The Dino-Aspie Ex-Café (for Those 40+... or feeling creaky)

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well, it finally came to this:

Partial Recall: Why Memory Fades with Age
Study finds that the disruption of white matter conduits in the aging brain keeps its regions from communicating effectively

As we age, it becomes harder and harder to recall names, dates—even where we put down our keys. Although we may fear the onset of Alzheimer's, chances are, our recollective powers have dulled simply because we're getting older—and our brains, like our bodies, are no longer in tip-top shape.

But what is it that actually causes memory and other cognitive abilities to go soft with senescence? Previous research has shown that bundles of axons (tubular projections sent out by neurons to signal other nerve cells) wither over time. These conduits, collectively referred to as white matter, help connect different regions of the brain to allow for proper information processing.

Now, researchers have found that these white matter pathways erode as we age, impairing communication or "cross talk'' between different brain areas.

"What we were looking at was the communication or cross talk between different regions of the brain," says study co-author Jessica Andrews-Hanna, a Harvard University graduate student. "The degree to which white matter regions are actually stable predicts the degree to which other regions are able to communicate with each other."

Andrews-Hanna and other Harvard researchers (along with collaborators at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor and Washington University in St. Louis) concluded that white matter naturally degrades as we age—causing disrupted communication between brain regions and memory deficits—after conducting a battery of cognitive tests and brain scans on 93 healthy volunteers, ages 18 to 93. Participants fell into two age groups: one 18 to 34 and the other 60 to 93 years of age.

Scientists asked study subjects to perform several cognitive and memory exercises, such as determining whether certain words referred to living or nonliving objects. As they answered, researchers monitored activity in the fronts and backs of their brains with functional imaging magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine whether those areas were operating in sync. The results, published in Neuron: communication between brain regions appeared to have "dramatically declined" in the older group.

They fingered the potential reason for the dip by doing further brain scans using diffusion tensor imaging, an MRI technique that gauges how well white matter is functioning by monitoring water movement along the axonal bundles. If communication is strong, water flows as if cascading down a celery stalk, says Randy Buckner, a cognitive neuroscientist at Harvard; if it is disrupted, the pattern looks more like a drop of dye in a water bucket that has scattered in all directions. The latter was more evident in the older group, an indication that their white matter had lost some of its integrity.

The older crowd's performance on memory and cognitive skill tests correlated with white matter loss: The seniors did poorly relative to their younger peers. The researchers note that the white matter appears to fray more over time in the forebrain than in the brain's rear. They speculate that age-related depletion of neurotransmitters (the chemical signals sent between neurons) as well as the shrinking of gray matter (the tissue made up of the actual nerve cell bodies and supporting cells) also contribute to dimming memory and cognitive skills.

Buckner says that the team now plans to examine how aging affects white matter as well as gray matter and neurotransmitters. "We want to know," he says, "is this an important factor in why some people age gracefully and others age less gracefully?"

I was visited by three spirits in my sleep last night. Not sure of the meaning as yet, but it is close to Christmas (?) :
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZfaaQdXGLdE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NCWht1wgjM (So that's where Lauri's pink tutu ended up!! )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2yUD7i7RouA

It appears I'm supposed to visit Wild Thing Postie in Malta, the purpose of which will be to flee throngs of holiday shoppers, only to find ourselves in crowds on beaches and concerts, so our unintelligible conversations will be even more unintelligible.

Last edited by Chuck on 06 Dec 2007, 5:14 am, edited 1 time in total.

It is so sad when people keep dredging up the past. I admitted to one count of archery, and asked for a further five cases of using punctuation in a manner likely to cause breaches of the peace to be taken into account. I did my time, no less than 67 hours of community service, hoovering the beach. My slate is clean. Let bygones be bygones. Please.


Not even accidentally. I mean I was shooting chocolate frogs at the brats who came around at Halloween, and they have lousy aerodynamics. The frogs, I mean, they won't let me shoot the brats. When I say they won't let me shoot the brats, I mean not in the sense of the brats being the ammunition, rather than the targets. Anyway, when they (the frogs, not the brats) come out of the slingshot pouch, they (the frogs) tend to tumble, and the uneven pattern of turbulence pulls them (the frogs, not the brats) off the trajectory (towards the brats). I can't hit my targets (the brats, not the frogs) beyond 50m. But I am sure none of them (the frogs, not the brats) went into orbit and came down over Alberta five weeks later. And anyway, they (the frogs again, not the brats) would melt on reentry. All my ICPMs (Inter Continental Praline Munitions, since you ask) have tinfoil heat shields for that very reason (frogs). So it couldn't have been me (a frog, not a brat). So there (brats, not frogs).


