Feasibility of implementing immersive and non-interactive virtual reality interventions in elderly populations: A scoping review.

Introduction: The rapid growth of the elderly population underscores the need for affordable and easy-to-implement elderly care interventions. While virtual reality (VR) interventions show promising results, the feasibility of implementing non-interactive VR in elderly populations is under-researched.

Objectives: This scoping review investigates preconceptions, practical and economic barriers, and health and safety risks associated with implementing non-interactive VR interventions in elderly populations.

The Potential of Immersive Virtual Reality for Cognitive Training in Elderly.

The number of elderly is growing rapidly, including those that struggle with cognitive decline and, consequently, activities of daily living. Developing interventions that slow down cognitive decline would greatly benefit the autonomy of these elderly, as well as their caretakers. Virtual reality (VR) is an immersive and interactive human-computer interface with real-time simulation that is suggested to be a promising tool to improve cognitive functioning.

Potential Adverse Effects of Violent Video Gaming: Interpersonal- Affective Traits Are Rather Impaired Than Disinhibition in Young Adults.

The increasing trend of mass shootings, which were associated with excessive use of violent video games, fueled the debate of possible effects violent video games may have on adolescents and young adults. The aim of this study was to investigate the possible link between violent video gaming effects and the disposition of adverse behavior traits such as interpersonal-affective deficits and disinhibition. Data of 167 young adults, collected by an online questionnaire battery, were analyzed for lifetime video game exposure differences (i.

The Test Your Memory (TYM) Test Outperforms the MMSE in the Detection of MCI and Dementia.

Objective: The aim of this study was to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy and clinical usability of a Dutch translation of the Test Your Memory (TYM) test in patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and dementia as compared to the Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), in the setting of the memory clinic of a general hospital.

Methods: Fourty-two participants referred to the memory clinic with memory problems and fourty-two healthy controls were assessed using the TYM and the MMSE. We evaluated the sensitivity, specificity and diagnostic accuracy of the TYM and MMSE.

Presence of tissue transglutaminase in granular endoplasmic reticulum is characteristic of melanized neurons in Parkinson's disease brain.

Parkinson's disease (PD) is characterized by the accumulation of α-synuclein aggregates and degeneration of melanized neurons. The tissue transglutaminase (tTG) enzyme catalyzes molecular protein cross-linking. In PD brain, tTG-induced cross-links have been identified in α-synuclein monomers, oligomers and α-synuclein aggregates.

Enhanced sensitivity of dopaminergic neurons to rotenone-induced toxicity with aging.

Rotenone has been reported to induce various degrees of Parkinsonism in rats. We tested whether advancing age alters the sensitivity of dopaminergic neurons to rotenone. A low, systemic dose of rotenone had no effect on young rats, but led to a 20-30% reduction of tyrosine hydroxylase-positive neurons in the substantia nigra of older rats.

Pinhole SPECT imaging of dopamine transporters correlates with dopamine transporter immunohistochemical analysis in the MPTP mouse model of Parkinson's disease.

The in vivo analysis of dopaminergic degeneration in animal models of Parkinson's disease (PD), using pinhole single photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), ideally should afford a serial study design, enabling the analysis of the degenerative process as well as the potential neuroprotective and/or restorative properties of drugs over time in living animals. Previously, we demonstrated that striatal dopamine transporter (DAT) levels in rats could be analyzed reproducibly, using pinhole SPECT with the DAT probe [(123)I]N-omega-fluoropropyl-2beta-carbomethoxy-3beta-{4-iodophenyl}nortropane (FP-CIT). However, the capacity of this approach to accurately detect a range of striatal DAT levels in the most widely used animal model of PD, i.

Dendritic cell-induced activation of adaptive and innate antitumor immunity.

While studying Ag-pulsed syngeneic dendritic cell (DC) immunization, we discovered that surprisingly, unpulsed DCs induced protection against tumor lung metastases resulting from i.v. injection of a syngeneic BALB/c colon carcinoma CT26 or a syngeneic C57BL/6 lung carcinoma LL/2.

Mapping of rat brain using the Synuclein-1 monoclonal antibody reveals somatodendritic expression of alpha-synuclein in populations of neurons homologous to those vulnerable to Lewy body formation in human synucleopathies.

The neuronal protein alpha-synuclein has been implicated in the pathogenesis of Parkinson disease and other neurodegenerative diseases. Although many studies report that alpha-synuclein expression is restricted to neuronal presynaptic terminals, this protein aggregates in Lewy bodies in somata that are typically distant from their axon terminals. Few studies have addressed this paradox and there has been no compelling explanation proposed for the apparent discrepancy between the locus of neuronal alpha-synuclein expression and the loci of Lewy bodies in the majority of Parkinson disease cases.

TCH346 prevents motor symptoms and loss of striatal FDOPA uptake in bilaterally MPTP-treated primates.

The neuroprotective efficacy of the propargylamine TCH346 was studied in the primate model of Parkinson's disease, the bilaterally MPTP-treated monkey. Male rhesus monkeys received 2.5 mg MPTP into the left carotid artery and, 8 weeks later, 1.