Genotypic/phenotypic mediators of synaptic plasticity in aging

人们投入了大量的研究努力，以阐明与年龄相关的认知功能变化的潜在机制，特别是与早熟记忆和学习能力下降有关的机制。研究发现，年龄敏感的大脑区域的突触可塑性受损最能预测老年人的认知能力下降。直到最近，关于人类神经元可塑性的推断只能从认知功能变化等间接可塑性指标中得出。然而，非侵入性脑刺激技术的最新发展提供了各种研究工具，使得直接评估人类皮质区域的突触可塑性机制成为可能。我们小组的工作表明，用这些脑刺激技术评估的突触可塑性与功能相关的大脑功能的变化显著相关。使用这些创新的脑刺激技术的主要兴趣之一在于它们被证明有能力产生持久的大脑可塑性改善。也许最重要的是，这些长期的后遗症被证明与持久的行为益处有关。

Considerable research efforts are invested to shed some light on the mechanisms underlying cognitive function changes associated with age, particularly those pertaining to premature memory and learning decline. Impaired synaptic plasticity in age-susceptible brain regions was found to best predict cognitive decline in aging. Until recently, inferences about neuronal plasticity in humans could only be drawn from indirect measures of plasticity, such as cognitive function changes. The recent development of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques, however, provides a variety of research tools allowing the direct assessment of synaptic plasticity mechanisms in human cortical areas. Work from our group has shown that synaptic plasticity, as assessed with these brain stimulation techniques, are significantly linked with changes in functionally related brain functions. One of the major interests in using these innovative brain stimulation techniques resides in their proven capacity to generate durable brain plasticity improvements. Perhaps most importantly, these long-term after-effects were shown to be associated with lasting behavioural benefits.