Dietary sn-2 palmitate influences cognitive behavior by increasing the transport of liver-produced lysophosphatidylcholine VLCPUFAs to the brain.

Investigations indicated that sn-2 palmitate have positive effects on brain development, although its mechanism remains largely unexamined. This research delved into how a diet abundant in sn-2 palmitate influenced the cognitive behavior of mice and elucidated the associated mechanisms using metabolomics and lipidomics. The study demonstrated that dietary sn-2 palmitate led to improved working memory and cognition in mice, as well as an increase in brain BDNF concentration when compared to those fed blend vegetable oil (BVO). This was because sn-2 palmitate feeding promoted the synthesis of very long-chain fatty acids (VLCPUFAs) for the lysophosphatidylcholine (LPC) and lysophosphatidylethanolamine (LPE) in the liver. This led to more efficient delivery of VLCPUFAs to the brain, as indicated by elevated concentration of LPC/LPE-VLCPUFAs in the liver and heightened expression of the major facilitator superfamily domain containing 2a (MFSD2A). In essence, this paper offered a potential mechanism by which sn-2 palmitate enhanced mouse neurodevelopment.

Does Playing Mahjong Benefit Older Individuals? A Scoping Review.

Playing mahjong is a popular intellectual and social leisure activity in Asian countries. It is culturally believed that this activity is beneficial to cognitive and psychological functioning in older adults. However, empirical evidence of the benefits of playing mahjong is scant and scattered across the Western and Asian literature. This scoping review comprehensively examined previous studies of the relationships between playing mahjong and cognitive, psychological, and functional abilities in older adults, highlighted gaps in the literature, and identified directions for future research. A systematic search of the literature was conducted across thirteen Western and Asian databases. Fifty-three studies, including forty-seven observational and six intervention studies, were identified. Overall, the results of the observational studies suggested that more mahjong-playing experience was associated with better cognitive, psychological, and functional abilities. As an intervention, playing mahjong was found to enhance general cognitive abilities and short-term memory and relieve depressive symptoms. However, because most of the reviewed studies adopted a correlational methodology, the neural mechanism underlying the benefits of playing mahjong awaits further elucidation. The findings of this review suggest that more randomized controlled trials should be conducted to explore the effects of playing mahjong on higher-level cognitive functioning in older populations.

Metabolic Syndrome Status Changes and Cognitive Functioning: Insights from the Lifelines Cohort Study.

BACKGROUND: Metabolic syndrome is associated with increased risk of dementia. Yet, findings on how longitudinal development of metabolic syndrome status affects cognition remain controversial. OBJECTIVES: This study examines whether individuals with different changes in metabolic syndrome status differ in cognitive functioning. Additionally, the prevalence of metabolic syndrome within the Lifelines population-based study is investigated. DESIGN: 14609 Lifelines participants (mean age 60.8, 56.4% women) were divided into four groups based on their metabolic syndrome status changes between 2007-2013 (1) and between 2014-2017 (2): without metabolic syndrome (N=10863; absent at 1 and 2), de novo metabolic syndrome (N=1340; absent at 1 and present at 2), remitting metabolic syndrome (N=825; present at 1 and absent at 2), and persistent metabolic syndrome (N=1581; present at 1 and 2). ANCOVA models were employed to assess group differences in psychomotor function, visual attention, visual learning, and working memory assessed using the Cogstate Brief Battery. RESULTS: Accounting for education, age, sex, and time between examinations, groups did not statistically differ in any of the four cognitive outcomes. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome within the Lifelines population increased with age and differed among men and women. CONCLUSION: Performance in psychomotor function, visual attention, visual learning, and working memory measured by the Cogstate Brief Battery did not differ between individuals with different changes in metabolic syndrome. The length of metabolic syndrome exposure was unknown, making our results exploratory and calling for future studies addressing this gap.

