Articles related to COGNITIVE HEALTH/MEMORY

4,500 people were tracked using 24-hour monitors for 7 days. Activity levels were studied to determine the effect on short-term memory, problem-solving, and processing skills. As little as six to nine minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity when compared to sitting, sleeping, or gentle activities yielded higher cognition scores. Cognitive improvement was modest, but increasing time spent in energetic activity increased the measured benefits.

Factors evaluated were diet, exercise, social integration, cognitive activity, smoking history, and alcohol use. Participants were categorized as favorable (4-6 positive factors), average (2–3 positive factors), and unfavorable (0–1 positive factor). The “favorable” group had a a slower decline in cognition even if they were APOE e4 carriers.

The presence of vitamin D in the brain and its link to improved cognitive performance in aged subjects was originally discovered by a Tufts University study. Higher vitamin D concentrations were linked to a 25% to 33% decreased risk of dementia or mild cognitive impairment in four different brain areas. Authors did note, however, that the observational nature of the study and the lack of a diverse subject population were two of its drawbacks, and there may be further explanations for the results.

Lecanemab is a humanized IgG1 monoclonal antibody that binds to some forms of amyloid. In this study approximately 1,800 participants age 50-90 with dementia and imaging evidence of amyloid deposits were randomized to biweekly IV lecanemab or placebo. After 18 months, the lecanemab group showed reductions in brain amyloid and moderately less decline on measures of cognition and function.

Prior research showed that higher flavonol consumption was associated with lower Alzheimer’s risk. This longitudinal study demonstrated that increased flavonol consumption yielded slower declines in global cognition and in episodic, semantic, and working memory, independent of other health and lifestyle factors.

Gantenerumab treatment generated a slowing of clinical decline from baseline score on the Clinical Dementia Rating-Sum of Boxes (CDR-SB), but at levels that did not reach statistical significance. The relative reduction in clinical decline was 8% in GRADUATE I and 6% in GRADUATE II compared with placebo.