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J S Janowsky

Publications and source records attributed to J S Janowsky.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2001

Selective preservation and degeneration within the prefrontal cortex in aging and Alzheimer disease.

BACKGROUND: The prefrontal cortex (PFC) is a heterogeneous cortical structure that supports higher cognitive functions, including working memory and verbal abilities. The PFC is vulnerable to neurodegeneration with healthy aging and Alzheimer disease (AD). OBJECTIVE: We used volumetric magnetic resonance imaging to determine whether any region within the PFC is more vulnerable to deterioration with late aging or AD. METHODS: Volumetric analysis of PFC regions was performed on younger healthy elderly subjects (n = 26; 14 men and 12 women [mean age, 71.7 years] for aging analysis; 12 men and 14 women [mean age, 71.4 years] for AD analysis), oldest healthy elderly (OHE) subjects (n = 22 [11 men and 11 women]; mean age, 88.9 years), and patients with AD (n = 22 [12 men and 10 women]; mean age, 69.8 years). RESULTS: The OHE subjects had less PFC white matter than did young healthy elderly subjects. The orbital region was selectively preserved relative to other PFC regions in the OHE subjects. Subjects with AD had less total PFC gray matter than did age-matched healthy subjects and significantly less volume in the inferior PFC region only. CONCLUSIONS: Orbital PFC is selectively preserved in OHE subjects. In contrast, degeneration within the PFC with AD is most prominent in the inferior PFC region. Thus, degeneration within the PFC has a regionally distinct pattern in healthy aging and AD.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Informants' knowledge of reproductive history and estrogen replacement.

BACKGROUND: There has been much interest in assessing estrogen use in healthy older women and those with Alzheimer's disease. However, data for the women with Alzheimer's disease must be obtained from an informant. The aim of this study was to better understand what informants are likely to know about reproductive history and estrogen use. METHODS: Reproductive history data from informants of Alzheimer's patients were modeled by comparing responses from 40 cognitively healthy older women with that of a designated informant. The designated informants were similar in demographics to informants for patients with Alzheimer's disease. RESULTS: Informant data regarding reproductive history was likely to be accurate, when known. However, 30% of the subjects did not identify an informant who had personal knowledge of them. Of those informants who had personal knowledge of the subject, accuracy for those who reported that they knew the information varied depending on the aspect of reproductive history assessed (age of menarche, 29%; age of menopause, 20%; pregnancies, 63%; live births, 92%; hysterectomy, 92%; and postmenopausal estrogen use, 82%). Daughters served as the most likely and most accurate informants in this study. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrates that information obtained from informants for patients with Alzheimer's disease is likely to be accurate for some but not all aspects of reproductive history. Of concern for such studies will be the 30% of patients who do not have an informant with personal knowledge about them.

Aged↗
PubMed2001

Context processing in older adults: evidence for a theory relating cognitive control to neurobiology in healthy aging.

A theory of cognitive aging is presented in which healthy older adults are hypothesized to suffer from disturbances in the processing of context that impair cognitive control function across multiple domains, including attention, inhibition, and working memory. These cognitive disturbances are postulated to be directly related to age-related decline in the function of the dopamine (DA) system in the prefrontal cortex (PFC). A connectionist computational model is described that implements specific mechanisms for the role of DA and PFC in context processing. The behavioral predictions of the model were tested in a large sample of older (N = 81) and young (N = 175) adults performing variants of a simple cognitive control task that placed differential demands on context processing. Older adults exhibited both performance decrements and, counterintuitively, performance improvements that are in close agreement with model predictions.

Adult↗
PubMed2000

Sex steroids modify working memory.

In the last ten years, numerous mechanisms by which sex steroids modify cortical function have been described. For example, estrogen replacement improves verbal memory in women, and animal studies have shown effects of estrogen on hippocampal synaptogenesis and function. Little is known about sex steroid effects on other aspects of memory, such as frontal lobe-mediated working memory. We examined the relationships between working memory and sex steroid concentrations and whether sex steroid supplementation would modify age-related loss of working memory in older men and women. Before hormone supplementation, working memory, tested with the Subject Ordered Pointing Test (SOP), was worse in older subjects than younger subjects, and there was no evidence of gender differences at either age. Testosterone supplementation improved working memory in older men, but a similar enhancement of working memory was not found in older women supplemented with estrogen. In men, testosterone and estrogen effects were reciprocal - with better working memory related to a higher testosterone to estrogen ratio. These results suggest that sex steroids can modulate working memory in men and can act as modulators of cognition throughout life.

