COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF AGING

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. This study examines how the aging process differentially affects females of three closely related primate species: the human, the chimpanzee, and the rhesus monkey. We hypothesize that this evolutionary process has led to unique characteristics of the aging phenotype of the human, which can best be understood by comparing brain and cognitive aging in the human with the same features in our closest relative, the chimpanzee, and in the most widely studied biomedical model of human aging, the rhesus monkey. Using comparable measures in these three species and employing both cross-sectional and longitudinal studies, we will develop a comprehensive and integrated overview of social, cognitive and neural aging in these three closely related Old World primates. Initial progress on this project includes construction of touch screen testing systems and assignment of nonhuman primate subjects. We have also begun recruitment of human subjects. Cognitive testing has been begun in all three species. We anticipate that the data will provide new insights into the biological basis of age-related functional decline, and into the factors that govern successful versus unsuccessful aging. This comparative analysis also can illuminate the origins of human age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease (AD).