Neurosciences Commons^™

Sub-Regional Motor–Somatosensory Connectivity And Lifespan Plasticity In Functional Networks, Adnan A. S. Alahmadi

Neurosciences

Objectives: To determine how cytoarchitectonically defined subdivisions of the primary motor cortex, somatosensory cortex, and supplementary motor area (SMA) reorganize their integration with large-scale brain networks during healthy aging. This study investigated the lifespan trajectories of functional connectivity within cytoarchitectonically defined subregions of the primary motor cortex, somatosensory cortex, and supplementary motor area (SMA).

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of resting-state fMRI data from 150 healthy individuals (aged 23–80 years), stratified into young, middle-aged, and older groups. Data were sourced from the Southwest University Adult Lifespan Dataset (SALD) and analyzed between June 2024 and June 2025. Using the Jülich …

Empowering Women: Understanding Neurological Changes In The Aging Brain, Joy Mckenzie

InnovateHER Meeting 2026

Women tend to have more neurological changes than men as they age starting in their mid-30s (Mosconi, 2024). While aging is a natural process, the neurological changes can impact a woman’s personal and professional quality of life (Faubion et al., 2023; Gravini, 2023). For years, women’s neurological symptoms have been ignored by being told that their experiences are normal and just a part of life (Haver, 2025). That narrative is starting to shift with the increased awareness of changes specific to women. There are resources to assess cognitive changes such as memory, processing speed, and word finding and strategies to …

An Investigation Of The Roles Aging, Gender And Age-Related Hearing Loss Play In Emotional Prosody Recognition, Giavanna Yowell

Undergraduate Honors Thesis Collection

Emotional prosody recognition is crucial for social interactions but is influenced by aging, gender, and age-related hearing loss (Lambrecht et al., 2012; Oerlemans et al., 2014; Palermo et al., 2013). No past studies have looked at all of these factors collectively. To address this shortcoming, the current study explored the relationships between aging, hearing loss and gender differences in emotional prosody recognition. The ability to recognize emotions through facial expressions was also included as a comparative measure. One hundred fifteen individuals (42 men and 73 women), ages 50 and older (M = 60.39, SD = 8.12), completed a hearing handicap …

Feeding The Mind: Dietary Consumption And Neural Aging, Bhavani Tuppale

Senior Theses

Neural aging is the process of physiological decline in the brain and increased vulnerability to neurodegenerative diseases. Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease are associated with aging and the interaction of genetics and lifestyle choices. Previous research studies have connected Alzheimer’s disease with dysfunction in the metabolic system. To combat age-associated dysfunctions in the metabolic system, research studies propose using the ketogenic diet, which utilizes ketone bodies as an energy source instead of glucose. The thesis analyzes literature on the effect of neural aging on various model organisms, how a ketogenic diet affects aging model organisms, and how aging and …

Noradrenergic Innervation Across Brain Regions Is Altered By Aging And By Disease Progression In A Mouse Model Of Alzheimer’S Disease Neuropathology, Nicole M Hernandez, Manuel Silva-Pérez, Jeannie Chin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Norepinephrine plays critical roles in modulating arousal and attention, is highly dynamic in awake, behaving individuals, and has anti-inflammatory and neuroprotective actions. Notably, the locus coeruleus (LC), the primary source of norepinephrine in the central nervous system, is among the first brain regions to show pathological alterations in early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). LC neuronal loss and associated reductions in norepinephrine in the brain have therefore been postulated to play a key role in AD pathophysiology. LC neurons and their axons have been studied in several mouse models of AD-related neuropathology to investigate their contribution to brain dysfunction in …

Age-Related Variations Of The Hemodynamic Response Function Spatially Resolved Across Human Cerebral Cortex, Nooshin J Fesharaki, Amanda Taylor, David Ress