Adult↗
PubMed1999

Prefrontal gray and white matter volumes in healthy aging and Alzheimer disease.

OBJECTIVES: To quantify the contribution of gray and white matter volumes to total prefrontal volume in healthy aging. To determine if prefrontal tissue volumes distinguish healthy aging from Alzheimer disease (AD). DESIGN: Volumes of total prefrontal cortex, prefrontal gray matter, and prefrontal white matter were compared among young healthy elderly (YHE) (n = 14; mean age, 70 years), old healthy elderly (OHE) (n = 14; mean age, 90 years), and subjects with AD (n = 14; mean age, 70 years) by analysis of variance. Additionally, Pearson correlations were performed between volumes and age. RESULTS: Old healthy elderly and subjects with AD had significantly less total prefrontal volume (approximately 15% less in both groups) and prefrontal white matter volume (approximately 30% less and 20% less in the OHE and AD groups, respectively) than YHE, but there were no differences between the OHE and AD groups. There was a significant difference in gray-white matter volume ratio with OHE having a higher ratio than YHE. Subjects with AD did not differ from YHE or OHE in this ratio. There were significant negative correlations between age and total prefrontal volume and age and prefrontal white matter volume in the healthy subjects. CONCLUSIONS: In the very old, the decline of white matter volume is disproportionately greater than the decline of gray matter volume. In subjects with AD both gray and white matter loss contribute to the decline of prefrontal volume. This is demonstrated by the gray-white matter ratio that does not differ between YHE and subjects with AD. Thus, it is likely that AD is different from accelerated aging.

Aged↗
PubMed1998

Estrogen and sequential movement.

Normal movement depends in part on the brain's ability to produce and use dopamine, which regulates basal ganglia function. Behavioral, neuroanatomical, and neurophysiological data suggest that the basal ganglia are critical for the performance of sequential movement. Dopaminergic function is modulated by estrogen in animals and in humans. To test the hypothesis that estrogen modulates sequential movement, this study measured the reaction time (RT) and movement time (MT) of 15 women and 10 men in a choice RT task with sequential responses. Higher levels of estradiol in women's blood were associated with faster total movement time (RT plus MT). Testosterone levels in women's blood were not associated with keypressing performance. Hormone levels in men's blood were unrelated to keypressing performance. These results suggest that women's motor performance was affected by hormone levels, and that estrogen may interact with dopaminergic function in women.

Adult↗
PubMed1998

Formula supplementation with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids: are there developmental benefits?

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the developmental outcomes of children who participated in an augmented randomized clinical trial of supplementing a standard infant formula with long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids. DESIGN: Randomized clinical trial, augmented with a nonrandomized human milk comparison group. There were three randomized formula groups: standard formula, standard formula containing docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and standard formula containing DHA and arachidonic acid. SETTING: Three clinical sites serving diverse populations: Kansas City, MO; Portland, OR; and Seattle, WA. PARTICIPANTS: A total of 274 healthy full-term infants were enrolled in the infant-feeding protocol; of these, 197 (72%) participated in assessments of developmental outcome. Formula Supplements. In the randomized trial, one group received a standard formula, another group received a formula that had been supplemented with DHA from fish oil, and a third group received a formula supplemented with both DHA and arachidonic acid from an egg phospholipid. OUTCOME MEASURES: Mental and Motor Scales of the Bayley Scales of Infant Development at 12 months of age; vocabulary and gesture communication scores from the MacArthur Communicative Development Inventories at 14 months of age. RESULTS: There were no statistically significant differences for either the Bayley Mental Scale or the Bayley Motor Scale, neither when the analysis was restricted to the three randomized formula groups nor when the analysis included all four groups. However, the DHA formula group had significantly lower scores on two of the MacArthur scales: the DHA group scored lower than the nonrandomized human milk comparison group on the Vocabulary Comprehension Scale, and the DHA group scored lower than the randomized control formula group on the Vocabulary Production Scale. Moreover, additional analyses both in the formula groups and in the human milk comparison group found significant negative correlations between DHA levels and vocabulary outcomes. CONCLUSION: We believe that additional research should be undertaken before the introduction of these supplements into standard infant formulas.

