Title:Environmental Training and Synaptic Functions in Young and Old Brain: A Presynaptic Perspective
Volume: 26
Issue: 20
关键词:
幼鼠，老年鼠，环境富集，胞吐，谷氨酸，去甲肾上腺素，GABA。
摘要:
Background: Aging is an unavoidable, physiological process that reduces the complexity
and the plasticity of the synaptic contacts in Central Nervous System (CNS), having profound
implications for human well-being. The term “cognitive reserve” refers to central cellular adaptations
that augment the resilience of human brain to damage and aging. The term “Cognitive training”
indicates the cultural, social and physical stimulations proposed as add-on therapy for the cure of
central neurological diseases. “Cognitive training” reinforces the “cognitive reserve” permitting to
counteract brain impairments and rejuvenating synaptic complexity. The research has begun
investigating the clinical impact of the “cognitive training” in aged people, but additional work is
needed to definitively assess its effectiveness. In particular, there is a need to understand, from a
preclinical point of view, whether “cognitive training” promotes compensatory effects or,
alternatively, if it elicits genuine recovery of neuronal defects. Although the translation from rodent
studies to the clinical situation could be difficult, the results from pre-clinical models are of high
clinical relevance, since they should allow a better understanding of the effects of environmental
interventions in aging-associated chronic derangements in mammals.
Conclusion: Data in literature and the recent results obtained in our laboratory concerning the impact
of environmental stimulation on the presynaptic release of noradrenaline, glutamate and gamma
amino butyric acid (GABA) suggest that these neurotransmitters undergo different adaptations during
aging and that they are differently tuned by “cognitive training”. The impact of “cognitive training”
on neurotransmitter exocytosis might account for the cellular events involved in reinforcement
of “cognitive reserve” in young and old animals.
