Audio-visual concert performances synchronize audience's heart rates.

People enjoy engaging with music. Live music concerts provide an excellent option to investigate real-world music experiences, and at the same time, use neurophysiological synchrony to assess dynamic engagement. In the current study, we assessed engagement in a live concert setting using synchrony of cardiorespiratory measures, comparing inter-subject, stimulus-response, correlation, and phase coherence.

Alpha-Glucosidase Inhibitors in Aging and Aging-Related Diseases: Clinical Applications and Relevant Mechanisms.

Aging is a complex and universal process marked by gradual functional declines at the cellular and tissue levels, often leading to a range of aging-related diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Delaying the aging process can help prevent, slow down, and alleviate the severity of these various conditions, enhancing overall health and well-being. Alpha-glucosidase inhibitors (AGIs) are a class of widely used antidiabetic drugs that inhibit alpha-glucosidase in the small intestinal mucosa, delaying carbohydrate absorption and reducing postprandial hyperglycemia.

The economic burden of diabetes in spinal fusion surgery: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Purpose: This study aimed at comparing the costs of spinal fusion surgery between patients with and without diabetes.

Methods: Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic search of four databases was conducted. A meta-analysis was performed on comparative studies examining diabetic versus non-diabetic adults undergoing cervical/lumbar fusion in terms of cost.

Professional Development Among African Oncologists: Examining Professional Development Activities, Satisfaction Levels, Barriers, and Enablers.

Africa is currently facing unprecedented growth in its cancer burden. Training an adequate number of skilled physicians is critical to addressing this challenge. We examine African oncology faculty's professional development (PD) activities, associated barriers, enablers, satisfaction levels, and highlight the implications for improving the quality of the oncology faculty workforce in SSA.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: White matter hyperintensities (WMH) are commonly observed on MRI in Alzheimer's disease (AD), but the molecular pathways underlying their relationships with the ATN biomarkers remain unclear. The aim of this study was to identify genetic variants that may modify the relationship between WMH and the ATN biomarkers.

Method: This genome-wide interaction study (GWIS) included individuals with AD, MCI, and normal cognition from ADNI (n = 1012).

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: A growing body of research has focused on inflammation as both a potential biomarker and a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The cytokine Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is involved in the pathogenesis of inflammatory disorders and in the physiological homeostasis of neural tissue. AD has been associated with increased IL-6 expression in brain, however, increased levels of IL-6 have also been linked to conditions such as diabetes and hypertension.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Drug discovery efforts in neurological diseases, such as Alzheimer's disease (AD), have had particularly poor outcomes due to the lack of models that capture the cerebral vasculature. There is an unmet need to develop models that capture the physiological challenge of overcoming the blood-brain barrier (BBB) and impacts of blood flow-induced shear stress. In this work, we use a microfluidic platform to model the cerebral vasculature in familial AD (fAD) using patient-derived brain endothelial-like cells (BECs) and neurons.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Autosomal dominant progranulin (GRN) mutations are a common genetic cause of frontotemporal lobar degeneration. Though clinical trials for GRN-related therapies are underway, there is an unmet need for biomarkers that can predict symptom onset and track disease progression. We previously showed that presymptomatic GRN carriers exhibit thalamocortical hyperconnectivity that increases with age when they are presumably closer to symptom onset.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Dysregulation of endolysosomal trafficking is a major pathogenic mechanism in Alzheimer's disease (AD). From the family of AD-linked endosomal pathway genes, SORL1 stands out as one of the highest risk factors. SORL1 encodes an endocytic sorting receptor that mediates endosomal trafficking and processing of key AD-associated molecules, including pathogenic forms of amyloid-β (e.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Intracellular accumulation of tau tangles in the brain is one of the most prominent manifestations of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Progression thereof across the AD stages has specific temporal and spatial patterns, wherein time is informative of space and vice versa. Here we introduce a novel method, Manifold Component Analysis (MCA), to represent tangle accumulation in 2D, reflecting the spatial aspect of tau propagation stages to further relate it to the temporal aspect thereof.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: The endocannabinoid system has demonstrated roles in Alzheimer's Disease (AD), such as modulation of inflammation. Fatty Acid Amide Hydrolase (FAAH) is the enzyme responsible for the rapid inactivation of the endocannabinoid anandamide into arachidonic acid and ethanolamine. In doing so, FAAH modulates the concentration of anandamide and influences neurobehavioral functions and physiological conditions such as nociception and inflammatory responses.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Globally, females are at twice the risk of AD than males; in Canada, over 700,000 are living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementia (ADRDs), with 72% being female. However, females maintain verbal memory in the face of more AD pathology than men. It is unclear how multilingualism, considered a resilience factor, might interact with the risk and resilience of sex.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Parkinson's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies are more common in men, while Alzheimer's disease (AD) is more common in women. Lewy body disease (LBD) and AD pathologies are highly comorbid and may be mechanistically linked. It remains unclear whether LBD and AD co-pathology manifest differently across sexes.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Previous literature has highlighted that excessive alcohol use (EAU) is directly linked with permanent neurological damage. Studies have also highlighted gradual improvements in heart rate variability (HRV) after cessation of alcohol use. Moreover, chronic alcohol consumption has also been correlated with reduced HRV and an increase in skin conductance (SC) among healthy adults, leading to a combined decline in cognitive performance.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) presents with heterogeneous neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS). These symptoms often begin prior to the onset of FTD, and progress throughout the prodromal stages of FTD. Particularly, familial FTD due to autosomal dominant genetic mutations might display mutation-specific NPS profiles.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: The Clinical Dementia Rating Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB) is a widely used measurement score to stage dementia severity; it has become one of the most common outcome measurements in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) research. The CDR-SB requires an informant to provide information to stage a patient's dementia severity. The effect of the informant's characteristics including sex and relationship with patients on the CDR-SB is unknown.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Depression affects individuals across various ages but is of significance in the older surgical population due to its adverse impact on cognitive function, surgical recovery, and overall functional disability. This study aimed to determine the overall prevalence and trajectory of depression in older surgical patients preoperatively, and at 30-, 90- and 180-days postoperatively.

