2021: Psychoneuroendocrinology of Aging: Implications for Neuroregulation (Plenary)

Abstract:
Considering that life expectancy has increased over the last few years and that age is the main risk factor for the incidence of neurocognitive disorder (NCD), the characterization of the neurobiological substrates that constitute normal cognitive aging has become increasingly relevant, as well as the underpinnings of pathological cognitive aging. Aging is a multidimensional process, that results from the interaction of multiple factors along a person’s lifespan. Hence, a better understanding of how these different factors interact with each other may lead to earlier detection, and thus, treatment of NCD. Since health is the result from the interaction from biopsychosocial mechanisms, the phenotyping of neuroendocrine profiles among the aging population might shed some light on the nature of cognitive aging (Epel et al., 2007).
As people age, the activity of several neuroendocrine axes changes, which is both a result of the aging process per se and the multiple life experiences of each particular individual. Studies have particularly focused on the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and it has been long known that aging results in a downregulation of glucocorticoid receptors in the brain (Sapolsky et al., 1986; Mizoguchi et al., 2009). This leads to a diminished efficiency of the negative feedback regulation of the HPA axis (Otte et al., 2005) which, in turn, affects cognitive function (Elgh et al., 2006). Moreover, the age-related changes in HPA activity have also been related to dendritic atrophy and synaptic loss (Cerqueira et al., 2005) as well as a decrease in hippocampal volume (Huang et al., 2009).
The present work reviews the aforementioned evidence in terms of its utility for neuroregulation research. Since the assessment of the efficacy of certain type of neurotherapy is typically carried out by means of behavioral (clinical) outcomes, the inclusion of biomarkers could lead us to a better understanding of the mechanisms involved in the observed clinical change.
With these in mind we have characterized two populations of healthy older adults, which are defined with respect to their resting EEG. I will present the evidence that we have gathered so far in terms of how neuroendocrine activity modulates brain function (Villada et al., 2020) as well as the exploration using event-related potentials during cognitive tasks.
Presented by: Mauricio Gonzalez-Lopez