Protozoa. Amoebas are protozoa, while viruses are mushrooms. Or possibly bananas. The taxonomists (frogs again) have not yet reached a definitive conclusion. And it wasn't candy, it was mushrooms.


Nothing I do is ever part of a grand plan. It is not in my nature to be that organized. I make lots of little plans and hope for chaos to emerge from them. This happens remarkably often (because of the brats, not because of the frogs).

I wish Lau a very happy Thursday.

Hmmmm... Seems to me like hitting brats with frogs may not be so hard.
The frogs seem rather large, and the brats awfully small:

Exhibit one. Frogs:


Exhibit two. Brats:


But I suppose that being chocolate frogs, the trajectories would be affected.

(Happy 340th day of 2007 Lau!)

OOOHHHHHHH! So that's why Chuck is so............ whacky? hyper? bouncy?

What did Nan and I tell you about that, young man???

It explains the hallucinations, too!!

lurking mode.

Woah, Duuuuude! Surf's up!


http://photos.signonsandiego.com/galler ... _surf198_1

http://photos.signonsandiego.com/galler ... _surf218_1

YIKES!!

...oxycodone, which Nashville no longer carries, as we were robbed at gunpoint every time a shipment made its way into our pharmacies. One pharmacist was held up eleven times. Most of the caught robbers were from Birmingham, Alabama. If you need oxycontin here, you must submit your script to an online source, and the shipment is delivered straight to your house (under the direct observation of a S.W.A.T. team). You'd be a fool though to keep it in your house.

S.W.A.T. caught one set of robbers at our store one week last year when I was off. The Alabama gang entered our pharmacy with sawed-off shotguns and a Rottweiler, jumped the counter and attacked Jonathan, the pharmacist who works nights opposite me. Jonathan is a young athletic guy, 6'2" and 245lbs, and they came right at him. The front cashier hit the silent alarm, and S.W.A.T. was there in less than 50 seconds!! ! (Eric, a former-marine on the S.W.A.T. team, showed me their patrol car tape of the incident. They were cruising a nearby hospital when the alarm went off. The vehicle's speedometer topped 160mph on the way - decelerated from 60mph to 0 when they hit the parking lot, ending up at the front door just as the Alabama gang was exiting. S.W.A.T. jumped out and yelled "Freeze!" The 'bama boys released the Rottweiler and drew their weapons. Eric grabbed the lead 'bama boy and body-slammed him headfirst off the hood of the patrol car (so hard the vehicle bounced) and knocked him out. Within seconds the entire gang (except the Rottweiler) was knocked out. The Rottweiler stood there wagging his tail, was petted and given a treat, and placed into the patrol car.

The attacks became more frequent and violent. Finally a female pharmacist was attacked with a knife and nearly killed, and a delivery truck driver was killed ...so no more hillbilly heroin in pharmacies in Nashville.

"Tennessee candy" (methamphetamine or "crystal meth") was a real problem here - but worse in Kentucky. They've shut down the meth labs quite a bit around here, but its manufacture is still quite a problem in more rural areas, and we seem to be a depot from somewhere else, as they continue to stop vans transporting it through this area, and finding storage caches in rural areas. I've turned in quite a few small-time manufacturers. Once you've smelled meth and know what you are smelling, its unmistakable. I can smell it on their clothing the minute they hit the front door.

I haven't been wrong yet, so S.W.A.T. arrives in minutes whenever I call. One guy had a meth lab in his car. There are rural areas in Tennessee that you had better never enter if the locals do not know you. You are being watched, and if you aren't buying, or just passing through, they'll kill you in a heartbeat. The situation is getting better though.

Looks like fun! Wind must be blowing from the opposite direction of the Santa Annas! Is this a remnant of what hit Oregon? (Haven't seen the news in over a week, but heard about Oregon on the radio).

They had a video of salmon (the fish) swimming down a paved street in Washington (the state). It was skimming across spots where there was only about an inch of water. (for me to watch, not for the salmon)

I just had an Alice/migraine moment. The room suddenly shifted about 3 feet to the left (my head and eyes hadn't moved) and the tabletop seemed to drop to the floor. Within 5 minutes I've developed a horrendous migraine. I feel like this:

Don't Come Around Here No More

Dunno. I think it's a new one. We're due for heavy rain again tomorow, through to Monday maybe. Some guy got his board snapped in half on him yesterday out there. Went down to the hill by the pier at lunch and watched it (we're a few miles from Swami's) and the waves were breaking in at the bottom of the pier platform. Just gorgeous. And loud. Not much wind at the beach, though. Is farther out right now. It'll get here soon enough, though.

{waves at Lauri}

{Lauri waves back}