156 It would also permit comparison of the effect of treatments in these subsets. These issues cannot, be solved by any single research team. Collaborative or, at least, comparable studies require the strict definition of common basic inclusion (eg, the tests to be used with standard cutoff scores) and exclusion criteria. Before being applicable in daily practice, the Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical available sets of criteria need to be further defined and standardized. The current lack of treatment is
a hurdle to its acceptance. However, disseminating the concept could help increase the sensitivity of general practitioners to the importance of cognitive complaints and signs in their elderly patients. Selected abbreviations and acronyms AACD aging-associated cognitive decline AAMI age-associated memory impairment ACMI age-consistent memory impairment AD Alzheimer’s disease CDR Clinical Dementia Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Rating CERAD Consortium to Establish a Registry for Alzheimer’s Disease CIND cognitive impairment-no dementia DLB dementia with Lewy bodies ERC entorhinal cortex IMI isolated memory impairment LLF late-life forgetfulness Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical MCI mild cognitive impairment MMSE Mini-Mental State Examination
MTI magnetization transfer imaging NC normal control NFT neurofibrillary tangle NT neuropil thread VaD vascular dementia βA β-amyloid
A model of cognitive enhancement would be of benefit, as a screening tool in the search for new therapies for cognitive disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. This article provides arguments in favor of neurophysi ological assessments during performance in psychometric tests to fulfil such aims. The first, part, concerns
the basic characterization of event-related potentials Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical (ERPs) and, in particular, the generators of the cognitive response called P300, in terms of temporal and spatial properties. Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical Next, we investigate the effects of both noncholinergic and cholinergic drugs and their interaction in healthy young male and elderly subjects using the extracted ERP IWP-2 nmr parameter as readout. Temporal and spatial characterization of cognitive responses ERPs are transient, modifications in electromagnetic brain signals, which Tryptophan synthase are time-locked to cognitive, motor, or sensory processing. They represent activity directly at the level of neuronal networks and hence form a good method for studying the working brain and obtaining neurophysiological indices of attentional mechanisms and cognitive function. In so-called “oddball” paradigms, in which a subject is instructed to count the number of target, stimuli, a positive scalp potential with a maximum amplitude of around 300 ms is recorded and is referred to as P300 (Figure 1). Before the emergence of this type of activation, the brain signals display a sequence of components related to consecutive steps of information processing in the central nervous system (CNS), like encoding of stimulus, orienting reaction, etc. These occur in certain time-windows during normal functioning, and the term chronometry is often used.