Critical Life Event Support for K01 NIA Awardee

项目概述：空间导航是安全、独立生活的一项重要任务。空间导航 在正常衰老过程中技能下降，并在阿尔茨海默病（AD）患者中逐渐受损1，2， 严重影响他们的日常生活功能、独立性和健康3。尽管使用了补偿 导航工具，如标志，地图和口头指示，支持老年人的空间导航， 那些患有与年龄相关的神经变性疾病的人仍然是一个挑战。设计的主要障碍 干预措施是有限的理解空间方向理解是如何影响正常的 衰老过程和神经退行性疾病。这个项目的目标是确定正常衰老 和年龄相关的神经退行性疾病影响空间方向的理解， 阐明健康年轻人空间方向理解的神经机制， 老年人 我们的主要假设是，空间方向的理解是支持的结果增加 专用于编码各个格式的大脑区域之间的连通性（即，视觉场景，箭头， 和单词），这将导致老年人和健忘症患者的特定损伤模式 轻度认知障碍（aMCI），阿尔茨海默病的前兆。我们还假设， 顶内沟（IPS）-相对于导航器的电流编码空间方向的区域 面向方向-将通过从所有表示格式计算空间方向， 这一观点得到了功能磁共振成像最新进展的支持。为了验证这些假设，候选人将 采用认知神经科学的融合方法，包括先进的功能磁 共振成像技术（网络神经科学和功能连接）和行为评估 健康的年轻人和老年人，以及患有遗忘型轻度认知障碍（aMCI）的患者。 该奖项将使候选人能够学习关键的新方法，这将有助于发现 空间方向理解的神经实例化。通过研究项目和培训经验， 候选人将应用这些方法来测试新的假设和问题， 在老年人和与年龄相关的痴呆症患者中，理解力下降。本研究提案 将在佛罗里达大学进行--这是一个精英研究机构，可以使用功能磁共振成像， 患有和不患有年龄相关性痴呆症的老年人，以及网络神经科学专家， 神经学和认知神经科学。该奖项还将提供关键的初步数据， 关于支持老年人和阿尔茨海默病患者空间导航的R 01提案， 相关的痴呆症

Project Summary: Spatial navigation is an essential task for living a safe, independent life. Spatial navigation skills decline in normal aging and become progressively impaired in patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD)1,2, severely impacting their daily life function, independence, and health3. Despite the use of compensatory navigational tools like signs, maps, and verbal directions, supporting spatial navigation in older adults and those with age-associated neurodegenerative disease remains a challenge. A major impediment to designing interventions is the limited understanding of how spatial direction comprehension is affected by the normal aging process and neurodegenerative disease. The goal of this project is to determine how normal aging and age-associated neurodegenerative disease affect spatial direction comprehension, and to elucidate the neural mechanisms underpinning spatial direction comprehension in healthy young and older adults. Our primary hypothesis is that spatial direction comprehension is supported as a result of increased connectivity between regions of the brain dedicated to encoding individual formats (i.e.,visual scenes, arrows, and words), which will result in specific patterns of impairment among older adults and those with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), a precursor to Alzheimer’s disease. We also hypothesize that the intraparietal sulcus (IPS) – a region that encodes spatial directions with respect to the navigator's current facing direction – will function as a hub by computing spatial directions from all representational formats, an idea which has been supported by recent advances in fMRI. To test these hypotheses, the candidate will employ converging methodologies from cognitive neuroscience, including advanced functional magnetic resonance imaging techniques (network neuroscience and functional connectivity), and behavioral assessment of healthy young adults and older adults, and patients with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI). This award will enable the candidate to learn critical new methodologies, which will help uncover the neural instantiation of spatial direction comprehension. Through research projects and training experiences, the candidate will apply these methodologies to test new hypotheses and questions about how spatial direction comprehension deteriorates in older adults and in patients with age-related dementias. This research proposal will be undertaken at the University of Florida – an elite research institution with access to fMRI, a large population of older adults with and without age-related dementia, and experts in network neuroscience, neurology, and cognitive neuroscience. This award will also provide critical preliminary data that will be applied to an R01 proposal on supporting spatial navigation in older adults and those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.