Engaging older adults in the process of aging research: a multimethod study evaluating the experience and efficacy of a citizen advisory group for a dementia risk reduction program.

Background: Collaborative research with end-users is an effective way to generate meaningful research applications and support greater impact on practice and knowledge exchange. To address these needs, a Citizen Advisory Group (CAG) of nine older adults (ages 64-80, 67% women) was formed to advise scientists on the development of Brain Health PRO (BHPro), a web-based platform designed to increase dementia prevention literacy and awareness. The current study evaluated if the CAG met its objectives, how inclusion of the CAG aligned with collaborative research approaches, and the CAG's experience and satisfaction throughout the development process.

Computational modeling of selective attention differentiates subtypes of amnestic mild cognitive impairment.

Individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease and other dementias, show inhibition deficits in addition to episodic memory. How the latent processes of selective attention (i.e.

"The Butcher on the Bus" Is Less Familiar to Older Adults Than She Is to Younger Adults.

Objectives: The "butcher on the bus" is a term describing recognizing someone as familiar but failing to recollect how we know them. Previous studies probing this phenomenon have not used paradigms that mimic real life, and age-related differences have not been adequately addressed.

Methods: In two studies, younger and older adults studied faces in scene contexts a variable number of times.

Face naming and recollection represent key memory deficits in developmental prosopagnosia.

Previous studies have found that face perception deficits do not fully account for the severity of face recognition deficits in developmental prosopagnosia (DP). Researchers have begun identifying deficient memory mechanisms such as impaired face recollection, but these findings require replication, and further characterization of additional memory deficits is necessary. Our goals were to replicate prior findings of face recollection impairment in DP and extend these findings to assess different types of face associative memory.

Better face-name recall is associated with better face recognition ability.

Face recognition is a highly developed and specialised human ability, distinct from other cognitive abilities. Previous studies examining individual differences in face recognition have focused on face perception and specialised perceptual mechanisms such as holistic face processing. However, the contribution of specific face memory processes to face recognition ability remains unclear.

Sex Matters: Association with Superager Classification and Risk Factors.

Superagers are 80 to 89-year-olds with average or better cognition and memory equivalent to individuals 20 to 30 years younger. As sex and modifiable lifestyle/health factors influence cognitive aging and dementia risk, we examined their impact on superager status. Data from participants (n = 469; 67% female) aged 80-89 years old were analyzed from an online database that included demographic and dementia risk factors, and performance on tasks assessing working memory, cognitive inhibition, associative memory, and set shifting.

Impaired perceptual discrimination of complex objects in older adults at risk for dementia.

Tau pathology accumulates in the perirhinal cortex (PRC) of the medial temporal lobe (MTL) during the earliest stages of the Alzheimer's disease (AD), appearing decades before clinical diagnosis. Here, we leveraged perceptual discrimination tasks that target PRC function to detect subtle cognitive impairment even in nominally healthy older adults. Older adults who did not have a clinical diagnosis or subjective memory complaints were categorized into "at-risk" (score <26; n = 15) and "healthy" (score ≥26; n = 23) groups based on their performance on the Montreal Cognitive Assessment.

Effect of High-Intensity Interval Training and Moderate-Intensity Continuous Training in People With Poststroke Gait Dysfunction: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Background: The exercise strategy that yields the greatest improvement in both cardiorespiratory fitness () and walking capacity poststroke has not been determined. This study aimed to determine whether conventional moderate-intensity continuous training (MICT) or high-intensity interval training (HIIT) have different effects on and 6-minute walk distance (6MWD).

Methods And Results: In this 24-week superiority trial, people with poststroke gait dysfunction were randomized to MICT (5 days/week) or HIIT (3 days/week with 2 days/week of MICT).

Using co-creation focus groups to customise a remote multidomain programme designed to increase dementia literacy.

Objectives: To adapt the content and functionalities of a web-based multidomain program designed to increase dementia literacy, to the context and needs of users, providers and community organisations across Québec, Canada.

Design: Five consecutive qualitative co-creation focus group sessions 30-90 min in duration each, exploring potential barriers and facilitators to usability, accessibility, comprehensibility, participant recruitment and retention.

Setting: Virtual meetings.

Nutrition risk and cognitive performance in community-living older adults without cognitive impairment: a cross-sectional analysis of the Canadian Longitudinal Study on Aging.

Malnutrition is correlated with poor cognition; however, an understanding of the association between nutrition risk, which precedes malnutrition, and cognition is lacking. This study aimed to determine if nutrition risk measured with the SCREEN-8 tool is associated with cognitive performance among cognitively healthy adults aged 55+, after adjusting for demographic and lifestyle covariates. Sex- and age-stratified analyses were also explored.

Effect of sex on the APOE4-aging interaction in the white matter microstructure of cognitively normal older adults using diffusion-tensor MRI with orthogonal-tensor decomposition (DT-DOME).

