Study Finds That People in Their 90’s Are Performing Better on Cognitive Tasks Than A Decade Ago News Round-Up July 2013 3rd Edition

Impaired glucose tolerance was associated with cognitive impairment in this study.

There is a write-up here of two studies on Dementia published in the Lancet. In one study (1) the researchers sampled 7635 people over the age of 65 screening for Dementia. Two decades later they screened 7796 people and compared the two groups using various statistical adjustments. The researchers concluded that there had been a lower prevalence in the latter group (6.5% v 8.3%) and that this was statistically significant. These results may not generalise to other areas and populations and there is also commentary in the above write-up. In the second study in Denmark, people who were in their 90’s were assessed on their cognition at two points in time a decade apart. The researchers found that there had been an improvement in the performance on a standardised cognitive test as well on activities of daily living over the study period.

There is a report here on the first Dementia dogs starting work with people with Dementia.

There is a write-up of a study finding an increase in cases of Powassan Encephalitis in New York State, caused by black legged ticks.

MK-8931, a BACE inhibitor was associated with reduced Amyloid load in this study.

Results in a Phase II study reported at Medpage Today suggest that CHF5074 is associated with improvement (statistically significant) on several cognitive tasks (Trail Making Tests, immediate and delayed word recall) although further research will be needed (Phase III trials).

Eating nuts as part of the Mediterranean diet was investigated in this study.

Ruth Francis, head of communications at BioMed Central has this interesting piece on tips for medical journalists.

This write-up looks at the SNIFF-long study which investigated intranasal Insulin in Alzheimer’s Disease.

Neuroscience

What effect does drinking water have on cognition? This write-up looks at a study which finds that drinking water increases reaction times.

BPS Research Digest has these psychology links from the past week.

Evolutionary Psychiatry, Evolution & Culture

The world’s oldest calendar was found in a Scottish field and dates back 10,000 years.

Linguists have discovered a new language in the early stages of developed in the village of Lajamanu in Australia.

A recent study suggests that up to 5% of the genes in the human genome are functional on the basis of a comparative analysis of several genomes.

This hypothesis states that gesticulations in humans may be related to fish fins as there is evidence that they are used for communication.

The researchers in this study conclude that Dogs imitate and remember human actions.

Difficulties with social cognition were associated with psychosis in this comparison of people with psychosis and affective disorders.

There is an interesting write-up of a study which looked at the factors that influenced whether female Bonobos would win conflicts with male Bonobos.

A PNAS study shows that Neolithic farmers were using manure in their farming approximately 8000 years ago. The research has implications for assessing the dietary habits of people at that time and there is a discussion in the write-up.

References

(1) The Lancet, Early Online Publication, 17 July 2013. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(13)61570-6. A two-decade comparison of prevalence of dementia in individuals aged 65 years and older from three geographical areas of England: results of the Cognitive Function and Ageing Study I and II

Appendix

News Round-Up 2008-2011

News Round-Up 2012

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