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Monday, August 24, 2015

Nonagenarian athlete: Researchers study Olga Kotelko's brain


Nonagenarian athlete: Researchers study Olga Kotelko's 

brain

Date:
August 17, 2015
Source:
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Summary:
In the summer of 2012, Olga Kotelko, a 93-year-old Canadian track-and-field athlete with more than 30 world records in her age group, submitted to an in-depth analysis of her brain. The resulting study offers a surprising first glimpse of the potential effects of exercise on the brains and cognitive abilities of the 'oldest old.'

FULL STORY


University of Illinois Beckman Institute postdoctoral researcher Agnieszka Burzynska and her colleagues analyzed the brain and cognition of Olga Kotelko, a 93-year-old track-and-field athlete. Burzynska is now a professor at Colorado State University.

Credit: L. Brian Stauffer

In the summer of 2012, Olga Kotelko, a 93-year-old Canadian track-and-field athlete with more than 30 world records in her age group, visited the Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology at the University of Illinois and submitted to an in-depth analysis of her brain.

The resulting study, reported in the journal Neurocase, offers a surprising first glimpse of the potential effects of exercise on the brains and cognitive abilities of the "oldest old."

A retired teacher and mother of two, Kotelko started her athletic career late in life. She began with slow-pitch softball at age 65, and at 77 switched to track-and-field events, later enlisting the help of a coach. By the time of her death in 2014, she had won 750 gold medals in her age group in World Masters Athletics events, and had set new world records in the 100-meter, 200-meter, high jump, long jump, javelin, discus, shot put and hammer events.
 

Lacking a peer group of reasonably healthy nonagenarians for comparison, the researchers decided to compare Kotelko with a group of 58 healthy, low-active women who were 60 to 78 years old.

"In our studies, we often collect data from adults who are between 60 and 80 years old, and we have trouble finding participants who are 75 to 80 and relatively healthy," said U. of I. postdoctoral researcher Agnieszka Burzynska, who led the new analysis. As a result, very few studies have focused on the "oldest old," she said.

"Although it is tough to generalize from a single study participant to other individuals, we felt very fortunate to have an opportunity to study the brain and cognition of such an exceptional individual," said Beckman Institute director Art Kramer, an author of the new study.

In one long day at the lab, Kotelko submitted to an MRI brain scan, a cardiorespiratory fitness test on a treadmill and cognitive tests. (All of the data are available at XNAT, a public repository; Kotelko and her daughter agreed to make her data public.)

"During dinner after the long day of testing, I asked Olga if she was tired, and she replied, 'I rarely get tired,'" Kramer said. "The decades-younger graduate students who tested her, however, looked exhausted."

The women in the comparison group underwent the same tests and scans.

The researchers wanted to determine whether Kotelko's late-life athleticism had slowed -- or perhaps even reversed -- some of the processes of aging in her brain.

"In general, the brain shrinks with age," Burzynska said. Fluid-filled spaces appear between the brain and the skull, and the ventricles enlarge, she said.

"The cortex, the outermost layer of cells where all of our thinking takes place, that also gets thinner," she said. White matter tracts, which carry nerve signals between brain regions, tend to lose their structural and functional integrity over time. And the hippocampus, which is important to memory, usually shrinks with age, Burzynska said.

Previous studies have shown that regular aerobic exercise can enhance cognition and boost brain function in older adults, and can even increase the volume of specific brain regions like the hippocampus, Kramer said.

Kotelko's brain offered some intriguing first clues about the potentially beneficial effects of her active lifestyle.

"Her brain did not seem to be, in general, very shrunken, and her ventricles did not seem to be enlarged," Burzynska said. On the other hand, she had obvious signs of advanced aging in the white-matter tracts of some brain regions, Burzynska said.

"Olga had quite a lot white-matter hyperintensities, which are markers of unspecific white-matter damage," she said. These are common in people over age 65, and tend to increase with age, she said.
As a whole, however, Kotelko's white-matter tracts were remarkably intact -- comparable to those of women decades younger, the researchers found. And the white-matter tracts in one region of her brain -- the genu of the corpus callosum, which connects the right and left hemispheres at the very front of the brain -- were in great shape, Burzynska said.

"Olga had the highest measure of white-matter integrity in that part of the brain, even higher than those younger females, which was very surprising," she said.

These white-matter tracts serve a region of the brain that is engaged in tasks -- such as reasoning, planning and self-control -- that are known to decline fastest in aging, Burzynska said.

Kotelko performed worse on cognitive tests than the younger women, but better than other adults her own age who had been tested in an independent study.

"She was quicker at responding to the cognitive tasks than other adults in their 90s," Burzynska said. "And on memory, she was much better than they were."

Her hippocampus was smaller than the younger participants, but larger than expected given her age, Burzynska said.

The new findings are only a very limited, first step toward calculating the effects of exercise on cognition in the oldest old, she said.