The influence of the apolipoprotein E ε4 allele (APOE4) on brain microstructure of cognitively normal older adults remains incompletely understood, in part due to heterogeneity within study populations. In this study, we examined white-matter microstructural integrity in cognitively normal older adults as a function of APOE4 carrier status using conventional diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) and the novel orthogonal-tensor decomposition (DT-DOME), accounting for the effects of age and sex. Age associations with white-matter microstructure did not significantly depend on APOE4 status, but did differ between sexes, emphasizing the importance of accounting for sex differences in APOE research.

Strategy-training post-stroke via tele-rehabilitation: a pilot randomized controlled trial.

Purpose: Long-term limitations in social participation are common after stroke. Whether these can be attenuated through a tele-rehabilitation approach is unknown. We were particularly interested in examining transfer of learning effects which could result in broader improvements in social participation.

Time of Day Effects on Inhibitory Functioning: Cognitive and Neural Evidence of Sundowning in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment.

Background: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a prodromal phase of Alzheimer's disease (AD), is characterized by episodic memory dysfunction, but inhibitory deficits have also been commonly reported. Time of day (TOD) effects have been confirmed in 1) healthy aging on cognitive processes such as inhibitory control, and 2) on behavior in AD (termed the sundowning effect), but no such research has addressed aMCI.

Objective: The present study examined the impact of TOD on the behavioral and electrophysiological correlates of inhibition in 54 individuals with aMCI and 52 healthy controls (HCs), all of morning chronotype.

The Role of the Gut Microbiome in Diet and Exercise Effects on Cognition: A Review of the Intervention Literature.

Interest in the gut-brain axis and its implications for neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease and related dementias, is growing. Microbial imbalances in the gastrointestinal tract, which are associated with impaired cognition, may represent a therapeutic target for lowering dementia risk. Multicomponent lifestyle interventions are a promising dementia risk reduction strategy and most often include diet and exercise, behaviors that are also known to modulate the gut microbiome.

The adverse effect of modifiable dementia risk factors on cognition amplifies across the adult lifespan.

Background: Reversible lifestyle behaviors (modifiable risk factors) can reduce dementia risk by 40%, but their prevalence and association with cognition throughout the adult lifespan is less well understood.

Methods: The associations between the number of modifiable risk factors for dementia (low education, hypertension, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, alcohol or substance abuse, diabetes, smoking, and depression) and cognition were examined in an online sample ( = 22,117, ages 18-89).

Findings: Older adults (ages 66-89) had more risk factors than middle-aged (ages 45-65) and younger adults (ages 18-44).

Familiarity Deficits for Words and Objects in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment in a Context Minimizing the Role of Recollection.

Objectives: Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is associated with cortical thinning in perirhinal and entorhinal cortices, key regions of the brain supporting familiarity. Individuals with aMCI demonstrate familiarity deficits in their behavior, often repeating questions in the same conversation. While familiarity deficits in healthy aging are minimal, past studies measuring familiarity in aMCI have mixed results, perhaps due to the influence of recollection.

Sex differences and modifiable dementia risk factors synergistically influence memory over the adult lifespan.

Introduction: More women than men develop Alzheimer's disease, yet women perform better and show less decline on episodic memory measures, a contradiction that may be accounted for by modifiable risk factors for dementia.

Methods: Associations among age, sex, modifiable dementia risk factors, and cognition were measured in a cross-sectional online sample (= 21,840, ages 18 to 89).

Results: Across four tests of associative memory and executive functions, only a Face-Name Association task revealed sex differences in associative memory that varied by age.

The Effects of Aging and Time of Day on Inhibitory Control: An Event-Related Potential Study.

Time of day (TOD) influences on executive functions have been widely reported, with greater efficiency demonstrated at optimal relative to non-optimal TOD according to one's chronotype (i.e., synchrony effect).

The potential roles of excitatory-inhibitory imbalances and the repressor element-1 silencing transcription factor in aging and aging-associated diseases.

Disruptions to the central excitatory-inhibitory (E/I) balance are thought to be related to aging and underlie a host of neural pathologies, including Alzheimer's disease. Aging may induce an increase in excitatory signaling, causing an E/I imbalance, which has been linked to shorter lifespans in mice, flies, and worms. In humans, extended longevity correlates to greater repression of genes involved in excitatory neurotransmission.

Interindividual and intraindividual variability in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) measured with an online cognitive assessment.

Introduction: Mean cognitive performance is worse in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) compared to control groups. However, studies on variability of cognitive performance in aMCI have yielded inconclusive results, with many differences in variability measures and samples from one study to another.

Methods: We examined variability in aMCI using an existing older adult sample ( = 91; 51 with aMCI, 40 with normal cognition for age), measured with an online self-administered computerized cognitive assessment (Cogniciti's Brain Health Assessment).