Newsbriefs: Dementia; Stroke Prevention; Brain Pathways
Behavior Changes Often First Signs of Dementia.
Mild behavioral impairment (MBI), a new diagnosis introduced by researchers at the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference 2016 in July, may precede mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia. The condition is based on five areas of behavioral (neuropsychiatric) symptoms, including apathy/drive/motivation, mood/affect/anxiety, impulse control/agitation/reward, social appropriateness, and thoughts/perception that are sustained for at least six months and are significantly different from previous behavior. The new checklist represents a departure from current neurodegeneration testing with a sole focus on memory, to now include behavior.
Prevent Cardiovascular Risk Factors to Help Prevent Stroke.
Among stroke survivors, 39 percent of recurrent strokes and 10 percent of post-stroke dementia cases are attributed to pre-existing cardiovascular factors, such as high blood pressure, diabetes, low HDL (“good”) cholesterol, smoking, and transient ischemic attack, according to a new study published in the journal Stroke, online July 14, 2016. Risk factors that lead to a first stroke also may make patients susceptible to poorer mental and physical health post-stroke, as well as increase the risk of subsequent stroke up to five years after, according to researchers from Erasmus University Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The study also found that after one year, first-time stroke victims were three times more likely to have a recurrent stroke than people who had not had a stroke, and that stroke victims were almost twice as likely to develop dementia than those who had not had a stroke. Researchers recommend treating any cardiovascular risk factors you may have to help prevent a first stroke.
Pathways in Brain Related to Coping Skills, Stress Reaction Identified.
To understand why some people can deal with stress better than others, researchers from Yale University identified the brain circuits that underlie coping skills and responses to stressful situations. Scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging to measure changes in brain activation that occur during stress. The scans showed three distinct patterns of response to stress. The first showed sustained activation of brain areas that are known to signal, monitor, and process possible threats. The second showed increased, then decreased, activation, and the third showed decreased activation followed by increased activation in response to continuing stress. Researchers called this “neuroflexibility,”—the area of the brain that tries to regain control over the response to stress. Researchers say study participants who did not show neuroflexibility had higher levels of anger, binge drinking (self-reported) and other poor, or non-coping, behaviors. The study was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, online July 18, 2016.
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