Contrary to claims that United States’ presidents age at twice the normal rate, a new study finds that most U.S. presidents live longer than expected for men of their same age and era. The research letter, by noted University of Illinois at Chicago demographer S. Jay Olshansky, is published in the Dec. 7 issue of […]
As we get older, our cognitive abilities change, improving when we’re younger and declining as we age. Scientists posit a hierarchical structure within which these abilities are organized. There’s the “lowest” level — measured by specific tests, such as story memory or word memory; the second level, which groups various skills involved in a category […]
People with recurrent depression or those exposed to chronic stress exhibits shorter telomeres in white blood cells. This is shown by a research team at Umeå University in a coming issue of Biological Psychiatry. The telomere is the outermost part of the chromosome. With increasing age, telomeres shorten, and studies have shown that oxidative stress […]
Yale University researchers cannot tell you where you left your car keys, but they can tell you why you cannot find them. A new study published July 27 in the journal Nature shows the neural networks in the brains of the middle-aged and elderly have weaker connections and fire less robustly than in youthful ones. […]
Chimpanzees, the closest living relatives to humans, do not experience a decrease in brain volume as they age like humans do, according to a study by George Washington University researcher Chet Sherwood and his colleagues. There are many similarities between the species, but this discovery reveals an important distinction, demonstrating how humans are unique from […]
Whether we choose to accept or fight it, the fact is that we will all age, but will we do so successfully? Aging successfully has been linked with the “positivity effect”, a biased tendency towards and preference for positive, emotionally gratifying experiences. New research published in Biological Psychiatry now explains how and when this effect […]
New research provides the best evidence to date that the late-day anxiety and agitation sometimes seen in older institutionalized adults, especially those with dementia, has a biological basis in the brain. The findings could help explain “sundowning” – a syndrome in which older adults show high levels of anxiety, agitation, general activity, and delirium in […]
A major international study collating and analyzing worldwide data on diabetes since 1980 has found that the number of adults with the disease reached 347 million in 2008, more than double the number in 1980. The research, published today in The Lancet, reveals that the prevalence of diabetes has risen or at best remained unchanged […]
Recent Comments