RESUMO
As the population ages, it is essential that professionals across disciplines have experience and competence working with older adults. Though experiential learning opportunities have been extensively documented as a tool to accomplish this goal, student engagement in gerontology research has not been examined in detail. This participatory case study highlights the perspectives of undergraduate student researchers involved in a hands-on pilot research study that explored connections between cognitive, physical, and everyday function in midlife and older adults while testing the feasibility of a mobile app for early detection of cognitive decline related to Alzheimer's disease and related dementias. As participants, students (n = 11) completed a survey about their experience and participated in focus groups. As researchers, students and faculty coded open-ended survey and focus group responses. We found that students gained both personal and professional skills from their experience. Emergent themes relevant to their experience included the overarching research lab environment and study-specific conditions related to interpersonal and technical aspects. Although these findings reflect student perspectives in one case, they can be used as a guide to support future endeavors to include undergraduate students as testers in gerontology research.
RESUMO
BACKGROUND: Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) remains a significant cause of mortality and neurodevelopmental impairment despite treatment with therapeutic hypothermia. Magnetic resonance H1-spectroscopy measures concentrations of cerebral metabolites to detect derangements in aerobic metabolism. OBJECTIVE: We assessed MR spectroscopy in neonates with HIE within 18-24 h of initiating therapeutic hypothermia and at 5-6 days post therapeutic hypothermia. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eleven neonates with HIE underwent MR spectroscopy of the basal ganglia and white matter. We compared metabolite concentrations during therapeutic hypothermia and post-therapeutic hypothermia and between moderate and severe HIE. RESULTS: During therapeutic hypothermia, neonates with severe HIE had decreased basal ganglia N-acetylaspartate (NAA; 0.62±0.08 vs. 0.72±0.05; P=0.02), NAA + N-acetylaspartylglutamate (NAAG; 0.66±0.11 vs. 0.77±0.06; P=0.05), glycerophosphorylcholine + phosphatidylcholine (GPC+PCh; 0.28±0.05 vs. 0.38±0.06; P=0.02) and decreased white matter GPC+PCh (0.35±0.13 vs. 0.48±0.04; P=0.02) compared to neonates with moderate HIE. For all subjects, basal ganglia NAA decreased (-0.08±0.07; P=0.01), whereas white matter GPC+PCh increased (0.03±0.04; P=0.04) from therapeutic hypothermia MRI to post-therapeutic-hypothermia MRI. All metabolite values are expressed in mmol/L. CONCLUSION: Decreased NAA and GPC+PCh were associated with greater HIE severity and could distinguish neonates who might benefit most from targeted additional neuroprotective therapies.