Effective memory formation declines as we age, in part because our ability to form representations in the brain is diminished with a decline in neural selectivity, or the extent to which some neurons or cortical regions respond more strongly than others to specific stimuli. Now, Jintao Sheng and colleagues suggest that protein pathologies related to Alzheimer’s disease and age-related changes in top-down or voluntarily directed attention can affect neural selectivity in cognitively unimpaired people. In their study of 166 such participants, Sheng et al. found these changes contributed to reduced episodic memory performance. The researchers used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) with the participants as they performed a word-face/word-place associative memory task. They found that changes in top-down attention that seemed to broaden activity across preferred and non-preferred stimuli, as well as elevated plasma levels of the Alzheimer’s-associated protein Tau181, independently affected age-related episodic memory decline. Sheng et al. note that these factors “alter the precision of cortical representations of event features during experience, with consequences for future remembering.”

The proto-oncogene c-Fos serves as a critical marker of neuronal activation, rapidly induced in response to novel stimuli and playing a pivotal role in learning and memory through pathways such as ERK/CREB and long-term potentiation (LTP). However, in Alzheimer’s disease (AD), c-Fos expression becomes dysregulated, contributing to neurotoxicity, cognitive deficits, and neuronal apoptosis. This review explores the contrasting roles of c-Fos in healthy and AD-afflicted brains, highlighting its involvement in synaptic plasticity, neuroinflammation, and oxidative stress, and discusses its potential as a therapeutic target.

Published in the journal Brain, the study precisely describes how atrophy progresses in the medial temporal lobe and demonstrates the value of MRI as an early structural biomarker.

The study shows that atrophy in medial temporal lobe (MTL) regions begins 13 to 15 years before the first symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease in people with Down syndrome, opening a critical window for early detection and intervention.

The volume of the posterior hippocampus is confirmed as one of the most accurate structural biomarkers for identifying the symptomatic onset of Alzheimer’s, with diagnostic capacity comparable to cerebrospinal fluid analyses.

For the first time, a detailed chronological map of how MTL degeneration progresses in Down syndrome has been established, which could guide clinical trials and targeted therapies in very early stages of the disease.

BUFFALO, NY — June 12, 2025 — A new research paper was published in Aging (Aging-US) Volume 17, Issue 5, on May 3, 2025, titled “APOE genotype and biological age impact inter-omic associations related to bioenergetics.”

Older adults are quite aware of their financial abilities – and these abilities actually improve with age – that is, until dementia sets in, according to new research from Binghamton University, State University of New York.

Using advanced single-nuclei RNA sequencing (snRNA-seq) and a widely used preclinical model for Alzheimer’s disease, researchers from Mass General Brigham and collaborators at SUNY Upstate Medical University have identified specific brain cell types that responded most to exercise.