Arachidonic Acid↗
PubMed1996

Asymmetrical memory decline in normal aging and dementia.

We assessed whether age-associated memory impairments and the memory impairment of Alzheimer's disease (AD) is comparable in the verbal and nonverbal domains. Subjects incidentally learned the identity and location of a group of objects and later verbally recalled the objects as well as recalling their previous spatial location. Comparison subject (younger subjects for experiment 1, and older subjects for experiment 2) were tested after retention intervals that equated their performance with that of the index subjects. We found that memory does not change uniformly with age. Verbal memory is more affected than nonverbal memory. This asymmetrical pattern is a feature of normal aging and does not appear to be due to a degenerative process such as Alzheimer's disease.

Adult↗
PubMed1996

Atrophy of the corpus callosum in Alzheimer's disease versus healthy aging.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the specificity of atrophic changes in the corpus callosum (CC) compared with the cerebellum and pons in patients with Alzheimer Disease (AD), healthy elderly subjects (HE), and a sample of prospectively studied subjects who have developed cognitive decline or "incipient dementia" (ID). DESIGN: Cross-sectional comparison by age using quantitative MRI. SETTING: Ambulatory research unit. PARTICIPANTS: Sixty HE subjects (mean age 78.2 years; range 66-95), 20 ID subjects (mean age 88.1 years; range 78-98) and 39 AD subjects (mean age 72.2 years; range 52-91) were enrolled in longitudinal studies of healthy aging or AD. The population was selected for optimal health; all were examined to exclude medical, neurological and psychiatric illness. MEASUREMENTS: Brain atrophy by quantitative MRI. RESULTS: AD subjects had smaller CC than HE or ID subjects, who did not differ from each other. All three sectors of the CC were smaller in AD than in HE or ID subjects. The cross sectional area of the cerebellum and pons did not differ between groups. HE and ID subjects showed a significant decline in CC size with age. No age-related decline was found for AD subjects. The regional atrophy of the CC in AD subjects was significantly related to cognitive function but not to disease duration. CONCLUSIONS: Atrophy of the CC differentiates HE and ID from AD subjects and tracks the cognitive decline of this disease. In addition, optimally healthy subjects show an age-related decline in callosum size. The atrophy is specific to the CC, a cortical projection system, and does not occur in cerebellum or pons.

Aged↗
PubMed1994

Testosterone influences spatial cognition in older men.

Testosterone plays a role in the organization of behavior during development. The authors examined whether testosterone could play a maintenance role in behavior as well. In a double-blind manner, verbal and visual memory, spatial cognition, motor speed, cognitive flexibility, and mood in a group of healthy older men who were supplemented for 3 months with testosterone were assessed. The increase in testosterone levels to 150% of baseline levels resulted in a significant enhancement of spatial cognition, but no change in any other cognitive domain was found. Testosterone supplementation influenced the endogenous production of estradiol, and estradiol was found to have an inverse relationship to spatial cognitive performance. These results suggest that testosterone supplementation can modify spatial cognition in older men; however, it is likely that this occurs through testosterone's influence on estrogen.

Administration, Cutaneous↗
PubMed1993

Complex figure recall in the elderly: a deficit in memory or constructional strategy?

Spatial memory declines with age. This study investigated the hypothesis that the decline in spatial memory in the elderly is due to a dysfunction in frontal lobe-mediated planning and organization. The copy and recall ability of 49 elderly subjects and 20 younger subjects was assessed using the Rey-Osterrieth Figure. In addition, the manner of construction, (e.g., the order that each line was produced) was compared between groups. Despite comparable performance with the younger subjects when copying the figure, older subjects performed significantly worse than younger subjects when asked to reproduce the figure from memory. However, this was not due to the organizational strategies they used while copying the figure. They constructed the figure in the same manner as the younger subjects. Therefore, the spatial memory deficits in the elderly are not due to an abnormal organizational strategy. These results are discussed in relation to those of patients with frontal lobe damage and preliminary data from subjects with mild dementia.

