The Effects of Cognitive Map Building on the Development of Alzheimer's Disease

认知地图构建对阿尔茨海默病发展的影响

• 批准号: 10260590
• 负责人: Kristen M. Kennedy
• 金额: $ 19.13万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS DALLAS
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2020
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2020-09-15 至 2024-05-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10260590
• 关键词: Adult; Alzheimer' s Disease; Alzheimer' s disease pathology; Alzheimer' s disease patient; Alzheimer' s disease related dementia; Alzheimer' s disease risk; Amyloid beta-Protein; Anterior; Attention; Awareness; Behavior; Brain; Cells; Cities; Clinical Trials; Code; Cognition; Cognitive; Commuting; Complex; Data; Data Set; Databases; Dependence; Development; Devices; Digit structure; Disease Progression; Disorientation; Dorsal; Environment; Etiology; Exercise; Exhibits; Failure; Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging; Functional disorder; Future; Geographic Locations; Geography; Grain; Health and Retirement Study; Hippocampal Formation; Hippocampus (Brain); Human; Impairment; Individual; Information Retrieval; Knowledge; Lead; Light; Link; Location; London; Maps; Medial; Medical Care Costs; Memory Loss; Motion; Navigation System; Neighborhoods; Nerve Degeneration; Neurofibrillary Tangles; Neuronal Plasticity; Neurons; Occupations; Onset of illness; Parietal Lobe; Participant; Pathology; Patients; Pattern; Periodicity; Persons; Police officer; Population; Positron-Emission Tomography; Property; Psyche structure; Rattus; Research; Resources; Retrieval; Role; Route; Signal Transduction; Structure; Symptoms; System; Technology; Testing; Training; Travel; base; behavioral study; drug development; entorhinal cortex; experience; experimental study; first responder; gray matter; health data; healthy aging; mild cognitive impairment; neuron loss; neuropathology; preservation; relating to nervous system; residence; response; role model; rural area; rural dwellers; tau Proteins; way finding

PROJECT SUMMARY Can regular mental exercises in building cognitive maps delay the onset of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) or decelerate the progression of AD? The neuropathology of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) begins in the entorhinal cortex, leading to spatial navigation impairment that differentiates patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD from healthy aging adults. Specifically, MCI and AD patients suffer declining abilities to allocentric navigation that requires developing a cognitive map (aka mental map) as an internal representation of the environment with places and features independent of one’s current location or orientation. A system of spatial cells in the hippocampal formation subserves cognitive map building with the spatial periodicity of grid- cell firing fields to form the brain’s metric coordinate system for allocentric navigation. Studies showed that grid cells could gradually lose their spatial periodicity during periods of reduced theta oscillations and hippocampal inactivation. Will mental exercises in building cognitive maps excite theta oscillations and hippocampal activation and strengthen spatial periodicity of grid-cell firing fields? Findings of structural brain changes in London taxi drivers and spatial information retrieval support the potential of such excitatory effects. Further, less is known about the role of the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) in the storage and retrieval of cognitive maps, and how this region changes with AD. The proposed study hypothesizes that regular mental exercises on cognitive map building can evoke such excitatory effects to delay AD onset and decelerate AD progression. In this exploratory proposal, we venture into the links amongst geographic environments, allocentric navigation, cognitive maps, and AD development: a more complex environment imposes a higher demand on cognitive maps to navigate even on daily commutes and routine errands, and frequent mental exercises of building and retrieving cognitive maps lead to preservation of spatial cognition relevant gray matter regions and consequently impede AD development. We will use data from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC) and US-based Health and Retirement Study (HRS), respectively (1) to compare MCI/AD populations in geographic areas with varying degrees of environmental complexity and (2) to investigate MCI/AD populations with occupations of high dependency on cognitive maps, such as realtors, police officers, first responders, and the other occupations. The NACC databases contain participant’s 3-digit zip-codes and types of residence which will allow MCI/AD mapping to potential neighborhoods across the US, whereas HRS restricted data include occupation data and cross-wave geographic information at street-level. Findings from the exploratory project will support subsequent experimental research to model the role of gray matter volume, refine the research framework of the excitatory effects of environment complexity and cognitive mapping to MCI/AD development, and examine the potential MCI/AD detriments of GPS-enabled navigation devices.

项目总结 建立认知地图的定期心理练习能否延缓阿尔茨海默病(AD)或 减慢AD的进展？阿尔茨海默病(AD)的神经病理学始于内嗅觉 皮质，导致空间导航障碍，区分轻度认知障碍患者 (MCI)和AD。具体地说，MCI和AD患者的能力下降 需要开发认知地图(也称为心理地图)作为内部表征的异地导航 具有与当前位置或方位无关的地点和特征的环境。一种制度 海马结构中的空间细胞以网格的空间周期性来辅助认知地图的构建。 细胞激发区域形成大脑的公制坐标系，用于向外定位导航。研究表明， 网格细胞可能在theta振荡减少和 海马区失活。构建认知地图的心理练习是否会刺激theta振荡和 激活海马区，增强网状细胞射野的空间周期性？结构性脑的表现 伦敦出租车司机的变化和空间信息检索支持了这种兴奋性的潜力 效果。此外，关于后顶叶皮质(PPC)在存储和提取中的作用还知之甚少 认知地图，以及这个区域如何随着AD的变化而变化。 这项拟议的研究假设，有规律的认知地图构建心理练习可以唤起 这种兴奋作用可以延缓AD的发病和减缓AD的进展。在这个探索性的提案中，我们 探索地理环境、地理中心导航、认知地图和AD之间的链接 发展：更复杂的环境对认知地图提出了更高的要求，即使在上面导航 日常通勤和例行公事，以及建立和检索认知地图的频繁脑力练习 导致空间认知相关灰质区域的保存，从而阻碍AD 发展。我们将使用国家阿尔茨海默氏症协调中心(NACC)和美国的数据 健康和退休研究(HRS)分别(1)将地理区域的MCI/AD人群与 不同程度的环境复杂性和(2)调查MCI/AD人群的职业 高度依赖认知地图，如房地产经纪人、警察、急救人员和其他人 职业。NACC数据库包含参与者的3位邮政编码和居住类型，这将 允许将MCI/AD映射到美国各地的潜在社区，而HRS限制的数据包括 街道层面的职业数据和跨波地理信息。探索性项目的发现 将支持后续的实验研究，以模拟灰质体积的作用，完善研究 环境复杂性和认知图谱对MCI/AD发展的兴奋效应框架， 并检查启用GPS的导航设备的潜在MCI/AD危害。