A combination cocktail improves spatial attention in a canine model of human aging and Alzheimer's disease.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) involves multiple pathological processes in the brain, including increased inflammation and oxidative damage, as well as the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) plaques. We hypothesized that a combinatorial therapeutic approach to target these multiple pathways may provide cognitive and neuropathological benefits for AD patients. To test this hypothesis, we used a canine model of human aging and AD.

Learning ability in aged beagle dogs is preserved by behavioral enrichment and dietary fortification: a two-year longitudinal study.

The effectiveness of two interventions, dietary fortification with antioxidants and a program of behavioral enrichment, was assessed in a longitudinal study of cognitive aging in beagle dogs. A baseline protocol of cognitive testing was used to select four cognitively equivalent groups: control food-control experience (C-C), control food-enriched experience (C-E), antioxidant fortified food-control experience (A-C), and antioxidant fortified food-enriched experience(A-E). We also included two groups of young behaviorally enriched dogs, one receiving the control food and the other the fortified food.

Concept abstraction in the aging dog: development of a protocol using successive discrimination and size concept tasks.

The present study examined the effects of age on concept learning in beagle dogs. In experiment one, subjects were tested on a series of 2-choice size discrimination (2CSD) tasks, in which the correct response was to always approach the larger or smaller of the two blocks. Compared to old and senior dogs, young and middle-aged dogs solved the initial training subtest faster and were more successful at transferring this learning to subsequent tests.

Long-term treatment with antioxidants and a program of behavioral enrichment reduces age-dependent impairment in discrimination and reversal learning in beagle dogs.

The effects of long-term treatment with both antioxidants and a program of behavioral enrichment were studied as part of a longitudinal investigation of cognitive aging in beagle dogs. Baseline performance on a battery of cognitive tests was used to assign 48 aged dogs (9-12 years) into four cognitively equivalent groups, of 12 animals per group: Group CC (control food-control environment), group CE (control food-enriched environment); Group AC (antioxidant fortified food-control environment); Group AE (fortified food-enriched environment). We also tested a group of young dogs fed the control food and a second group fed the fortified food.