Thalamo-cortex spatial-temporal organization in aging

这项试验性研究要求获得资金，以获得美国国立卫生研究院计划项目资助的人类初步数据，该项目计划将联合收割机动物和人类成像技术结合起来，以获得衰老过程中的功能性大脑基线。目前的试验性建议旨在证明对衰老过程中正常人脑功能进行长期纵向研究的可行性。这项纵向研究将利用脑磁图（MEG）的电生理功能成像，在某些情况下结合MRI成像。主要的重点将是建立自上而下/自下而上的活动作为丘脑-皮层基线动力学及其随年龄变化的一部分。我们有理由提出，智力放缓，老化过程的特征，部分是一个电路时序问题，由于在认知任务的同步性和连贯性改变。在这项试点研究中，我们的目标是在早期感觉加工和视觉认知记忆任务中获得初步的MEG数据。脑磁图分析将使用新的技术，解决频域，以及时域，信号。我们的工作假设是，虽然感官处理是由专门的单位，认知绑定过程是一个共同的机制跨模态。此外，有人提出，这种时间依赖性结合改变时，将导致感觉运动整合的修改，这将影响老化大脑的认知。这一假设将测试脑磁图手段使用不同类型的感觉刺激在健康的年轻人和老年人的主题。

This pilot study requests funds to acquire human preliminary data for an NIH Program Project grant to the Aging Institute that plans to combine animal and human imaging techniques to access functional brain baselines during the aging process. The present pilot proposal will aim at demonstrating feasibility for a long-term longitudinal study on normal human brain function during aging. This longitudinal study will utilize electrophysiological functional imaging using magnetoencephalography (MEG) in some cases combined with MRI imaging. The main thrust will be to establish top-down / bottom up activity as part of thalamo-cortical baseline dynamics and their changes with age. We have reasons to propose that the intellectual slowing, characteristic of the aging process, is in part a circuit timing problem due to altered synchronization and coherence during cognitive tasks. In this pilot study we aim at acquiring preliminary MEG data during early sensory processing and during visual cognitive memory tasks. The MEG analysis will use new techniques that address frequency domain, as well as time domain, signals. Our working hypothesis is that although sensory processing is achieved by dedicated units, the cognitive binding process is a common mechanism across modalities. More over, it is proposed that such time dependent binding when altered, will result in modifications of sensory motor integration that will affect cognition in the aging brain. This hypothesis will be tested by magnetoencephalographic means using different types of sensory stimuli in healthy young and older subjects.