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Within older adults who scored below the normal benchmark on a dementia screening test, but have no noticeable communication problems, scientists have discovered a new potential predictor of early dementia through abnormal functionality in regions of the brain that process speech (the brainstem and auditory cortex). These brain regions are thought to be more resilient to Alzheimer's. However, this discover y demonstrates changes occur early in the brain's conversion of speech sound into understandable words. This finding could be the first sign of decline in brain function related to communication that presents itself before individuals become aware of these problems. Their research technique of measuring electrical brain activity using an electroencephalogram (EEG) in these brain regions also predicted mild cognitive impairment (MCI), a condition that is likely to develop into Alzheimer's, with 80 per cent accuracy. This test could be developed into a cost-effective ...

The study was published online today in the journal  Cell Systems . "If you look at a group of seniors, some will look older than their peers and some will look younger," said the study's co-leader Asa Abeliovich, PhD, professor of pathology and neurology in the Taub Institute for Alzheimer's Disease and the Aging Brain at CUMC. "The same differences in aging can be seen in the frontal cortex, the brain region responsible for higher mental processes. Our findings show that many of these differences are tied to variants of a gene called TMEM106B . People who have two 'bad' copies of this gene have a frontal cortex that, by various biological measures, appears 12 years older that those who have two normal copies." Studies have identified individual genes that increase one's risk for various neurodegenerative disorders, such as apolipoprotein E (APOE) for Alzheimer's disease. "But those genes explain only a small part of these diseas...

NUS researchers discovered that common consumption of tea brewed from tea leaves reduces aged individuals' threat of cognitive decline. Credit score: © Serhiy Shullye / Fotolia A cup of tea a day can preserve dementia away, and that is particularly so for many who are genetically predisposed to the debilitating illness, in accordance with a latest research led by Assistant Professor Feng Lei from the Division of Psychological Medication at Nationwide College of Singapore's (NUS) Yong Bathroom Lin Faculty of Medication. The longitudinal research involving 957 Chinese language seniors aged 55 years or older has discovered that common consumption of tea lowers the danger of cognitive decline within the aged by 50 per cent, whereas APOE e4 gene carriers who're genetically vulnerable to growing Alzheimer's illness could expertise a discount in cognitive impairment threat by a...