Current Research
 -Cognitive
Disorders and Neurogerontology
INTRODUCTION
The term cognition refers to the broad range of mental abilities
that enable us to know about the world around us. These abilities
include memory, language, attention, perception, and reasoning.
Gerontology is the scientific discipline that deals with aging,
and neurogerontology more specifically deals with the aging
nervous system. Cognitive disorders are necessarily brain
disorders, and these are increasingly common after middle
age. Perhaps the most important of these illnesses is Alzheimer's
disease, one cause of severe cognitive loss (dementia) in
old age. Physicians and scientists in the Division of Cognitive
Disorders and Neurogerontology are particularly interested
in memory loss and dementia. Their clinical efforts focus
on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with these problems.
Their research focuses on understanding causes of cognitive
disorders, preventing cognitive loss during aging, and finding
new therapies for Alzheimer's disease and other cognitive
disorders.
FACULTY
John Hart, MD
Associate Professor of Geriatrics, Neurology, and Radiology
Victor W. Henderson, MD,
MS
Professor and Vice-Chair, Department of Geriatrics,
and Professor of Neurology, Pharmacology & Toxicology,
and Epidemiology
Eva Hogervorst, PhD
Research Associate Professor of Geriatrics [pending]
Mark A. Pippenger, MD
Assistant Professor of Neurology, Geriatrics, and Psychiatry
EDUCATION
Faculty in the Division of Cognitive Disorders and Neurogerontology
are committed to educating students, physicians, other health
care professionals, and the general public on cognitive problems
that affect older persons. We teach students in the UAMS School
of Medicine and the College of Public Health. We help train
Residents and Fellows within the Departments of Geriatrics
and Neurology. Our faculty are regularly invited to lecture
to local, national, and international audiences.
For information on fellowship opportunities in Geriatric
Neurology, Behavioral Neurology, or Cognitive Neuroscience,
please contact the Division office (tel. 501-526-6193 or steedreneee@uams.edu).
MEMORY DISORDERS CLINIC
A Memory Disorders Clinic is being established at UAMS. Key
participants include Dr. Mark Pippenger (UAMS Outpatient Center),
Dr. John Hart (Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System),
and Dr. Victor Henderson (Senior Health Center in the Donald
W. Reynolds Institute on Aging building). Kathy Tyler-King, RN,
Clinical Coordinator for the UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Center
is the liaison between the Memory Disorders Clinic and research
programs of the Alzheimer's Disease Center.
RESEARCH
Findings from research conducted by Division faculty are widely
published (Division of Cognitive Disorders and Neurogerontology
publications). Broad areas of research interest include Alzheimer's
disease (Drs. Hart, Henderson, Hogervorst, and Pippenger),
the role of estrogen and other steroid hormones in cognitive
aging (Drs. Henderson and Hogervorst), human cognition and
brain imaging (Dr. Hart), risk factors for age-associated
cognitive decline (Drs. Henderson and Hogervorst), health
services in dementia (Dr. Pippenger), and cognitive impairments
in neurological disease (Drs. Hart, Henderson, Hogervorst,
and Pippenger). Research sites include the Laboratory of Cognition
and Brain Imaging and the Laboratory of Memory and Memory
Disorders, located in the Donald W. Reynolds Institute on Aging
at UAMS. Funded research projects within the Division are
described below.
UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Center
The UAMS Alzheimer's Disease Center, established by a major
grant from the National Institutes of Health in 2001 (P30
AG19606), is directed by Cornelia Beck, PhD, RN and co-directed
by Sue Griffin, PhD and Victor Henderson, MD. Drs. Hart, Hogervorst,
and Pippenger are key participants. Like other Alzheimer's
Disease Centers nationwide, the UAMS center brings together
scientists, physicians, and other health care professionals
dedicated to finding causes and effective treatments for Alzheimer's
disease and related disorders. Further information on the
UAMS Alzheimer's Disease
Center or the Clinical
Core is available online or from Kathy Tyler-King, MNSc,
RN, Clinical Coordinator (tel. 501-526-6500). Further information
on Alzheimer's disease research by faculty in the Division
of Cognitive Disorders and Neurogerontology is also available
(Faculty involvement in Alzheimer's disease research).
Reynolds Institute on Aging: Programs for Rural Arkansas
Rural Aging & Memory Study (RAMS)
Programs for Rural Arkansas, funded by a grant from the federal
Administration on Aging (90AM2518), is directed by Dr. Henderson
and includes five separate projects that focus on rural health.
