April 24, 2003

Research roundup

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies of the brain show that despite the decrease in brain activity that naturally occurs in aging, particularly in the language areas of the left frontal lobe, some types of language processing may be performed more efficiently in older individuals.

Results of these experiments, performed by Darren Gitelman, M.D., and colleagues at the Cognitive Neurology and Alzheimer’s Disease Center at Northwestern University, stand in contrast to performance and brain imaging findings in other areas of brain function, such as memory, attention and response speed, where older persons show decreased performance and efficiency when compared with younger populations.

The findings, which Gitelman and his co-investigators presented at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in Orlando, Fla., are consistent with theories that suggest that some brain functions may be preserved with age.

“These results show that despite equivalent performance, the brain is not a static organ and may accomplish the same task in different ways as a function of a person’s age,” said Gitelman, an associate professor of neurology at The Feinberg School of Medicine.

The results also are important because instead of comparing brain activity and performance in older vs. younger groups of adults, Gitelman and co-researchers used participants who ranged from 23 to 78 years old.

“We demonstrated that brain activity changes occur slowly with age and not as a sudden change occurring in latter decades,” Gitelman said.

A link between lupus, osteoporosis and cardiovascular disease in young women may be key to understanding why postmenopausal women who do not have lupus are at increased risk for the bone mineral loss and heart disease. Lupus is an autoimmune disease that affects predominantly young, premenopausal women.

According to Rosalind Ramsey-Goldman, M.D., the Northwestern researcher who established this link, vast improvements in the treatment of lupus over the past 20 years have enabled scientists to now focus on the complications of the disease that may lead to progressive illness and death.

Ramsey-Goldman is professor of medicine and director of the lupus program at the Feinberg School of Medicine.

“Increased numbers of young women with lupus are experiencing bone fractures, stroke and heart attack, complications typically associated with aging in non-lupus populations of women,” Ramsey-Goldman said.

This raises questions concerning potential mechanisms linking vascular diseases and osteoporosis, clinical problems that have been previously attributed, in part, to aging in postmenopausal women without lupus. Moreover, corticosteroids, commonly used in the treatment of lupus, likely contribute to these conditions, she said.

— Elizabeth Crown