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Updated: Jun 30, 2025

Abbiategrasso Brain Bank Protocol for Collecting, Processing and Characterizing Aging Brains
Published on: June 3, 2020
The 'middle-aging' brain
Sebastian Dohm-Hansen1, Jane A English2, Aonghus Lavelle3
1Department of Anatomy and Neuroscience, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; INFANT Research Centre, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland; APC Microbiome Ireland, University College Cork, Cork, Ireland.
Abstract:
Middle age has historically been an understudied period of life compared to older age, when cognitive and brain health decline are most pronounced, but the scope for intervention may be limited. However, recent research suggests that middle age could mark a shift in brain aging. We review emerging evidence on multiple levels of analysis indicating that midlife is a period defined by unique central and peripheral processes that shape future cognitive trajectories and brain health. Informed by recent developments in aging research and lifespan studies in humans and animal models, we highlight the utility of modeling non-linear changes in study samples with wide subject age ranges to distinguish life stage-specific processes from those acting linearly throughout the lifespan.
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