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$3.4 Million Grant awarded to help Older
People stay mobile
Newswise, March 20, 2011– The National
Institutes of Health has awarded a $3.4
million grant to Albert
Einstein College of Medicine and Ferkauf
Graduate School of Psychology,
both affiliated with Yeshiva University, to
identify cognitive factors that influence
mobility in older people – in particular,
those that could be modified to help older
people remain active.
“Mobility limitations and disability in
aging are major public health concerns,”
said Roee
Holtzer, Ph.D., principal
investigator for the study and associate
professor in the Saul R. Korey Department
of Neurology at
Einstein and associate professor of
psychology at Ferkauf.
“We will recruit 450 people age 70 and older
for baseline and annual follow-ups over the
five-year study period.”
Participants enrolled in the National
Institute on Aging grant will undergo
clinical, neuropsychological and physical
exams as well as state-of-the art cognitive
and neuroimaging assessments.
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)
technology, developed by the optical
engineering group at Drexel University, will
be used to assess changes in brain function
during various walking conditions.
“Ideally, these assessments will reveal
specific cognitive abilities and brain
structures and functions that correlate with
mobility problems or that predict their
occurrence,” said Dr. Holtzer.
“Then we want to see whether efforts to
modify those factors, which include the
ability to concentrate and allocate
attention resources to competing task
demands, can help in preventing mobility
decline and disability in these
individuals.”
The project, which began in March, is an
interdisciplinary collaboration involving
Einstein’s neurology and epidemiology
& population health departments
and its Gruss
Magnetic Resonance Research Center;
Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School
of Psychology; and the optical engineering
group at Drexel University in Philadelphia,
PA.
“Mobility limitations and disability in
aging are major public health concerns,”
said Roee
Holtzer, Ph.D., principal
investigator for the study and associate
professor in the Saul R. Korey Department
of Neurology at
Einstein and associate professor of
psychology at Ferkauf. “We will recruit 450
people age 70 and older for baseline and
annual follow-ups over the five-year study
period.”
Participants enrolled in the National
Institute on Aging grant will undergo
clinical, neuropsychological and physical
exams as well as state-of-the art cognitive
and neuroimaging assessments.
Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS)
technology, developed by the optical
engineering group at Drexel University, will
be used to assess changes in brain function
during various walking conditions.
“Ideally, these assessments will reveal
specific cognitive abilities and brain
structures and functions that correlate with
mobility problems or that predict their
occurrence,” said Dr. Holtzer.
“Then we want to see whether efforts to
modify those factors, which include the
ability to concentrate and allocate
attention resources to competing task
demands, can help in preventing mobility
decline and disability in these
individuals.”
The project, which began in March, is an
interdisciplinary collaboration involving
Einstein’s neurology and epidemiology
& population health departments
and its Gruss
Magnetic Resonance Research Center;
Yeshiva University’s Ferkauf Graduate School
of Psychology; and the optical engineering
group at Drexel University in Philadelphia,
PA.
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