UCI's Charles Limoli and colleagues found that exposure to highly energetic charged particles — much
like those found in the galactic cosmic rays that will bombard astronauts during extended spaceflights — causes significant long - term
brain damage in test rodents, resulting in cognitive
impairments and dementia.
Scientists at Prothena had confirmed that several of their candidate antibodies were able to clear AS pathology out of the
brains and spinal cords of mouse models of PD and related disorders, substantially shielding them against the PD -
like motor and cognitive
impairments suffered by their untreated cousins.
The group of experts is proposing a new diagnosis, called Mild Behavioral
Impairment (MBI), which could hopefully help doctors recognize
brain changes that may lead to neurodegenerative conditions
like Alzheimer's disease.
These toxic stress - induced changes in
brain structure and function mediate, at least in part, the well - described relationship between adversity and altered life - course trajectories (see Fig 1).4, 6 A hyper - responsive or chronically activated stress response contributes to the inflammation and changes in immune function that are seen in those chronic, noncommunicable diseases often associated with childhood adversity,
like chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cirrhosis, type II diabetes, depression, and cardiovascular disease.4, 6
Impairments in critical SE, language, and cognitive skills contribute to the fractured social networks often associated with childhood adversity,
like school failure, poverty, divorce, homelessness, violence, and limited access to healthcare.4, 19,58 — 60 Finally, behavioral allostasis, or the adoption of potentially maladaptive behaviors to deal or cope with chronic stress, begins to explain the association between childhood adversity and unhealthy lifestyles,
like alcohol, tobacco, and substance abuse, promiscuity, gambling, and obesity.4, 6,61 Taken together, these 3 general classes of altered developmental outcomes (unhealthy lifestyles, fractured social networks, and changes in immune function) contribute to the development of noncommunicable diseases and encompass many of the morbidities associated epidemiologically with childhood adversity.4, 6