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Preparation of Acute Hippocampal Slices from Rats and Transgenic Mice for the Study of Synaptic Alterations during Aging and Amyloid Pathology
Published on: March 23, 2011
Age-related vulnerabilities along the hippocampal longitudinal axis
Anh Tuan Ta1, Shuo-En Huang, Ming-Jang Chiu
1Division of Bioengineering, National University of Singapore, Singapore.
Human Brain Mapping
|September 8, 2011
Summary
Aging impacts the hippocampus, particularly the anterior region, showing greater structural and functional decline. This anterior vulnerability in the aging brain warrants further investigation.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Radiology
- Gerontology
Background:
- Age-related hippocampal volume reduction follows an anterior-posterior gradient.
- Functional changes associated with this gradient in normal aging remain under-investigated.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the anterior-posterior gradient of age-related structural and functional changes in the hippocampus.
- To explore the relationship between structural atrophy and functional decline in aging.
Main Methods:
- Utilized large deformation diffeomorphic metric mapping (LDDMM) for automatic hippocampal segmentation.
- Acquired structural and functional MRI data from 66 participants (aged 19-79).
- Analyzed fMRI task contrasts for anterior (associative/relational) and posterior (novelty) hippocampal activation.
Main Results:
- Observed age-related volume reduction in both anterior and posterior hippocampi, with a more pronounced decrease anteriorly.
- Found a significant reduction in anterior hippocampal activation with increased age.
- Demonstrated a positive correlation between structural atrophy and functional decline in the anterior hippocampus.
Conclusions:
- The anterior hippocampus exhibits greater vulnerability to age-related structural and functional decline compared to the posterior hippocampus.
- Aging impacts both the anatomy and function of the anterior hippocampus, irrespective of task performance.
- Findings suggest anterior hippocampal regions are more susceptible to aging effects than previously recognized.
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