Beagles and Your Brain

Just last week I had the opportunity to attend the second Cognitive Aging Summit sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. It was an outstanding opportunity to find out what researchers in the field of cognition and aging are doing.

One of the most interesting presentations was by Dr. Carl Cotman at the University of California—Irvine. He reported on research showing that a combination of antioxidant diet and an enriched environment can actually prevent memory impairments in aging beagles.

Why study beagles? Because as they get older, they show age-related memory problems similar to those in humans.The changes in their memory are mirrored by increases in amyloid in their brains, a substance that is associated with cognitive decline in humans. So beagles are a useful animal for the study of age-related memory decline. Cotman compared the effects of the antioxidant diet plus an environment full of interesting toys, exercise, and interactions with humans and other dogs to a standard diet and sedentary life style – the doggy equivalent of being a couch potato.

Cotman’s and his group’s research showed that an antioxidant diet that included antioxidant supplements combined with an enriched environment helped prevent memory problems as the dogs aged. And when the researchers looked at the dogs’ brains, they had less evidence of amyloid. They also showed greater levels of brain-derived neurotrophic growth factor (BDNF), a critical substance for the growth of new nerve cells.

Cotman argues that the antioxidants made cells better able to respond to environmental stimulation and preserve their function.

Reference:

Pop V et al. (2010). Synergistic effects of long-term antioxidant diet and behavioral enrichment on beta-amyloid load and non-amyloidogenic processing in aged canines. Journal of Neuroscience, 30, 9831-9839.

Meditation as Brain Training

Mindfulness meditation as practiced over a long period by experts makes clear changes in someone’s brain function. But what about those of us who don’t have a few years to sit in a monastery in the Himalayas? A new study shows that even brief meditation practice can improve attention.

Researchers at Wake Forest University studied whether just four days of training (at just 20 minutes a day) could make a difference in participants’ mood, energy, and cognition. Undergraduate students (average age 22 years) either participated in the meditation sessions or spent a similar amount of time sitting quietly and listening to an audio book.

Participants in the meditation condition showed decreases in anxiety and improvements in several mental processing tasks compared to those in the audio book group. The meditators’ performance on one aspect of a working memory task (how many answers they got correct in a row) suggested that they may have improved their attention.

This is a small and very preliminary study that extends others’ work on meditation and the brain.It shows that even brief meditation practice can make a difference. you don’t have to be a Buddhist monk to learn to still your mind and pay better attention. Paying attention may be one of the most important things you can do to improve your brain’s functioning.

Reference:

Zeidan F et al.(in press) Mindfulness meditation improves cognition: Evidence of brief mental training. Consciousness and Cognition, doi:10.1016/j.concog.2010.03.014