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Normal aging leads to regional vascular and neural alterations. Age-related impairments in neurovascular coupling (NVC) affect the blood-oxygen-level-dependent (BOLD) hemodynamic response function (HRF) measured with functional magnetic resonance imaging, causing changes in both amplitude and temporal dynamics. Previously, global, systematic age-related changes in HRF characteristics were demonstrated, consistent with known microvascular aging effects. In this follow-up study, a standard space was used to compare spatially resolved cortical HRF dynamics between sex-balanced groups of young and older adults. The results showed substantial age-related differences in both HRF amplitude and timing across distinct cortical regions. Nearly twice as much cortical area exhibited …

Pkr-Driven Isr Signaling Controls Synaptic Translation And Structural Plasticity In An Age-Dependent Manner, Nicolás W Martínez, Felipe Gómez, Ariel Tapia-Godoy, Juan Francisco Roa, Fernanda Moreso-Contreras, Yuwei Liu, Claudia Jara, Cheril Tapia-Rojas, Iván Alfaro, Mauro Costa-Mattioli, Soledad Matus

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The integrated stress response (ISR) modulates protein homeostasis in response to both intracellular and extracellular signals. The four kinases involved in the ISR all phosphorylate the same target, the alpha subunit of eukaryotic initiation factor 2 (eIF2α), to integrate various stress signals, thereby regulating cell fate. The activation of the ISR reprograms the proteome by inhibiting general protein synthesis while increasing the translation of specific mRNAs. In the brain, the ISR regulates the type of synaptic plasticity necessary for forming long-term memory. More importantly, the activation of the ISR has emerged as a causal mechanism underlying cognitive decline associated with …

A Protective Role Of Src-1 Against Aging Associated Cognitive Decline, Hesong Liu, Yongjie Yang, Jonathan C Bean, Yang He, Hailan Liu, Rambabu Majji, Chen Liang, Nan Zhang, Meng Yu, Longlong Tu, Qingzhuo Liu, Yue Deng, Kristine M Conde, Na Yin, Mengjie Wang, Yongxiang Li, Junying Han, Sanika Vattakuzhiyil Jossy, Megan Elyse Burt, Hari Krishna Yalamanchili, Chunmei Wang

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Introduction: Research indicates a strong correlation between obesity and the risk of dementia, both are linked to steroid receptor coactivator-1 (SRC-1), a transcriptional coactivator.

Methods: We used RNA sequencing analysis (RNA-Seq) to investigate the transcriptome of SRC-1-KO mice, and identified S100 calcium-binding protein A6 (S100A6), an AD associated gene, as one target of SRC-1. We tested cognitive behaviors in SRC-1-KO mice and mice with a humanized SRC-1 mutation (SRC-1L1376P), and performed promoter luciferase assays on S100A6.

Results: Loss of SRC-1 caused alterations in gene signatures that are commonly associated with neurodegenerative diseases, including AD, and diminished the neural plasticity of …

Volumetric Changes In Cerebellar Transverse Zones: Age And Sex Effects In Health And Neurological Disorders, Farshid Ghiyamihoor, Payam Paymani, Jarrad Perron, Azam Asemi-Rad, Mehdi Marzban, Aashka Mohite, Karen Ardila, Bara Aljada, Asghar Marzban, Mehnosh Toback, Sherif Eltonsy, Ji Hyun Ko, Tabrez J Siddiqui, Christopher J Steele, Jiming Kong, Mario Manto, M Ethan Macdonald, Jason S Gill, Roy V Sillitoe, Fuat Balcı, Iman Beheshti, Hassan Marzban

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Cerebellar volumetric changes are intricately linked to aging, with distinct patterns across its transverse zones, the functional subdivisions characterized by unique cytoarchitectural and connectivity profiles. Despite research efforts, the cerebellar aging process in health and neurological disorders remains poorly understood. In this study, we investigated the effects of age and sex on total cerebellum, transverse zone, and lobule volumes using MRI data from over 45,000 participants compiled from six neuroimaging datasets. We also propose a framework for estimating cerebellum age as an indicator of cerebellar health. Significant age‐dependent volume reductions were observed across transverse zones, with the …

Activation Of Basal Forebrain Afferents Following Systemic Inflammation, Alexis Morgan Blas

