All-cause and AIDS-related mortality among people with HIV across Europe from 2001 to 2020: impact of antiretroviral therapy, tuberculosis and regional differences in a multicentre cohort study.

Background: All-cause and AIDS-mortality in Europe has been decreasing between 1996 and 2020. However, regional differences as well as their drivers remain unclear. This study investigates mortality differences and their drivers, including usage of and response to antiretroviral therapy (ART) and active tuberculosis (TB), among people with HIV across Europe.

[Case volume and complications after thyroid gland surgery in Germany: an analysis of routine data from 48,387 AOK patients].

Background: Many studies showed that hospital and surgeon volume have a significant influence on the complication rates of thyroid surgery. The present study investigates whether this relationship applies in subtotal as well as total lobe resections. Furthermore, it is still unclear which threshold for the hospital-related case volume can be determined, above which the risk of complications lies below the current national average.

Feasibility of an at-home, web-based, interactive exercise program for older adults.

Introduction: Increased physical exercise is linked to enhanced brain health and reduced dementia risk. Exercise intervention studies usually are conducted at facilities in groups under trainer supervision. To improve scalability, accessibility, and engagement, programs may need to be structured such that individuals can execute and adjust routines in their own homes.

Differential Effects of Physical Exercise, Cognitive Training, and Mindfulness Practice on Serum BDNF Levels in Healthy Older Adults: A Randomized Controlled Intervention Study.

Previous studies have indicated that an active lifestyle is associated with better brain health and a longer life, compared to a more sedentary lifestyle. These studies, both on human and animal subjects, have typically focused on a single activity, usually physical exercise, but other activities have received an increasing interest. One proposed mechanism is that physical exercise increases levels of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the brain.

Markers of Novelty Processing in Older Adults Are Stable and Reliable.

Exploratory behavior and responsiveness to novelty play an important role in maintaining cognitive function in older adults. Inferences about age- or disease-related differences in neural and behavioral responses to novelty are most often based on results from single experimental testing sessions. There has been very limited research on whether such findings represent stable characteristics of populations studied, which is essential if investigators are to determine the result of interventions aimed at promoting exploratory behaviors or draw appropriate conclusions about differences in the processing of novelty across diverse clinical groups.

Is Computerized Working Memory Training Effective in Healthy Older Adults? Evidence from a Multi-Site, Randomized Controlled Trial.

Background: Developing effective interventions to attenuate age-related cognitive decline and prevent or delay the onset of dementia are major public health goals. Computerized cognitive training (CCT) has been marketed increasingly to older adults, but its efficacy remains unclear. Working memory (WM), a key determinant of higher order cognitive abilities, is susceptible to age-related decline and a relevant target for CCT in elders.

[Speech therapy after thyroid gland operations in Germany: analysis of routine data from 50,676 AOK patients].

Background: This study investigated the frequency of postoperative speech therapy in the context of vocal cord palsy after thyroid surgery based on nationwide routine data. Additionally, volume-outcome relationships were examined.

Material And Methods: Nationwide routine data from insured patients of the Local Health Insurance Fund (AOK) who underwent thyroid surgery for a benign thyroid disease between 2013 and 2015 were analyzed.

Task-Irrelevant Novel Sounds have Antithetical Effects on Visual Target Processing in Young and Old Adults.

In young adults, primary visual task processing can be either enhanced or disrupted by novel auditory stimuli preceding target events, depending on task demands. Little is known about this phenomenon in older individuals, who, in general, are more susceptible to distraction. In the current study, age-related differences in the electrophysiological effects of task-irrelevant auditory stimuli on visual target processing were examined.

Changes in Neural Activity Underlying Working Memory after Computerized Cognitive Training in Older Adults.

Computerized cognitive training (CCT) may counter the impact of aging on cognition, but both the efficacy and neurocognitive mechanisms underlying CCT remain controversial. In this study, 35 older individuals were randomly assigned to Cogmed adaptive working memory (WM) CCT or an active control CCT, featuring five weeks of five ∼40 min sessions per week. Before and after the 5-week intervention, event-related potentials were measured while subjects completed a visual n-back task with three levels of demand (0-back, 1-back, 2-back).

Increased Early Processing of Task-Irrelevant Auditory Stimuli in Older Adults.

The inhibitory deficit hypothesis of cognitive aging posits that older adults' inability to adequately suppress processing of irrelevant information is a major source of cognitive decline. Prior research has demonstrated that in response to task-irrelevant auditory stimuli there is an age-associated increase in the amplitude of the N1 wave, an ERP marker of early perceptual processing. Here, we tested predictions derived from the inhibitory deficit hypothesis that the age-related increase in N1 would be 1) observed under an auditory-ignore, but not auditory-attend condition, 2) attenuated in individuals with high executive capacity (EC), and 3) augmented by increasing cognitive load of the primary visual task.

Increasing Working Memory Load Reduces Processing of Cross-Modal Task-Irrelevant Stimuli Even after Controlling for Task Difficulty and Executive Capacity.

The classic account of the load theory (LT) of attention suggests that increasing cognitive load leads to greater processing of task-irrelevant stimuli due to competition for limited executive resource that reduces the ability to actively maintain current processing priorities. Studies testing this hypothesis have yielded widely divergent outcomes. The inconsistent results may, in part, be related to variability in executive capacity (EC) and task difficulty across subjects in different studies.

[Complications after thyroid gland operations in Germany : A routine data analysis of 66,902 AOK patients].

Background: Routine data from hospitals in the public healthcare system allow the analysis of large patient datasets without generating additional documentation efforts for hospitals. This study reports the frequencies of postoperative complications after thyroid surgery based on routine nationwide data. Moreover, volume-outcome relationships were investigated.

One of the most well-established age-related changes in neural activity disappears after controlling for visual acuity.

Numerous studies using a variety of imaging techniques have reported age-related differences in neural activity while subjects carry out cognitive tasks. Surprisingly little attention has been paid to the potential impact of age-associated changes in sensory acuity on these findings. Studies in the visual modality frequently report that their subjects had "normal or corrected- to-normal vision.

Investigating age-related changes in anterior and posterior neural activity throughout the information processing stream.

Event-related potential (ERP) and other functional imaging studies often demonstrate age-related increases in anterior neural activity and decreases in posterior activity while subjects carry out task demands. It remains unclear whether this "anterior shift" is limited to late cognitive operations like those indexed by the P3 component, or is evident during other stages of information processing. The temporal resolution of ERPs provided an opportunity to address this issue.

In vivo evidence for neuroplasticity in older adults.

Neuroplasticity can be conceptualized as an intrinsic property of the brain that enables modification of function and structure in response to environmental demands. Neuroplastic strengthening of synapses is believed to serve as a critical mechanism underlying learning, memory, and other cognitive functions. Ex vivo work investigating neuroplasticity has been done on hippocampal slices using high frequency stimulation.

Age-related differences in early novelty processing: using PCA to parse the overlapping anterior P2 and N2 components.

Previous work demonstrated age-associated increases in the anterior P2 and age-related decreases in the anterior N2 in response to novel stimuli. Principal component analysis (PCA) was used to determine if the inverse relationship between these components was due to their temporal and spatial overlap. PCA revealed an early anterior P2, sensitive to task relevance, and a late anterior P2, responsive to novelty, both exhibiting age-related amplitude increases.