Investigating the brain's neurochemical profile at midlife in relation to dementia risk factors.

Changes in the brain's physiology in Alzheimer's disease are thought to occur early in the disease's trajectory. In this study our aim was to investigate the brain's neurochemical profile in a midlife cohort in relation to risk factors for future dementia using single voxel proton magnetic resonance spectroscopy. Participants in the multi-site PREVENT-Dementia study (age range 40-59 year old) underwent 3T magnetic resonance spectroscopy with the spectroscopy voxel placed in the posterior cingulate/precuneus region.

Intact pain modulation through manipulation of controllability and expectations in aging.

Background: Pain expectation and controllability can modulate pain processing. However, little is known about age-related effects on these cognitive factors involved in pain control. This study assessed age-related brain changes associated with pain expectation and controllability.

The revised Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination can facilitate differentiation of dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer's disease.

Objectives: Dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) is a major cause of degenerative dementia, yet the diagnosis is often missed or mistaken for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We assessed whether the revised Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (ACE-R), a brief test for dementia, differentiates DLB from AD.

Methods: We first compared baseline ACE-R performance in 76 individuals with DLB, 40 individuals with AD and 66 healthy controls.

Selective attention impairment in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Objective of this study was to evaluate attentional control mechanisms in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using an auditory event-related potentials (ERPs) paradigm. Fifteen mild to moderate ALS patients and 15 healthy controls were administered a brief neuropsychological test battery and an ERPs paradigm assessing selective attention. Four types of auditory stimuli were presented in random order: short standard (200 Hz, 200 ms), long standard (200 Hz, 500 ms), short deviant (1000 Hz, 200 ms) and long deviant (1000 Hz, 500 ms).