Theses and Dissertations

Sepsis is a large-scale immune response typically due to an imbalance of pro- and anti-inflammatory responses due to some type of infection or insult. Around 1.7 million adults in the United States will develop it each year, making it the leading cause of increased morbidity and mortality in hospitals. Sepsis can lead to many different symptoms, one of which is delirium. Delirium is a mental state of confusion and disorientation and involves delusions, hallucinations, memory issues, and most commonly inattention. Delirium is more prevalent in older individuals which leads to further complications and a higher likelihood of development of long-term …

Sex Differences In Response To Diet Enriched With Glutathione Precursors In The Aging Heart, Aude Angelini, Grecia Garcia Marquez, Anna Malovannaya, Marta L Fiorotto, Alexander Saltzman, Antrix Jain, Joann Trial, George E Taffet, Katarzyna A Cieslik

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Common features of the aging heart are dysregulated metabolism, inflammation, and fibrosis. Elevated oxidative stress is another hallmark of cardiac aging that can exacerbate each of these conditions. We hypothesize that by increasing natural antioxidant levels (glutathione), we will improve cardiac function. Twenty-one-month-old mice were fed glycine and N-acetyl cysteine (GlyNAC; glutathione precursors)-supplemented or control diets for 12 weeks. Heart function was monitored longitudinally, and the exercise performance was determined at the end of the study. We found that the GlyNAC diet was beneficial for old male but not old female mice, leading to an increase of Ndufb8 expression (a …

Age-Related Tfeb Downregulation In Proximal Tubules Causes Systemic Metabolic Disorders And Occasional Apolipoprotein A4-Related Amyloidosis, Jun Nakamura, Takeshi Yamamoto, Yoshitsugu Takabatake, Tomoko Namba-Hamano, Atsushi Takahashi, Jun Matsuda, Satoshi Minami, Shinsuke Sakai, Hiroaki Yonishi, Shihomi Maeda, Sho Matsui, Hideaki Kawai, Isao Matsui, Tadashi Yamamuro, Ryuya Edahiro, Seiji Takashima, Akira Takasawa, Yukinori Okada, Tamotsu Yoshimori, Andrea Ballabio, Yoshitaka Isaka

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

With the aging of society, the incidence of chronic kidney disease (CKD), a common cause of death, has been increasing. Transcription factor EB (TFEB), the master transcriptional regulator of the autophagy/lysosomal pathway, is regarded as a promising candidate for preventing various age-related diseases. However, whether TFEB in the proximal tubules plays a significant role in elderly patients with CKD remains unknown. First, we found that nuclear TFEB localization in proximal tubular epithelial cells (PTECs) declined with age in both mice and humans. Next, we generated PTEC-specific Tfeb-deficient mice and bred them for up to 24 months. We found that TFEB …

Global Impact Of Aging On The Hemodynamic Response Function In The Gray Matter Of Human Cerebral Cortex, Nooshin J Fesharaki, Amanda Taylor, Keisjon Mosby, Ruosha Li, Jung Hwan Kim, David Ress

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

In functional magnetic resonance imaging, the hemodynamic response function (HRF) is a stereotypical response to local changes in cerebral hemodynamics and oxygen metabolism due to briefly (< 4 s) evoked neural activity. Accordingly, the HRF is often used as an impulse response with the assumption of linearity in data analysis. In cognitive aging studies, it has been very common to interpret differences in brain activation as age-related changes in neural activity. Contrary to this assumption, however, evidence has accrued that normal aging may also significantly affect the vasculature, thereby affecting cerebral hemodynamics and metabolism, confounding interpretation of fMRI cognitive aging studies. In this study, use was made of a multisensory task to evoke the HRF in ~87% of cerebral cortex in cognitively intact adults with ages ranging from 22 to 75 years. This widespread activation enabled us to investigate age trends in the spatial distributions of HRF characteristics within the majority of cortical gray matter, which we termed as global age trends. The task evoked both positive and negative HRFs, which were characterized using model-free parameters in native-space coordinates. We found significant global age trends in the distributions of HRF parameters in terms of both amplitudes (e.g., peak amplitude and contrast-to-noise ratio) and temporal dynamics (e.g., full-width-at-half-maximum). Our findings offer insight into how age-dependent changes affect neurovascular coupling and show promise for use of HRF parameters as non-invasive indicators for age-related pathology.

