COGNITIVE AGING--ROLE OF PREFRONTAL/CINGULATE CORTEX

提出了两个实验来研究老年大鼠三个额叶/扣带回皮质的功能状态：额叶内侧、前扣带回和后扣带回。这些皮质区域被认为与人类年龄相关的认知障碍有关，但它们的功能尚未在老年大鼠中进行研究。额叶/扣带回皮质功能障碍大鼠模型的建立将为这些皮质区域衰老的神经生物学提供有价值的见解，并将对治疗与这些区域功能障碍相关的人类年龄相关认知缺陷具有指导意义。使用一种新的触摸屏测试程序，老年大鼠将在一系列行为任务中进行测试，这些任务基于对年轻大鼠的损伤研究，证明了内侧额叶、前扣带回和后扣带回皮质功能之间的三重分离。这些任务中的障碍与老年大鼠认知状态的更常用评估--在水迷宫中的空间学习--的关系也将得到确定。这些实验将在明确的神经心理学框架内对这些皮质区域的功能进行第一次系统的评估，并将为未来对老年大鼠额叶功能的行为和神经生物学研究奠定基础。

Two experiments are proposed to examine the functional status of three frontal/cingulate cortical regions in aged rats: medial frontal, anterior cingulate, and posterior cingulate cortex. These cortical regions are thought to be involved in age-related cognitive impairments in humans, but their function has not been investigated in the aged rat. Development of a rat model of frontal/cingulate cortex dysfunction would provide valuable insights into the neurobiology of aging of these cortical regions, and would have implications for treating age-related cognitive deficits in humans that are related to dysfunction of these regions. Using a novel touchscreen testing procedure, aged rats will be tested on a battery of behavioral tasks that demonstrate a triple dissociation between medial frontal, anterior cingulate, and posterior cingulate cortex function, based on lesion studies in young rats. The relationship of impairments in these tasks to a more commonly used assessment of cognitive status in aged rats, spatial learning in the water maze, will also be determined. These experiments will provide one of the first systematic evaluation of the function of these cortical areas within a well-defined neuropsychological framework, and will serve as a foundation for future behavioral and neurobiological studies of frontal lobe function in the aged rat.