Validation of a Community-Based Approach Toward Personalized Dementia Risk Reduction: The Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: The Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness is a research-driven community centre testing the efficacy of personalized dementia risk reduction programming on dementia risk and cognition. The objective of this protocol is to validate this approach by following people for two years. DESIGN/SETTING: Participants will receive a comprehensive dementia risk assessment, including nonmodifiable and modifiable risk factors, from which they will receive a Personalized Dementia Risk Report and Program Strategy, indicating their health conditions increasing and their risk level in five modifiable risk domains: physical activity, brain-healthy eating, cognitive engagement, social connections, and mental wellbeing. Equipped with this information, participants will enroll in programs within the Centre to address their risk factors. Changes to their dementia risk, cognition, and Personalized Program Strategy will be communicated through re-assessments of risk factors every six months (risk and cognition) and every year (comprehensive assessment). PARTICIPANTS: Participants (n = 450) will be 50 years of age or older, without a diagnosis of dementia, and sufficiently fluent in English to complete the assessments and understand program instructors. One goal is that our participant sample will include people of low income (with fundraising providing free community centre membership), and from various ethno-racial backgrounds. INTERVENTION: Participants will select programs to meet their Personalized Program Strategy. For physical activity, they will gradually work toward the Canadian Society for Exercise Physiology guidelines. For brain-healthy eating, they will learn about the Brain Health Food Guide and food label reading, and then take additional programs. For cognitive engagement and mental wellbeing, they will take at least one hour of relevant programming per week. Social connections will be reinforced throughout all programs. All participants will also have access to the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration's CAN-THUMBS Up online, educational program on modifiable dementia risk factors, called Brain Health PRO. MEASUREMENTS: The comprehensive assessment includes numerous dementia risk factors, but the primary measures are risk in the five domains, health conditions proximal to those five risk domains, and cognition, and how these are affected by adherence and quality of goal-directed future simulation. We hypothesize a reduced risk in the five domains within six months, improvements in health biomarkers within a year, and maintenance of cognition within two years, with these benefits accruing with greater adherence, but only up to a point, at which benefits will plateau, and greater benefits among participants whose goal-directed simulations are more vivid, personally-relevant, achievable, and positive. CONCLUSIONS: This innovative approach overcomes a number of limitations present in prior multidomain dementia prevention trials. Adapting a preference clinical trial that is embedded in a community centre, where participants have autonomy to choose programs to address their modifiable dementia risk factors, has real-world applicability in the global effort to reduce dementia risk.

Continuous Associations between Remote Self-Administered Cognitive Measures and Imaging Biomarkers of Alzheimer's Disease.

BACKGROUND: Easily accessible and self-administered cognitive assessments that can aid early detection for Alzheimer's disease (AD) dementia risk are critical for timely intervention. OBJECTIVES/DESIGN: This cross-sectional study investigated continuous associations between Mayo Test Drive (MTD) - a remote, self-administered, multi-device compatible, web-based cognitive assessment - and AD-related imaging biomarkers. PARTICIPANTS/SETTING: 684 adults from the Mayo Clinic Study of Aging and Mayo Clinic Alzheimer's Disease Research Center participated (age=70.4±11.2, 49.7% female). Participants were predominantly cognitively unimpaired (CU; 94.0%). MEASUREMENTS: Participants completed (1) brain amyloid and tau PET scans and MRI scans for hippocampal volume (HV) and white matter hyperintensities (WMH); (2) MTD remotely, consisting of the Stricker Learning Span and Symbols Test which combine into an MTD composite; and (3) in-person neuropsychological assessment including measures to obtain Mayo Preclinical Alzheimer's disease Cognitive Composite (Mayo-PACC) and Global-z. Multiple regressions adjusted for age, sex, and education queried associations between imaging biomarkers and scores from remote and in-person cognitive measures. RESULTS: Lower performances on MTD were associated with greater amyloid, entorhinal tau, and global tau PET burden, lower HV, and higher WMH. Mayo-PACC and Global-z were associated with all imaging biomarkers except global tau PET burden. MCI/Dementia participants showed lower performance on all MTD measures compared to CU with large effect sizes (Hedge's g's=1.65-2.02), with similar findings for CU versus MCI only (Hedge's g's=1.46-1.83). CONCLUSION: MTD is associated with continuous measures of AD-related imaging biomarkers, demonstrating ability to detect subtle cognitive change using a brief, remote assessment in predominantly CU individuals and criterion validity for MTD.

A Pilot Study of BRAIN BOOTCAMP, a Low-Intensity Intervention on Diet, Exercise, Cognitive Activity, and Social Interaction to Improve Older Adults' Dementia Risk Scores.

