by toxic beta-amyloid oligomers (oAbeta). To identify immediate molecular targets downstream of oAbeta binding, we prepared synaptoneurosomes from prefrontal cortex of control and incipient AD (IAD) patients, and isolated mRNAs for comparison of gene expression. This novel approach concentrates synaptic mRNA, thereby increasing the ratio of synaptic to somal mRNA and allowing discrimination of expression changes in synaptically localized genes.

Mildly elevated TSH and cognition in middle-aged and older adults.

Background: It is accepted that markedly elevated thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels are associated with impaired cognitive function. However, the findings regarding the association between mildly elevated TSH levels and cognition are equivocal. The objective of this study was to assess the relation between TSH levels in the normal to mildly elevated range (0.

Subclinical atherosclerosis is weakly associated with lower cognitive function in healthy hyperhomocysteinemic adults without clinical cardiovascular disease.

Objective: Atherosclerosis is the most common pathologic process underlying cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is not well known whether subclinical atherosclerosis is an independent risk factor for lower cognitive function among individuals without clinically evident CVD.

Methods: We examined cross-sectional associations between subclinical atherosclerosis and cognitive function in a community-based sample of otherwise healthy adults with plasma homocysteine >or=8.

Metabolic syndrome and cognitive function in healthy middle-aged and older adults without diabetes.

Objective: Few studies have addressed whether the metabolic syndrome (MetS) and its individual components are associated with cognitive function in middle-aged and older populations, as well as whether specific areas of cognition are more affected than others. We examined the cross-sectional association between MetS and six areas of cognitive function in healthy cognitively intact adults without diabetes (n = 853, mean age 61 years) randomized in two intervention trials.

Methods: The National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria were used to identify subjects with MetS.

Performance on the CERAD Word List Memory task: a comparison of university-based and community-based groups.

Background: Evaluation of patients for Alzheimer's disease often compares an individual's performance on cognitive tests to established norms. The purpose of this study was to compare performance on the CERAD Word List Memory tasks in normal controls from an Alzheimer's disease registry and in community volunteers.

Methods: Scores on Word List Memory tasks were evaluated in cognitively intact participants enrolled in a university-based Alzheimer's disease registry (n=103) and in a sample of community volunteers (n=51).