Chronic Β3-Ar Stimulation Activates Distinct Thermogenic Mechanisms In Brown And White Adipose Tissue And Improves Systemic Metabolism In Aged Mice, Duraipandy Natarajan, Bhuvana Plakkot, Kritika Tiwari, Shoba Ekambaram, Weidong Wang, Michael Rudolph, Mahmoud A Mohammad, Shaji K Chacko, Madhan Subramanian, Stefano Tarantini, Andriy Yabluchanskiy, Zoltan Ungvari, Anna Csiszar, Priya Balasubramanian

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Adipose thermogenesis has been actively investigated as a therapeutic target for improving metabolic dysfunction in obesity. However, its applicability to middle-aged and older populations, which bear the highest obesity prevalence in the United States (approximately 40%), remains uncertain due to age-related decline in thermogenic responses. In this study, we investigated the effects of chronic thermogenic stimulation using the β3-adrenergic (AR) agonist CL316,243 (CL) on systemic metabolism and adipose function in aged (18-month-old) C57BL/6JN mice. Sustained β3-AR treatment resulted in reduced fat mass, increased energy expenditure, increased fatty acid oxidation and mitochondrial activity in adipose depots, improved glucose homeostasis, and a …

Resting State Electrophysiological Profiles And Their Relationship With Cognitive Performance In Cognitively Unimpaired Older Adults: A Systematic Review, Brenda Chino, David López-Sanz, Sandra Doval, Lucía Torres-Simón, Jaisalmer De Frutos Lucas, Lydia Giménez-Llort, Jonathan Zegarra-Valdivia, Fernando Maestú

Research outputs 2022 to 2026

Background: Aging is a complex and natural process. The physiological decline related to aging is accompanied by a slowdown in cognitive processes, which begins shortly after individuals reach maturity. These changes have been sometimes interpreted as a compensatory sign and others as a fingerprint of deterioration. Objective: In this context, our aim is to uncover the mechanisms that underlie and support normal cognitive functioning in the brain during the later stages of life. Methods: With this purpose, a systematic literature search was conducted using PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science databases, which identified 781 potential articles. After applying inclusion and …

Healthy Aging Modulates The Neural Oscillatory Activity Underlying Basic Visual Processing And Verbal Working Memory, Seth D. Springer

Theses & Dissertations

Worldwide economic and medical improvements have led to profound demographic shifts towards an older overall population. Unfortunately, with older age comes a variety of neurological changes which act to decrease individual quality of life and independence. Since the advent of functional neuroimaging, investigation of age-related changes in neural activity has been of particular interest. However, changes in population-level neural dynamics with age remain poorly characterized. Herein, we utilized magnetoencephalography (MEG), comprehensive neuropsychological assessments, and advanced analytical techniques to investigate spectrally-specific changes in neural oscillatory activity in a healthy aging population. First, we examined age-related deficiencies in visual processing using a …

Retinoid X Receptor As A Mediator Of Post Stroke Recovery By Reversing Age-Associated Phenotypes Of Microglia/Macrophages, Shun-Ming Ting

Dissertations and Theses (Open Access)

After stroke, microglia (MG) and blood-derived macrophages, together (MF), clear dead cells and cellular debris in the infarcted brain through phagocytosis. However, the phagocytic capability of MF declines with age. Age-related changes in MF phenotype also include overactive inflammatory responses to stroke-induced brain injury, altogether resulting in poor recovery after stroke. Retinoid-X-receptor (RXR) is a pleiotropic transcription factor. Our studies suggest that RXRa enhances MF phagocytic functions, reduces inflammatory responses, and improves post-stroke recovery. To establish phenotypes of aging MF, MG were MACS-sorted from the brains of young adults (2-4 months old) and aged (18-20 months old) mice for transcriptomic …

Mapping The Maze Of Time: Unraveling Chronological Age-Induced Structural Transformations In The C57bl6 Mouse Brain, Angelica Arshoun, Adam Jasper, Ella D'Amico, Frank Yeh, Kirk Erickson, Amrita Sahu, Fabrisia Ambrosio

Tower Health Research Day

No abstract provided.

