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Why can't the aging brain adapt to the aging body? KU Leuven

Jean-Jacques Orban de Xivry
Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group
During aging, the ability of people to accurately control their movements deteriorates partially due to a change in the properties of the body (e.g., muscles, tendons). While the brain of young adults would be able to cope with such a change in the body, the brain of elderly people cannot. Here, the mechanisms of motor adaptation will be investigated in detail in elderly adults in order to understand why the brain cannot adapt to the aging body. ...

Listening with age: disentangling peripheral and cortical processing in the aging auditory system. KU Leuven

Astrid van Wieringen
Research Group Experimental Oto-rhino-laryngology
In daily life most speech communication information has to be captured in non-optimal acoustical environments and in the presence of interfering sound sources. In the auditory system, the complex speech signal needs to be analyzed acoustically and neurally, separated from the noise, and mapped to phonemes and words. This processing is found to be significantly affected by age. The elderly have more difficulties to follow the rapid temporal ...

The impact of reproductive axis hormones on changes in brain functional networks during healthy, accelerated and pathological aging (i.e. Alzheimer's disease). University of Antwerp

Marleen Verhoye
Bio-Imaging lab
Aging has profound effects on many cellular processes that predispose to neurodegeneration, impairment in cognitive function, as well as changes in brain functional networks (e.g. default mode network (DMN) and its anticorrelated networks) and synaptic alterations. However, the key mechanisms orchestrating brain aging remain largely unknown. The hypothalamus, a key region of the hypothalamic–pituitary–gonadal axis (HPG-axis), is crucial for the ...

IL-13-overexpressing anti-inflammatory macrophages suppress trauma induced premature immune aging. Hasselt University

Niels HELLINGS
Immunology & Infection
Around 250.000 people get a spinal cord injury (SCI) annually worldwide. An epidemiological shift is occurring in the mean age of SCI patients, since the world consists of an increasingly active elderly population. The life expectancy of SCI patients is reduced compared to healthy individuals. Here, premature aging may play a role in different body systems like the cardiovascular system, the musculoskeletal system, the respiratory system, and ...

Aging and movement control: towards a multimodal imaging approach for the study of brain structure, function, and connectivity KU Leuven

Stephan Swinnen
Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group, Department of Movement Sciences
Energized by the development of new brain imaging techniques, research on aging has witnessed a dramatic increase in attention during the past decade. This represents a critical challenge for current society, due to increasing life expectancy of the older adults. Here we focus on age-related central degenerative processes that are associated with structural (grey and white matter), functional (brain activation) and neurochemical ...

Neuroendocine modulation of healthy aging. KU Leuven

Liesbet Temmerman
Animal Physiology and Neurobiology
Despite an increasing interest in, and knowledge of the fundamental, molecular processes that modulate ageing, many questions remain unanswered at this point. Although it is generally accepted that (neuro)endocrine factors are of prime importance to aging and possibly more specifically to healthy aging it still remains an open question what their identities are, and how they influence this process.Here, we propose two parallel approaches ...

Neuro-glial peptidergic signaling in cognition and aging KU Leuven

Liesbet Temmerman
Animal Physiology and Neurobiology
Cognitive decline and general aging of the nervous system are important challenges in today’s graying society. Current knowledge suggests that differences in communication between two cell types in the nervous system, neurons and glia, translate to differences in plasticity and healthy aging of the brain. We are interested in the role of neuropeptides herein. Neuropeptides are important signaling molecules in neuronal and hormonal circuits, and ...

Fidelity of translation in healthy aging KU Leuven

Liesbet Temmerman
Animal Physiology and Neurobiology, Laboratory for Disease Mechanisms in Cancer

I will study the molecular mechanisms underlying longevity and healthy aging in Caenorhabditis elegans, which could contribute to solutions of the aging human population. Specifically, I will decipher the role of ribosomal subunits in translation fidelity and healthy aging, test longevity-extending compounds, and confirm my C. elegans results in human cell lines.

Aging and brain plasticity: alterations in brain structure, function and connectivity in relation to complex motor behavior. KU Leuven

Stephan Swinnen
Movement Control & Neuroplasticity Research Group
Here, we aim to advance our understanding of age-related changes in the brain and their consequences for movement control. Our basic premise is that alterations in motor functioning are constrained by functional, structural, and connectivity changes in the normally aging brain. To address this challenge, we will use an array of techniques including (a) behavioral paradigms to study complex motor tasks requiring cognitive control (b) ...

Study of the aging process: the role of N-glycosylation, hormones and the Klotho gene. Ghent University

Claude Libert
Department of Biomedical molecular biology

N-glycosylation is altered during aging and specific glyco-genes are responsible for this process. We will analyze the regulation of involved glyco-genes by in silico analysis and functional promoter studies. Next, we will study the influence of alterations of the N-glycosylation pattern on the aging process itself as well as on aging-related signaling pathways. This will be done both in vitro and in vivo.