BACKGROUND: Little is known about the impact of short, low-intensity multidomain dementia risk reduction interventions in older adults. OBJECTIVES: To examine the effectiveness and feasibility of a low-intensity multidomain lifestyle intervention on dementia risk and dementia literacy in Australian older adults. DESIGN: Single-group pre-post design. SETTING: Community-dwelling. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 853 older Australians (Mean age=73.3 years, SD=6.1) recruited from the community. INTERVENTION: A 3-month dementia risk reduction program, BRAIN BOOTCAMP, including education, personalised risk information, physical cues for healthier choices and goal setting and planning to target four modifiable risk factors of diet, exercise, cognitive activity and social interaction in older adults. MEASUREMENTS: The 'LIfestyle for BRAin health' (LIBRA) index was used to assess participants' modifiable dementia risk based on 12 factors, with higher scores indicating greater risk. Dementia literacy was measured using a modified questionnaire derived from Dutch and British surveys, encompassing knowledge, risk reduction, and awareness aspects. Paired t-tests were used to compare dementia risk scores and dementia literacy before and after the program. Multivariate regressions were performed to identify sociodemographic and psychological factors associated with change in the LIBRA index. RESULTS: Program attrition was high (58.3%). Participants who completed the program had decreased dementia risk scores (Cohen's d=0.59, p<0.001), increased dementia literacy and awareness (Cohen's d=0.64, p<0.001) and increased motivation to change lifestyle behaviors (Cohen's d=0.25-0.52, p<0.016). Participants with higher motivational beliefs had greater dementia risk reduction. CONCLUSIONS: Improving older adults' motivation and knowledge may help modify lifestyle behaviors to reduce dementia risk. However, program attrition remains a challenge, suggesting the need for strategies to enhance participant engagement and retention in such interventions.

Differences in cognitive function at 18 y of age explain the association between low education and early dementia risk.

Major initiatives attempt to prevent dementia by targeting modifiable risk factors. Low education is frequently pointed to, due to its relationship with dementia. Impact of education is difficult to assess, however, because of associations with multiple other factors, requiring large population-representative samples to tease the relationships apart. We studied 207,814 Norwegian men born between 1950 and 1959 who underwent compulsory cognitive testing during military conscription as young adults, to systematically test associations of education, cognition, and other important factors. Participants were grouped into five education levels and seven cognitive levels. A total of 1,521 were diagnosed with dementia between ages 60 and 69 y. While having compulsory education only was associated with increased risk (Hazard ratio [HR] = 1.37, CI: 1.17 to 1.60), this association was markedly attenuated when controlling for cognitive test scores (HR = 1.08, CI: 0.91 to 1.28). In contrast, low cognitive score was associated with double risk of later diagnosis, even when controlling for education (HR = 2.00, CI: 1.65 to 2.42). This relationship survived controlling for early-life socioeconomic status and replicated within pairs of brothers. This suggests that genetic and environmental factors shared within families, e.g., common genetics, parental education, socioeconomic status, or other shared experiences, cannot account for the association. Rather, independent, nonfamilial factors are more important. In contrast, within-family factors accounted for the relationship between low education and diagnosis risk. In conclusion, implementing measures to increase cognitive function in childhood and adolescence appears to be a more promising strategy for reducing dementia burden.

Effects of biopsychosocial approach on cognition among Parkinson's population.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive decline is a debilitating symptom in Parkinson's disease (PD). Cognitive impairment in PD has a significant impact on many aspects of an individual's life, social interactions, and overall quality of life (QOL). It is also associated with a faster disease progression and an increased risk of developing dementia. A biopsychosocial approach is likely to address not only the underlying biological mechanisms of cognitive impairment in PD but also the psychological and social factors that can contribute to cognitive decline and influence treatment outcomes. METHOD: This experimental study was conducted on 60 older adults with PD at Saveetha medical college and hospital. Participants who met the inclusion criteria were randomly allocated into two groups of Biopsychosocial (n = 30) and conventional (n = 30). Participants in the intervention group received the multiple interventions based on the biopsychosocial approach with a duration of 60 min per session. Pre and post-test evaluation conducted using Scales for Outcomes in PD-cognition (SCOPA-cog) and Parkinson disease QOL Questionnaire (PDQ-8). RESULT: The results of the study showed that there is a statistically significant difference in the median scores within the Groups for the outcome measures SCOPA-cog and PDQ-8 (p < 0.001). For SCOPA-cog, the BPS group median score increased from 30 to 36, while the Conventional group median score increased from 31 to 33. For PDQ-8, the BPS group median reduced from 27 to 14, compared to the Conventional group's reduced from 30 to 24. On comparison between the post-test values, the biopsychosocial approach group showed more improvement in cognition and QOL with (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The findings of this study concluded that the biopsychosocial approach is effective in improving cognition and QOL among the Parkinson population.