Longitudinal Single-Cell Transcriptional Dynamics Throughout Neurodegeneration In Sca1, Leon Tejwani, Neal G Ravindra, Changwoo Lee, Yubao Cheng, Billy Nguyen, Kimberly Luttik, Luhan Ni, Shupei Zhang, Logan M Morrison, John Gionco, Yangfei Xiang, Jennifer Yoon, Hannah Ro, Fatema Haidery, Rosalie M Grijalva, Eunwoo Bae, Kristen Kim, Regina T Martuscello, Harry T Orr, Huda Y Zoghbi, Hayley S Mcloughlin, Laura P W Ranum, Vikram G Shakkottai, Phyllis L Faust, Siyuan Wang, David Van Dijk, Janghoo Lim

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Neurodegeneration is a protracted process involving progressive changes in myriad cell types that ultimately results in the death of vulnerable neuronal populations. To dissect how individual cell types within a heterogeneous tissue contribute to the pathogenesis and progression of a neurodegenerative disorder, we performed longitudinal single-nucleus RNA sequencing of mouse and human spinocerebellar ataxia type 1 (SCA1) cerebellar tissue, establishing continuous dynamic trajectories of each cell population. Importantly, we defined the precise transcriptional changes that precede loss of Purkinje cells and, for the first time, identified robust early transcriptional dysregulation in unipolar brush cells and oligodendroglia. Finally, we applied a …

Aging Fly Cell Atlas Identifies Exhaustive Aging Features At Cellular Resolution, Kenneth A Wilson, Sudipta Bar, Eric B Dammer, Enrique M Carrera, Brian A Hodge, Tyler A U Hilsabeck, Joanna Bons, George W Brownridge, Jennifer N Beck, Jacob Rose, Melia Granath-Panelo, Christopher S Nelson, Grace Qi, Akos A Gerencser, Jianfeng Lan, Alexandra Afenjar, Geetanjali Chawla, Rachel B Brem, Philippe M Campeau, Hugo J Bellen, Birgit Schilling, Nicholas T Seyfried, Lisa M Ellerby, Pankaj Kapahi

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Dietary restriction (DR) delays aging, but the mechanism remains unclear. We identified polymorphisms in mtd, the fly homolog of OXR1, which influenced lifespan and mtd expression in response to DR. Knockdown in adulthood inhibited DR-mediated lifespan extension in female flies. We found that mtd/OXR1 expression declines with age and it interacts with the retromer, which regulates trafficking of proteins and lipids. Loss of mtd/OXR1 destabilized the retromer, causing improper protein trafficking and endolysosomal defects. Overexpression of retromer genes or pharmacological restabilization with R55 rescued lifespan and neurodegeneration in mtd-deficient flies and endolysosomal defects in fibroblasts from patients with lethal loss-of-function …

Age-Related Longitudinal Changes In Gray Matter Microstructure, Jessica Hayes

Wayne State University Theses

Measures of the brain’s microstructure may be more sensitive markers of aging than macrostructural measures. However, it remains unclear exactly how gray matter microstructure changes during aging and how this relates to changes in macrostructure. The present study evaluated how neurite density, orientation dispersion, and gray matter volume changed over a three-year period in a sample of healthy older adults. The role of age in modifying structural change within the hippocampus, precuneus, and rostral anterior cingulate cortex was also considered. Repeated measures general linear models additionally evaluated whether degree of change in microstructure between the first two measurement occasions modified …