Adult↗
PubMed1990

Memory for the temporal order of events in patients with frontal lobe lesions and amnesic patients.

Patients with frontal lobe lesions, amnesic patients with Korsakoff's syndrome, other (non-Korsakoff) amnesic patients, and control subjects were given tests of memory for temporal order. In the first experiment, subjects were presented with a list of 15 words and then asked to reproduce the list order from a random array of the words. In the second experiment, they were asked to arrange in chronological order a random display of 15 factual events that occurred between 1941 and 1985. In both experiments, patients with frontal lobe lesions were impaired in placing the items in the correct temporal order, despite normal item memory (i.e. normal recall and recognition memory for the words and facts). The two groups of amnesic patients exhibited impaired memory for temporal order as well as impaired item memory. Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome exhibited poorer temporal order memory than the other amnesic patients, despite similar levels of item memory. These findings demonstrate that patients with frontal lobe lesions have difficulty organizing information temporally. Patients with Korsakoff's syndrome, who have both diencephalic and frontal damage, have memory impairment together with a disproportionate deficit in memory for temporal order.

Alcohol Amnestic Disorder↗
PubMed1989

Source memory impairment in patients with frontal lobe lesions.

In two experiments, we investigated memory for recently learned facts and memory for the source of the facts (i.e. where and when the facts were learned) in patients with frontal lobe lesions, age-matched elderly control subjects, and younger subjects. In both experiments, patients with frontal lobe lesions recalled as many facts as their age-matched subjects and the younger subjects, but they frequently attributed facts to incorrect sources. In the second experiment, both patients with frontal lobe lesions and their age-matched subjects committed more source errors than younger subjects. These findings suggest that the frontal lobes may play a special role in associating facts to the context in which they were learned. The results are also discussed in the light of the source memory impairment that occurs in amnesic patients.

Adult↗
PubMed1989

Cognitive impairment following frontal lobe damage and its relevance to human amnesia.

Whether frontal lobe pathology can account for some of the cognitive impairment observed in amnesic patients with Korsakoff's syndrome was investigated. Various cognitive and memory tests were given to patients with circumscribed frontal lobe lesions, patients with Korsakoff's syndrome, non-Korsakoff amnesic patients, and control Ss. Patients with frontal lobe lesions were not amnesic. Nevertheless they exhibited 2 deficits that were also exhibited by patients with Korsakoff's syndrome but not by other amnesic patients: (a) impairment on the Wisconsin Card Sorting Test and (b) impairment on the Initiation and Preservation subscale of the Dementia Rating Scale. Thus, frontal lobe pathology can explain some of the cognitive deficits observed in patients with Korsakoff's syndrome.

Adult↗
PubMed1987

Early language development in infants with cortical and subcortical perinatal brain injury.

To understand better the cognitive sequelae of mild perinatal brain injury, we studied three groups of high-risk infants, using the Early Language Milestone Scale (ELM Scale). Premature infants with Grades I and II intraventricular hemorrhages (IVH) were delayed on the expressive but not the receptive subscale of the ELM Scale. Mildly asphyxiated full-term infants were slightly delayed on both the expressive and receptive subscales. Premature infants without IVH performed the same as the normal sample on which the scale was based. Although normal intellectual functioning has been reported in infants with Grade I-II IVH, this study demonstrates early specific deficits in expressive language in these children. These results are discussed in relation to localization of language in the adult brain, and the influence of subcortical structures on development and maturation of the cortex.

Asphyxia Neonatorum↗
PubMed1986

Seizures triggered by blinking in a non-photosensitive epileptic.

An epileptic girl with Lennox-Gastaut syndrome had seizures triggered specifically by blinking, but not by other eye movements or by photic stimulation. Electrographic and clinical seizures were most reliably precipitated by repetitive blinking produced voluntarily on command, by reflex blinking on corneal stimulation, or by psychogenic triggers of blinking such as social stress or cognitive effort.

Adolescent↗