{"id":11334,"date":"2010-03-18T07:00:07","date_gmt":"2010-03-18T11:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=11334"},"modified":"2011-05-31T12:39:10","modified_gmt":"2011-05-31T16:39:10","slug":"can-changes-in-the-brain-predict-disability-in-older-adults","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2010\/03\/can-changes-in-the-brain-predict-disability-in-older-adults\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Changes in the Brain Predict Disability in Older Adults?"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_11258\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-11258\" style=\"width: 256px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/2brain_lg.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-11258 img-responsive lazyload\" title=\"The human brain.\" data-src=\"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/03\/2brain_lg.jpg\" alt=\"&lt;p&gt;The human brain. Stock photo&lt;\/p&gt;\" width=\"256\" height=\"197\" src=\"data:image\/svg+xml;base64,PHN2ZyB3aWR0aD0iMSIgaGVpZ2h0PSIxIiB4bWxucz0iaHR0cDovL3d3dy53My5vcmcvMjAwMC9zdmciPjwvc3ZnPg==\" style=\"--smush-placeholder-width: 256px; --smush-placeholder-aspect-ratio: 256\/197;\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-11258\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The human brain. Stock photo<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Research by the Health Center&#8217;s <a href=\"http:\/\/uconndocs.uchc.edu\/PhysicianProfile.aspx?ID=115\">Dr. Leslie Wolfson<\/a> and his team has shown for the first time that certain changes in the brain\u2019s white matter are highly predictive of the development of disability in older adults. The <a href=\"http:\/\/today.uchc.edu\/pdfs\/wakefield.pdf\">results of the study<\/a> are published in the current edition of the <a href=\"http:\/\/www3.interscience.wiley.com\/journal\/117995531\/home\">Journal of the American Geriatrics Society.<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Wolfson, professor and chair of the Department of Neurology, says mobility is a critical component of independence and quality of life for older persons. Changes involving brain white matter are seen in many MRI brain scans of older adults.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They are so common that until recently it was assumed they don\u2019t matter and may represent normal aging,&#8221; he says. &#8220;But our research found that these brain changes are a good indicator of problems in older adults such as difficulty walking, thinking, and remaining continent.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Wolfson believes that interventions such as aggressive treatment of elevated blood pressure may help prevent or slow these declines, allowing older adults to remain independent, vigorous, and healthy longer.<\/p>\n<p>Wolfson\u2019s research is funded through a NIH National Institute of Aging grant.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A new study shows brain changes may predict problems in walking, thinking, or staying continent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[45],"class_list":["post-11334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 11:55:34","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/27"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11334"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11399,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11334\/revisions\/11399"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11334"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=11334"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=11334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}