Abnormal Regulation Of Mitochondrial Sphingolipids During Aging And Alzheimer’S Disease, Simone M. Crivelli, Zainuddin Quadri, Ahmed Elsherbini, Hemendra J. Vekaria, Patrick G. Sullivan, Wenbo Zhi, Pilar Martinez-Martinez, Stefka D. Spassieva, Erhard Bieberich

Markey Cancer Center Faculty Publications

During pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), mitochondria suffer alterations that lead to low energy production and reactive oxygen species formation. However, the mechanism of impaired mitochondria homeostasis in AD is not fully understood. We hypothesized that abnormal sphingolipid metabolism in mitochondria could be one of the contributing factors to mitochondrial dysfunction. Synaptic and non-synaptic mitochondria were isolated from 5xFAD and wild type (WT) mice at 3 and 7 months using Ficoll gradient ultracentrifugation, and their function was analyzed using Seahorse assay. Additionally, mitochondria were ana- lyzed using mass spectrometry for proteomics and sphingolipidomics analyses. Sphingolipid levels were also determined in …

In Sickness And In Health-Type I Interferon And The Brain, Wei Cao

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Type I interferons (IFN-I) represent a group of pleiotropic cytokines renowned for their antiviral activity and immune regulatory functions. A multitude of studies have unveiled a critical role of IFN-I in the brain, influencing various neurological processes and diseases. In this mini-review, I highlight recent findings on IFN-I's effects on brain aging, Alzheimer's disease (AD) progression, and central nervous system (CNS) homeostasis. The multifaceted influence of IFN-I on brain health and disease sheds light on the complex interplay between immune responses and neurological processes. Of particular interest is the cGAS-STING-IFN-I axis, which extensively participates in brain aging and various forms …

Fornix Volumetric Increase During Aging Associates To Microglia Activation Leading To Defective Cognitive Performance, Marcela Cárdenas Tueme, Luis Ángel Trujillo-Villarreal, Victor Ramírez-Amaya, Eduardo Garza-Villarreal, Alberto Camacho-Morales, Diana Reséndez-Pérez

Research Symposium

Background: Ageing displays a low-grade pro-inflammatory profile in blood and brain. It has been documented proinflammatory cytokines accumulation leading to neuroinflammation during aging. Aged brains integrate pro inflammatory cytokines accumulation, active microglia and volumetric changes which correlates with defective cognitive performance and neurodegeneration.

Methods: Mice from 2-,12- and 20-months-old of age were submitted to different memory tests: Y-maze, Barnes maze, object location test and object location test. Afterwards, we performed structural MRI to evaluate macrostructural changes related to memory and learning regions. Following this, we also evaluated in peripheral blood and in brain tissue the presence of pro-inflammatory cytokines …

Structure, Function, And Molecular Landscapes Of The Aging Retina, Jeffrey D Zhu, Sharma Pooja Tarachand, Qudrat Abdulwahab, Melanie A Samuel

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Because the central nervous system is largely nonrenewing, neurons and their synapses must be maintained over the lifetime of an individual to ensure circuit function. Age is a dominant risk factor for neural diseases, and declines in nervous system function are a common feature of aging even in the absence of disease. These alterations extend to the visual system and, in particular, to the retina. The retina is a site of clinically relevant age-related alterations but has also proven to be a uniquely approachable system for discovering principles that govern neural aging because it is well mapped, contains diverse neuron …

Clinical And Functional Correlates Of Parkinsonism In A Population-Based Sample Of Individuals Aged 75 +: The Pietà Study, Thiago Cardoso Vale, Francisco Eduardo Costa Cardoso, Danilo Jorge Da Silva, Elisa De Paula Franca Resende, Débora Palma Maia, Mauro César Quintão Cunningham, Henrique Cerqueira Guimarães, João Carlos Barbosa Machado, Antônio Lúcio Teixeira, Paulo Caramelli, Maira Tonidandel Barbosa

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Parkinsonism is strongly associated with ageing, and many studies have suggested that parkinsonian signs may affect up to half of older adults and is associated with a wide range of adverse health outcomes. We compared clinical and functional characteristics of oldest-old community-dwelling individuals with parkinsonism (parkinsonian group [PG]) to individuals without parkinsonism (non-parkinsonian group [NPG].

