NEW335H1 Lecture Notes - Lecture 5: Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Precentral Gyrus, Calcarine Sulcus
Lecture 5: Neuroplasticity – Part 2
Therapeutic uses of Meditation
1. Age-related cognitive impairment
2. Neurorodegenerative disease (e.g. Alzheimer’s disease)
3. Social communication disorders (such as autism)
4. Substance abuse
5. Mood disorders (such as Bipolar disorder, Anxiety, Depression and Post-
traumatic stress disorder)
Describe how aging affects cognition and memory
•Middle age:
processing speed and LTM goes down ! LT memory better than ST in general
•Semantic memories – kept available, vocab and crystallized intelligence (ability
to use learned knowledge/experience) increases with age
Declines with age:
1) Delayed free recall: spontaneous retrieval of information from memory without
a cue ex: recalling list of items
2) Source memory: knowing the source of the learned information ex:
remembering if you learned a fact because you saw it on tv
3) Prospective memory: remembering to perform intended future actions ex:
remembering to take medicine
Remains stable with age:
1) Recognition memory: ability to retrieve info when given a cue ex: correctly
giving details of a story when given yes/no questions
2) Te m p o r a l o r d e r m e m o r y : m e m o r y f o r t h e c o r r e c t t i m e o r s e q u e n c e o f p a s t
events
3) Procedural memory: memory of how to do things ex: drive
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What happens to the cortex with aging? Specifically reference the brain areas
affected by aging.
Brain areas that show age-related cortical thinning:
-Inferior prefrontal region
-Precentral gyrus
-Calcarine sulcus
•It is important to note: not all brain regions exhibit equivalent thinning – some
areas are more sensitive than others
•No effect of age on cortical thickness is observed in the middle prefrontal
region
Describe the effects of meditation on the cortex with age. Does meditation affect
the entire brain or just part of it? Discuss the brain areas affected by meditation
during aging.
-Graph shows a similar age-dependent decline in
global gray matter volume in meditators (yellow line)
and controls who do not mediate (blue line)
-Meditation does not have a huge effect on global
gray matter volume ! overall no negligible supporting
evidence of cortical thinning
-changes might not be present in a gross study that
sums all regions
-Meditation may affect SPECIFIC regions of gray
matter ie: the neuroplasticity “hotspots”
Brain areas affected by meditation during aging:
-In meditators, there is less gray
matter atrophy in advanced age than
in non-meditators
-Hippocampus, amygdala, posterior
cingulate/anterior cingulate gyrus/
mid cingulate gyrus, orbital gyrus and
insula ! common sites for meditation-
induced neuroplasticity
-This is experimental evidence, not
cross-sectional
What is the evidence for meditation
improving cognitive function in aging
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and neurodegenerative disease?
a) Evidence for meditation improving cognitive
function
- In control subjects, age is associated with reduced putamen gray matter
volume, reduced attention and increased reaction time
-In meditators, none of these associations are observed
- Attention graph: only a slight decline in meditators
- Reaction time graph: rxn time decreases in meditators
b) Meditation and neurodegenerative disease
•With aging – increased risk for neurodegenerative diseases such as
Alzheimer’s Disease and Parkinson’s Disease (Alz accounts for ~70% of
dementia cases)
•Neurodegenerative diseases affect brain structure/memory/cognition
differently than aging
*MCI = mild
cognitive impairment
*Executive functions: assigned cognitive flexibility and verbal fluency
•Modest evidence to suggest meditation may rescue cognitive function that is
lost during aging and neurodegenerative disease
•Low number and quality of studies
•Not all cognitive/memory parameters are equally sensitive to meditation
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Document Summary
Therapeutic uses of meditation: age-related cognitive impairment, neurorodegenerative disease (e. g. alzheimer"s disease, social communication disorders (such as autism, substance abuse, mood disorders (such as bipolar disorder, anxiety, depression and post- traumatic stress disorder) Describe how aging affects cognition and memory: middle age: processing speed and ltm goes down ! Semantic memories kept available, vocab and crystallized intelligence (ability to use learned knowledge/experience) increases with age. Specifically reference the brain areas affected by aging. It is important to note: not all brain regions exhibit equivalent thinning some areas are more sensitive than others: no effect of age on cortical thickness is observed in the middle prefrontal region. Describe the effects of meditation on the cortex with age. Discuss the brain areas affected by meditation during aging. Graph shows a similar age-dependent decline in global gray matter volume in meditators (yellow line) and controls who do not mediate (blue line)
