STUDIES OF AGING AND COGNITION IN NONHUMAN PRIMATES

这个子项目是许多研究子项目中利用 资源由NIH/NCRR资助的中心拨款提供。子项目和 调查员(PI)可能从NIH的另一个来源获得了主要资金， 并因此可以在其他清晰的条目中表示。列出的机构是 该中心不一定是调查人员的机构。 该项目之前的研究已经表征了恒河猴认知能力随年龄的变化。所获得的数据已被用作研究大脑变化以及运动功能变化的基础，大脑变化是正常认知能力下降的基础。我们的研究使我们能够表征荷尔蒙和性别相关变量对认知表现的影响，并将单胺受体的变化与认知联系起来。 我们考察的基本认知领域包括再认记忆、空间工作记忆和内隐记忆。我们对9只恒河猴进行了行为学测试和结构磁共振成像。根据核磁共振检测，所有猴子的大体脑形态都是正常的。旨在追踪这些动物认知衰退的行为测试已经完成，其中4只动物已经被运往波士顿大学医学院，在那里他们的大脑将接受神经生理学、神经化学和神经解剖学水平的研究。 这项工作将继续阐明哪些神经变化会导致认知能力的年龄相关变化，以及哪些神经特征与相对抵抗认知能力下降有关。

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. Prior studies in this project have characterized age-related changes in cognitive performance in the rhesus monkey. The data obtained has been used as the basis for studies of the changes in the brain which underlie normal cognitive decline, as well as changes in motor function. Our studies have permitted us to characterize the influence of hormonal and sex-related variables on cognitive performance and to relate changes in monoamine receptors in relation to cognition. The basic cognitive domains we have examined include recognition memory, spatial working memory, and implicit memory. We have conducted behavioral tests and structural MRIs on 9 rhesus monkeys. All of the monkeys were grossly normal in terms of gross brain morphology as detected in the MRIs. Behavioral tests, designed to trace cognitive decline in these animals, have been completed in 4 of the animals which have been shipped to Boston University School of Medicine where their brains will be studied at the neuorophysiological, neurochemical, and neuroanatomical levels. This work will continue to clarify which neural changes lead to age-related changes in cognitive ability and which neural characteristics are associated with relative resistance to cognitive decline.