METHODS: The Pietà study is a population-based study conducted in Caeté, southeast Brazil, involving 607 individuals aged 75 + years submitted to an extensive clinical evaluation. A subset of 65 PG individuals (61.5% women, median age of 82 years) was compared to 542 NPG …

Lower Socioeconomic Status Is Associated With Premature Brain Aging, Natalie Busby, Sarah Newman-Norlund, Sara Sayers, Roger Newman-Norlund, Janina Wilmskoetter, Chris Rorden, Samaneh Nemati, Sarah Wilson, Nicholas Riccardi, Rebecca Roth, Lisa Johnson, Dirk B. Den Ouden, Julius Fridriksson, Leonardo Bonilha

Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Articles and Research

Background

Methods

Effects Of Age On Amplitude-Modulated Cvemp Temporal Modulation Transfer Function, Raghav H. Jha

Dissertations, 2020-current

With the aging population on the rise, the need for effective assessment tools to identify risk factors for falls among the elderly is paramount. One independent risk factor for falls is vestibular impairment, but the available vestibular diagnostic tests have limitations. A promising new methodology: amplitude-modulated tones to elicit a vestibular-evoked myogenic potential (AMcVEMP), offers a more detailed examination of vestibular (sacculo-collic reflex) functions. This method assesses non-linearities, synchrony, and magnitude, providing a more thorough evaluation compared to the conventional transient cVEMP. So far, AMcVEMP has only been utilized in young adults.

The current study aimed to investigate the impact …

Aging Fly Cell Atlas Identifies Exhaustive Aging Features At Cellular Resolution, Tzu-Chiao Lu, Maria Brbić, Ye-Jin Park, Tyler Jackson, Jiaye Chen, Sai Saroja Kolluru, Yanyan Qi, Nadja Sandra Katheder, Xiaoyu Tracy Cai, Seungjae Lee, Yen-Chung Chen, Niccole Auld, Chung-Yi Liang, Sophia H Ding, Doug Welsch, Samuel D'Souza, Angela Oliveira Pisco, Robert C Jones, Jure Leskovec, Eric C Lai, Hugo J Bellen, Liqun Luo, Heinrich Jasper, Stephen R Quake, Hongjie Li

Duncan NRI Faculty and Staff Publications

Aging is characterized by a decline in tissue function, but the underlying changes at cellular resolution across the organism remain unclear. Here, we present the Aging Fly Cell Atlas, a single-nucleus transcriptomic map of the whole aging Drosophila. We characterize 163 distinct cell types and perform an in-depth analysis of changes in tissue cell composition, gene expression, and cell identities. We further develop aging clock models to predict the fly age and show that ribosomal gene expression is a conserved predictive factor for age. Combining all aging features, we find unique cell type-specific aging patterns. This atlas provides a …

Interaction Analysis Of Ancestry-Enriched Variants With Apoe-Ɛ4 On Mci In The Study Of Latinos-Investigation Of Neurocognitive Aging, Einat Granot-Hershkovitz, Rui Xia, Yunju Yang, Brian Spitzer, Wassim Tarraf, Priscilla M Vásquez, Richard B Lipton, Martha Daviglus, Maria Argos, Jianwen Cai, Robert Kaplan, Myriam Fornage, Charles Decarli, Hector M Gonzalez, Tamar Sofer

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

APOE-ɛ4 risk on Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and Alzheimer's Disease (AD) differs between race/ethnic groups, presumably due to ancestral genomic background surrounding the APOE locus. We studied whether African and Amerindian ancestry-enriched genetic variants in the APOE region modify the effect of the APOE-ɛ4 alleles on Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) in Hispanics/Latinos. We defined African and Amerindian ancestry-enriched variants as those common in one Hispanic/Latino parental ancestry and rare in the other two. We identified such variants in the APOE region with a predicted moderate impact based on the SnpEff tool. We tested their interaction with APOE-ɛ4 on MCI in …