View clinical trials related to Aging Problems.
Filter by:Frailty syndrome (i.e. frailty) is a geriatric syndrome which relies on the reduction of multisystem reserve capacity. Frail people have a lower potential to respond to external stressors and various life incidents as well as they present a weak prognosis particularly in cardiovascular diseases. Yet, frailty is not only a set of physical deficits, but it also concerns psychological and social dimensions of human functioning. Hence, an approach to frailty should be multidimensional because such a concept more adequately reflects a functional degradation in the elderly. Frailty is usually associated with the impaired condition of circulatory system, and therefore, an identification of subclinical cardiovascular abnormalities is paramount in the frailty prevention and treatment. Another potential mechanism which may predispose to frailty is a dysfunction of the autonomic nervous system. This system plays a crucial role in the response to internal or external stressors such as diseases and activities of daily living. An impairment of the autonomic nervous system function may maintain or accelerate the frailty process. In this scientific project, a comprehensive echocardiography will investigate cardiac function with a particular attention to features which typically change with age, like flow parameters and chambers sizes. The activity of the autonomic nervous system will be explored with the analysis of heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory signals. The study participants will also undergo routine medical examination and a number of additional tests, including: assessment of cognitive function, psychological condition, nutrition status, activities of daily living, and risk of falls. The study group will comprise community dwelling elderly individuals over the age of 65 years who get around by themselves. After 2 years, the participants will be re-examined for their frailty and independence status, as well as their survival will be checked with the National Health Found electronic system. The aim of this project is to seek for factors determining frailty and to explore the frailty impact on the elderly people survival. Particular attention will be paid to the multidimensional frailty which is a new concept of the functional decline in the elderly. In addition, the prevalence of different modes of frailty in Polish community will be investigated. The results of this research should help to establish preventative and therapeutic strategies against frailty.
The final goal of the present study is to propose a new approach and an innovative therapeutic plan in the post-stroke rehabilitation of elderly patients, focused on the use of robotic device, in order to obtain the beneficial effects of this treatment.
Exploiting recent methodological advancements, several neuroimaging studies suggested that multisensory integration emerges from a dynamic interplay of distributed regions operating in large-scale networks. Nonetheless, the cortical structures and neuronal networks underlying the development of multisensory perception and plasticity, throughout the life span, have not yet been studied in detail. A special case of multisensory training is musical training, which utilizes stimulus' structural complexity, as well as the emotional drive that music is generating to the subjects, in order to induce augmented neuroplastic effects. Retaining the extensive neuroplastic characteristics of music training, MUSICPLAST will develop, investigate and deliver a computer provided multisensory training protocol that aims to induce neuroplastic changes in frontotemporal cortical areas. More specifically, the goal of the proposed project is threefold: (a) The in-depth understanding and modeling of the developmental trajectory of the cortical networks underlying multisensory perception, (b) the modeling of the developmental trajectory of the cortical networks underlying multisensory plasticity throughout the life span of healthy subjects; and (c) the translation of this model in a computer provided multisensory training intervention protocol, which will cause beneficial neuroplastic changes in pathological populations. Electroencephalographic, behavioral and neuropsychological measurements, and advanced data analysis procedures, pre- and post the training application are going to be employed in order to evaluate the resulting neuroplasticity holistically. The proposed protocol will also be translated into an applied intervention for 2 groups of pathological population, for which there are strong evidence that a multisensory cognitive training based on music may provide beneficial neuroplastic changes: elderlies suffering from mild cognitive Impairment and adolescents with dyslexia. The project is performed in the Laboratory of Medical Physics of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. It takes advantage of the extensive background of the laboratory in music and neuroscience, in multisensory perception and in applications that translate basic neuroscientific knowledge into computer based interventions for young adults and elderlies, building up a solid neuroscientific ground on which multidisciplinary characteristics of the project stand.
Millions of elderly adults in the USA have age related hearing loss (ARHL), a malady that affects half of adults 60-69 years, and the majority of older adults. This hearing loss not only impacts communication and functional ability, but also is strongly associated with cognitive decline and decreased quality of life. This project aims to develop effective strategies to compensate and reverse this process through a deeper understanding of plasticity and adaptive auditory function, and how to engage it and harness it to remedy ARHL.