As part of a huge study that localize out to probe how the brain changes throughout our lives , scientist have identified a internet of brain part that are vulnerable to disorders that affect mastermind social structure in both younger people ( such as schizophrenia ) and aging soul ( such as Alzheimer ’s ) .
This “ weak fleck ” does not develop until late in adolescence , but is one of the first areas to show devolution in normal aging . Although much more work is require , scientist are hopeful that this raw find could one day aid medico identify those at risk of developing disease such as these in the first place than is presently possible .
For the study , which has been release inProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences , scientists fromOxford Universitylooked at how the brain transfer as we senesce . To do this , they scanned the brains of almost 500 healthy volunteers between the age of 8 and 85 . Rather than focus on country that they predicted would be most affected , they took the whole brain into account and looked for any patterns that emerged .
They identified a specific region within our brain ’s grey-haired matter , which is apinkish - grey tissueconsisting of cell body , that appear to originate comparatively late during adolescence , but then degenerates at a faster rate than the rest of the brain during normal aging . This web mostly consists of higher - order neighborhood that coordinate information from unlike senses , such as mickle and sound , and is associated withintellectual abilityand occasional , or event , memory . Although it ’s been known for some time that gray-haired matter declines with age , the findings seem to indicate that this meshwork is more vulnerable than others .
Next , they liken this data with CAT scan accept from individuals with Alzheimer ’s and schizophrenia , and institute that the same networks appear to be affected . accord to the researchers , this suggest that these complex brain regions may be involved in the ontogenesis of these two immensely different disorder , despite the fact that they have different origins and come out at almost paired time in life .
These findings , the authors reason , highlight a crucial and previously missing contact between development , aging , and disease processes in the mind .
“ Early Dr. called schizophrenia ‘ untimely dementia ’ but until now we had no clear evidence that the same part of the psyche might be associated with two such dissimilar diseases , ” Professor Hugh Perry of the MRC ’s Neurosciences and Mental Health Board tell in anews release . “ The more we can find out about these very difficult disorders , the closer we will follow to helping sufferers and their family . ”
[ ViaPNAS , Oxford UniversityandBBC News ]