Method: This study is a prespecified sub-study and analysis of the Postoperative Functional Disability in Unrecognized Cognitive Impairment Study.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Automated analysis of natural speech is emerging as a promising digital biomarker of Alzheimer's disease (AD). As speech is a complex process, relying on multiple interacting cognitive functions, fine-grained analysis of speech may have the potential to capture subtle cognitive deficits in the very early stages of AD. Here, we examined the association between amyloid-beta (Aβ) pathology and acoustic speech characteristics in a group of cognitively normal Dutch adults.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Verbal fluency (VF) is crucial for language processing and cognitive flexibility, involving selective attention, inhibition, set shifting, response generation, and self-monitoring. VF assessment includes two distinct tasks, i.e.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: The multisite SuperAging Research Initiative (SRI) was established in 2021 to identify resilience and resistance factors promoting cognitive healthspan through a harmonized multidisciplinary protocol with prospective data collection. The designation of SuperAger is reserved for individuals age 80+ with episodic memory performance that is at least average for those 2-3 decades younger. Research studies of this relatively uncommon phenotype allow for investigations of fundamental importance to the neurobiology of brain aging, resilience, resistance, and avoidance of cognitive decline related to "average aging" and more severe impairments associated with Alzheimer's and related dementias (ADRD).

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Mild Behavioral Impairment (MBI) is a condition characterized by neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) in older adults without dementia, serving as a precursor to various forms of dementia. This study explores the association between NPS and functional connectivity (FC) within the default mode network (DMN), executive control network (ECN), and salience network (SN) across three high-risk cohorts: mild cognitive impairment (due to Alzheimer's) (MCI, n = 79), cerebrovascular disease (CVD, n = 144), and Parkinson's disease (PD, n = 132).

Method: A total of 367 participants were recruited from the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI).

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Menopause has been associated with greater dementia risk. We investigated the relationship between the presence of specific symptoms experienced during menopause (i.e.

Clinical Manifestations.

Background: Apathy in Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with cognitive impairment, particularly executive functions such as selective attention, making it unclear whether apathy should be a separate treatment target. Apathy in Dementia Methylphenidate Trial 2 (ADMET 2) is the largest and most recent trial assessing apathy and cognition. This analysis assessed whether changes in apathy correlated to changes in various cognitive domains in ADMET 2.