Plasticity in Aging
-
1
University of Arizona, United States
Aging is associated with specific impairments of learning and memory, some of which are similar to those caused by hippocampal damage. For example, healthy older humans, monkeys and rats all show poorer hippocampal-dependent spatial memory, than do their younger counterparts. Anatomical and electrophysiological studies indicate that the hippocampus of the aged rat sustains a loss of synapses in the dentate gyrus, and a loss of functional synapses in area CA1. Such alterations may contribute to observed age-related impairments of synaptic plasticity, and appear to result in changes in the dynamic interactions among cells in hippocampal networks, causing deficits in the storage and retrieval of information. Studies will be reviewed that link changes in cognition to deficits in these plasticity mechanisms and altered hippocampal network dynamics, including experience-dependent place-field expansion plasticity. Finally, experiments will be described that highlight the specificity of changes in the aged hippocampus, pointing to the dentate gyrus in rats and monkeys, as being particularly vulnerable in normal aging, a pattern that is quite distinct from that observed in Alzheimer’s disease.
Conference:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience, Bodrum, Türkiye, 1 Sep - 5 Sep, 2008.
Presentation Type:
Oral Presentation
Topic:
Symposium 5: Plasticity of a life time
Citation:
Barnes
CA
(2008). Plasticity in Aging.
Conference Abstract:
10th International Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience.
doi: 10.3389/conf.neuro.09.2009.01.026
Copyright:
The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers.
They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters.
The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated.
Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed.
For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions.
Received:
27 Nov 2008;
Published Online:
27 Nov 2008.
*
Correspondence:
Carol A Barnes, University of Arizona, Tucson, United States, CAROL@NSMA.arizona.edu