Project 1, the Rural Aging & Memory Study (RAMS), is also
directed by Dr. Henderson. This study, which takes place entirely
within Bradley County, AR, seeks to expand knowledge about
memory loss that occurs in middle-age and old-age and to help
find ways to preserve memory as people grow older. Dr. Hogervorst
is a key collaborator on the RAMS project. Further information
is available from Kristin Ward, MS, RAMS Project Coordinator
(tel. 501-526-5741). Other UAMS project leaders are Drs. Beck,
Beverly, Chernoff, Evans, and Sullivan.
Electroencephalographic studies of aging and dementia
This new grant from GlaxoSmithKline to Dr. Hart establishes
an electrophysiology laboratory for the study of memory and
"binding." Dr. Hart's work has shown that semantic
memory may be mediated by the thalamus, which modulates synchronization
of neural activity in different cortical regions (binding)
that encode this form of memory. The collaboration with GlaxoSmithKline
will focus on measuring how binding is disrupted and developing
therapeutic interventions.
Herpes Simplex Encephalitis Neuropsychological Sub-study
Dr. Hart serves as the sub-study co-P.I. for a multicenter,
international treatment trial (Acyclovir and Valcyclovir)
of a common form of encephalitis. Research is designed to
evaluate cognition, viral load, and MRI brain scan findings.
Association between Sex Hormones, Cognitive Function and
Confirmed Alzheimer's Disease
The Alzheimer's Association has funded Dr. Hogervorst (NIRG
00-2258) to undertake a longitudinal study of sex hormone
levels in Alzheimer's disease and persons without dementia
and to determine whether the association between hormone levels
and dementia status is influenced by apolipoprotein E genetic
variations.
Genetic Polymorphisms and Memory Decline
Funding from the national Alzheimer's Association (IIRG-01-2684)
to Dr. Henderson is designed to evaluate age-associated memory
decline in a well-defined population of middle-age women in
Melbourne, Australia. One important goal is to determine whether
common genetic variations, including variations related to
hormones like estrogen, might play a role in memory loss that
affects nearly everyone during "normal" aging. This
project is co-directed by Professor Lorraine Dennerstein at
the University of Melbourne.
Gonadal Hormone Levels in Alzheimer's Disease and Age-Related
Cognitive Decline
This grant to Dr. Hogervorst from the Brain Institute of The
Netherlands (Hersenstichting Nederland) supports a collaborative
project between the University of Maastricht and the University
of Oxford on the relation between serum concentrations of
gonadal hormones and cognitive function.
B-Vitamin Atherosclerosis Intervention Trial
This NIH-funded randomized, controlled trial seeks to examine
the effect of B vitamins on the progression of atherosclerosis
in 450 healthy at-risk men and women residing in California.
Dr. Henderson's role as coinvestigator is to assess whether
B vitamins will improve cognitive function in these older
adults.
Detection of Cognitive Impairment in Aging and Dementia
When AD or another dementing disorder develops, the tragic
results are eventually all too apparent. As newer forms of
specific dementia therapy become available, however, it becomes
more important to be able to detect milder degrees of cognitive
impairment at a time when preventive interventions might be
most effective. To study large groups of people at risk of
early dementia, new, more efficient, and less expensive screening
instruments are needed. The development of such tools is the
goal of a grant to Dr. Henderson funded through the John Douglas
French Alzheimer's Foundation and involving collaborators
in the School of Engineering at the University of Southern
California.
Correlations of Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Viral Load
with Neuropsychological Outcomes
In his role as co-principal investigator for the herpes simplex
encephalitis sub-study, Dr. Hart is examining long-term effects
of this form of viral encephalitis on memory and other cognitive
functions.
Estrogen Effects on Associative Learning
Animal and human studies have yielded strong evidence that
steroid hormones such as estrogen exert important effects
on brain functions relevant to memory and dementia. Under
recent funding from the Alzheimer's Association, Dr. Henderson
and his colleagues investigated the effects of estrogen on
a particular type of learning that is modulated by the hippocampal
region of the brain and is known to be affected in Alzheimer's
disease. Analyses of their findings are underway.
Verb- and Sentence-Processing Impairments in Alzheimer's
Disease
How do different aspects of language influence the way in
which the brain processes information contained within sentences?
How does information processing differ in healthy older adults
and persons with AD? These two topics are the focus of NIH-funded
research by A. Almor, PhD, at the University of Southern California.
Dr. Henderson is involved in this project as a coinvestigator.
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