Associations of the Harvard Automated Phone Task and Alzheimer's Disease Pathology in Cognitively Normal Older Adults: Preliminary Findings.

Background: Detecting clinically meaningful changes in instrumental activities of daily living (IADL) at the earliest stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is critical.

Objective: The objective of this exploratory study was to examine the cross-sectional relationship between a performance-based IADL test, the Harvard Automated Phone Task (APT), and cerebral tau and amyloid burden in cognitively normal (CN) older adults.

Methods: Seventy-seven CN participants underwent flortaucipir tau and Pittsburgh Compound B amyloid PET.

A Glitch in the Matrix: The Role of Extracellular Matrix Remodeling in Opioid Use Disorder.

Opioid use disorder (OUD) and deaths from drug overdoses have reached unprecedented levels. Given the enormous impact of the opioid crisis on public health, a more thorough, in-depth understanding of the consequences of opioids on the brain is required to develop novel interventions and pharmacological therapeutics. In the brain, the effects of opioids are far reaching, from genes to cells, synapses, circuits, and ultimately behavior.

Elevated striatal glutamate + glutamine in recreational cannabis users during abstinence.

Cannabis withdrawal symptoms contribute to relapse, but the underlying mechanism remains unclear. We hypothesize that cannabis withdrawal may be associated with a reset of regional γ-amino butyric acid (GABA) and glutamate concentrations secondary to changes in the endocannabinoid system during abstinence and conducted a study on this issue. We used magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) to detect the associated changes of these neurochemicals in twenty-six frequent, recreational cannabis users and eleven age-matched non-using controls.

Pathological correlates of impaired self-awareness of memory function in Alzheimer's disease.

Introduction: Impaired self-awareness of memory function, a.k.a.

Stress, resilience, and coping strategies in a sample of community-dwelling older adults during COVID-19.

Assessing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on perceived stress in older adults is critical to understanding how to best support elderly individuals navigating stressful situations, with the aim to lessen the impact of stressors on their brain health. Here, we collected measures on perceived stress, resilience, and behavioral coping strategies, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, in a cross-sectional sample of 141 community dwelling older adults (mean age = 74.4 ± 8.

Recreational cannabis use impairs driving performance in the absence of acute intoxication.

Background: Across the nation, growing numbers of individuals are exploring the use of cannabis for medical or recreational purposes, and the proportion of cannabis-positive drivers involved in fatal crashes increased from 8 percent in 2013 to 17 percent in 2014, raising concerns about the impact of cannabis use on driving. Previous studies have demonstrated that cannabis use is associated with impaired driving performance, but thus far, research has primarily focused on the effects of acute intoxication.

Methods: The current study assessed the potential impact of cannabis use on driving performance using a customized driving simulator in non-intoxicated, heavy, recreational cannabis users and healthy controls (HCs) without a history of cannabis use.