| 311 | Wednesday, April 10, 2002 |
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| 3:00 PM-5:00 PM | San Diego Convention Center:Room 10 |
| Research Consortium |
| CAAD/Research Consortium Symposium on Research on Aging: Neurotrophins, Exercise and the Aging Brain |
| Dr. Carl Cotman, Director of the Institute for Brain Aging and Dementia at the University of California, Irvine, and co-workers have discovered that apoptosis (programmed cell death) rather than necrosis (accidental cell death) is the mechanism that destroys neurons in Alzheimer's Disease. Apoptosis is actually a defense mechanism that enables a cell to die without destroying or damaging neighboring cells. They also found that exercise in laboratory rats increased the level of neurotrophins in the brain which, in turn, enabled neurons to maintain their connections to each other, and, in some cases, even caused damaged synapses to regrow. Dr. Cotman will discuss the role of neurotrophins in protecting brain function. Then, Dr. Arthur Kramer of the Beckman Institute at the University of Illinois, will draw upon his exhaustive research, including a 35-year longitudinal study, to explain the relationship of fitness and cognition as indexed by functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). CAAD with honor Drs. Cotman and Kramer as co-recipients of the Herbert A. deVries Research Award for distinguished research in aging. |
Keyword(s): disease prevention, older adult/aging issues, wellness/disease prevention
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| Presider: J. Thomas Jable, William Paterson University, Wayne, NJ |
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Speakers: |
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Exercise Enhances and Protects Brain Function: Role of Neurotrophins
Carl W. Cotman, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA |
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Healthy Body, Healthy Mind? The Relationship Among Fitness, Cognition, and Brain Function
Arthur F. Kramer, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL |
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