What Makes Us Human: Insights from the Evolution and Development of the Human Neocortex.

"What makes us human?" is a central question of many research fields, notably anthropology. In this review, we focus on the development of the human neocortex, the part of the brain with a key role in cognition, to gain neurobiological insight toward answering this question. We first discuss cortical stem and progenitor cells and human-specific genes that affect their behavior. We thus aim to understand the molecular foundation of the expansion of the neocortex that occurred in the course of human evolution, as this expansion is generally thought to provide a basis for our unique cognitive abilities. We then review the emerging evidence pointing to differences in the development of the neocortex between present-day humans and Neanderthals, our closest relatives. Finally, we discuss human-specific genes that have been implicated in neuronal circuitry and offer a perspective for future studies addressing the question of what makes us human.

Absolute beta power in exercisers and nonexercisers in preparation for the oddball task.

BACKGROUND: High levels of physical conditioning are associated with improvements in cognitive performance. In this sense, electroencephalographic (ECG) correlates are used to investigate the enhancing role of physical exercise on executive functions. Oscillations in the ß frequency range are proposed to be evident during sensorimotor activity. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the ECG changes influenced by aerobic and resistance exercises performed in an attention task by analyzing the differences in absolute ß power in the prefrontal and frontal regions before, during, and after the oddball paradigm in practitioners and nonpractitioners of physical exercise. METHODS: There were 15 physical activity practitioners (aged 27 ± 4.71) and 15 nonpractitioners (age 28 ± 1.50) recruited. A two-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) was implemented to observe the main effect and the interaction between groups and moments (rest 1, pre-stimulus, and rest 2). RESULTS: An interaction between group and moment factors was observed for Fp1 (p < 0.001); Fp2 (p = 0.001); F7 (p < 0.001); F8 (p < 0.001); F3 (p < 0.001); Fz (p < 0.001); and F4 (p < 0.001). Electrophysiological findings clarified exercisers' specificity and neural efficiency in each prefrontal and frontal subarea. CONCLUSION: Our findings lend support to the current understanding of the cognitive processes underlying physical exercise and provide new evidence on the relationship between exercise and cortical activity.

ANTECEDENTES: Níveis elevados de condicionamento físico estão associados a melhorias no desempenho cognitivo. Nesse sentido, correlatos eletroencefalográficos são utilizados na investigação do papel aprimorador do exercício físico sobre as funções executivas. Tem sido proposto que as oscilações na faixa de frequência ß são evidenciadas durante a atividade sensório-motora. OBJETIVO: Investigar as alterações eletroencefalográficas influenciadas por exercícios aeróbio e resistido realizados em uma tarefa atencional analisando as diferenças da potência absoluta de ß nas regiões pré-frontal e frontal antes, na preparação e depois do paradigma oddball em praticantes e não praticantes de exercício físico. MéTODOS: Foram recrutados 15 praticantes de atividade física (idade 27 ± 4.71) e 15 não praticantes (idade 28 ± 1.50). Uma análise de variância (ANOVA) de duas vias foi implementada para observação do efeito principal e a interação entre os grupos e os momentos (repouso 1, pré-estímulo e repouso 2). RESULTADOS: Uma interação entre os fatores grupo e momento para Fp1 (p < 0,001); Fp2 (p = 0,001); F7 (p < 0,001); F8 (p < 0,001); F3 (p < 0,001); Fz (p < 0,001); e F4 (p < 0,001) foi observada. Os achados eletrofisiológicos esclareceram a especificidade e a eficiência neural dos praticantes de exercício físico em cada subárea pré-frontal e frontal. CONCLUSãO: Nossos achados promovem o entendimento atual dos processos cognitivos subjacentes ao exercício físico e acrescentam novas evidências sobre a relação exercício e atividade cortical.