Psychosocial stress associated with memory performance in older South African adults.

Older adults with past or current chronic stress exposure perform poorly on memory assessments and are at higher risk for Alzheimer's disease (AD). In low- or middle-income countries, many older adults are, or have been, exposed to stress-provoking events. Few published studies examine such populations, however, and few take multiple measures of stress.

Associations between CAMCOG-R subscale performance and formal education attainment in South African older adults.

ABSTRACT Background: The Cambridge Cognitive Examination-Revised (CAMCOG-R) is a sensitive screening tool for the early diagnosis of dementia in older adults. Overall performance on the CAMCOG-R is influenced by educational attainment. Few studies have, however, examined the association between educational attainment and performance on the individual CAMCOG subscales.

The impact of voluntary exercise on relative telomere length in a rat model of developmental stress.

Background: Exposure to early adverse events can result in the development of later psychopathology, and is often associated with cognitive impairment. This may be due to accelerated cell aging, which can be catalogued by attritioned telomeres. Exercise enhances neurogenesis and has been proposed to buffer the effect of psychological stress on telomere length.

Effect of exercise on learning and memory in a rat model of developmental stress.

Adverse life events occurring in early development can result in long-term effects on behavioural, physiological and cognitive processes. In particular, perinatal stressors impair neurogenesis in the hippocampus which consequently impairs memory formation. Exercise has previously been shown to have antidepressant effects and to increase cognitive functioning by increasing neurogenesis and neurotrophins in the hippocampus.

Effect of exercise on synaptophysin and calcium/calmodulin-dependent protein kinase levels in prefrontal cortex and hippocampus of a rat model of developmental stress.

Stress affects the brain differently depending on the timing, duration and intensity of the stressor. Separation from the dam for 3 h per day is a potent stressor for rat pups which causes activation of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, evidenced by increased plasma levels of adrenocorticotropin (ACTH) and glucocorticoids. Behaviourally, animals display anxiety-like behaviour while structurally, changes occur in neuronal dendrites and spines in the hippocampus and prefrontal regions involved in emotion and behaviour control.