"We have only one Olga and only at one time point, so it's difficult to arrive at very solid conclusions," Burzynska said. "But I think it's very exciting to see someone who is highly functioning at 93, possessing numerous world records in the athletic field and actually having very high integrity in a brain region that is very sensitive to aging. I hope it will encourage people that even as we age, our brains remain plastic. We have more and more evidence for that."


Watch a video of her accomplishments: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NO33wpkVFo

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How to Digitally Record/Video a UFO sighting:


Como registar digitalmente ou gravar um vídeo de um avistamento de um UFO:




Stabilize the camera on a tripod. If there is no tripod, then set it on top of a stable, flat surface. If that is not possible lean against a wall to stabilize your body and prevent the camera from filming in a shaky, unsteady manner.

Estabilize a camera com um tripé. Se não tiver um tripé, então coloque-a em cima de uma superfície estável. Se não for possível, então encoste-se a uma parede para estabilizar o corpo e evitar que a camera registe de maneira tremida e instável.

Provide visual reference points for comparison. This includes the horizon, treetops, lampposts, houses, and geographical landmarks (i.e., Horsetooth Reservoir, Mt. Adams, etc.) Provide this in the video whenever is appropriate and doesn’t detract from what your focus is, the UFO.

Forneça pontos visuais de referência para comparação. Isso inclui o horizonte, cimo das árvores, postes de iluminação, pontos de referência geográficos (como o Reservatório de Horsetooth, Mone Adams, etc) Forneça esses pontos no vídeo sempre que for apropriado e não se distraia do que é o seu foco, o UFO/a Nave.

Narrate your videotape. Provide details of the date, time, location, and direction (N,S,E,W) you are looking in. Provide your observations on the weather, including approximate temperature, windspeed, any visible cloud cover or noticeable weather anomalies or events. Narrate on the shape, size, color, movements, approximate altitude of the UFO, etc and what it appears to be doing. Also include any unusual physical, psychological or emotional sensations you might have. Narrate any visual reference points on camera so they correlate with what the viewer will see, and thereby will be better able to understand.

Faça a narração do vídeo. Forneça pormenores sobre a data, hora, local e direcção (Norte, Sul, Este, Oeste) que está a observar. Faça observações sobre as condições atmosféricas, incluindo a temperatura aproximada, velocidade do vento, quantidade de nuvens, anomalias ou acontecimentos meteorológicos evidentes. Descreva a forma, o tamanho, a cor, os movimentos, a altitude aproximada onde se encontra o UFO/nave, etc e o que aparenta estar a fazer. Inclua também quaisquer aspectos pouco habituais de sensações físicas, psicológicas ou emocionais que possa ter. Faça a narração de todos os pontos de referência visual que o espectador irá ver e que, deste modo, será capaz de compreender melhor.

Be persistent and consistent. Return to the scene to videotape and record at this same location. If you have been successful once, the UFO sightings may be occurring in this region regularly, perhaps for specific reasons unknown, and you may be successful again. You may also wish to return to the same location at a different time of day (daylight hours) for better orientation and reference. Film just a minute or two under “normal” circumstances for comparison. Write down what you remember immediately after. As soon as you are done recording the experience/event, immediately write down your impressions, memories, thoughts, emotions, etc. so it is on the record in writing. If there were other witnesses, have them independently record their own impressions, thoughts, etc. Include in this exercise any drawings, sketches, or diagrams. Make sure you date and sign your documentation.

Seja persistente e não contraditório. Volte ao local da cena e registe o mesmo local. Se foi bem sucedido uma vez, pode ser que nessa região ocorram avistamentos de UFOs/naves com regularidade, talvez por razões específicas desconhecidas, e talvez possa ser novamente bem sucedido. Pode também desejar voltar ao mesmo lugar a horas diferentes do dia (durante as horas de luz)para ter uma orientação e referência melhor. Filme apenas um ,inuto ou dois em circunstâncias “normais” para ter um termo de comparação. Escreva tudo o que viu imediatamente após o acontecimento. Logo após ter feito o registo da experiência/acontecimento, escreva imediatamente as impressões, memórias, pensamentos, emoções, etc para que fiquem registadas por escrito. Se houver outras testemunhas, peça-lhes para registar independentemente as suas próprias impressões, pensamentos, etc. Inclua quaisquer desenhos, esbolos, diagramas. Certifique-se que data e assina o seu documento/testemunho.

Always be prepared. Have a digital camera or better yet a video camera with you, charged and ready to go, at all times. Make sure you know how to use your camera (and your cell phone video/photo camera) quickly and properly. These events can occur suddenly, unexpectedly, and often quite randomly, so you will need to be prepared.

Esteja sempre preparado, Tenha sempre uma camera digital, melhor ainda, uma camera vídeo consigo, carregada e pronta a usar sempre que necessário. Certifique-se que sabe como lidar com a sua camera (ou com o seu celular/camera fotográfica) rápida e adequadamente. Esses acontecimentos podem acontecer súbita e inesperadamente e, por vezes, acidentalmente, por isso, necessita estar preparado.

Look up. Be prepared. Report. Share.

Olhe para cima, Esteja preparado, Relate, Partilhe.

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