{"id":30134,"date":"2025-10-03T16:49:58","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/?p=30134"},"modified":"2025-10-03T16:52:21","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T16:52:21","slug":"researchers-unlock-secrets-of-aging-and-spatial-memory-decline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/researchers-unlock-secrets-of-aging-and-spatial-memory-decline\/","title":{"rendered":"Researchers Unlock Secrets of Aging and Spatial Memory Decline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"wp-block-group\"><div class=\"wp-block-group__inner-container is-layout-constrained wp-block-group-is-layout-constrained\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-blockquote uagb-block-e7eb3fc3 uagb-blockquote__skin-border uagb-blockquote__stack-img-none\"><blockquote class=\"uagb-blockquote\"><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__content\">Stanford researchers have discovered why our mental maps fade with age, identifying genetic markers that may explain why some people age more gracefully. Their findings could pave the way for new treatments for dementia and cognitive decline.<\/div><footer><div class=\"uagb-blockquote__author-wrap uagb-blockquote__author-at-left\"><\/div><\/footer><\/blockquote><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-group is-content-justification-space-between is-nowrap is-layout-flex wp-container-core-group-is-layout-b0ffac9c wp-block-group-is-layout-flex\"><div style=\"font-size:16px\" class=\"has-text-align-left wp-block-post-author\"><div class=\"wp-block-post-author__content\"><p class=\"wp-block-post-author__name\">The University Network<\/p><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share uagb-social-share__outer-wrap uagb-social-share__layout-horizontal uagb-block-ee584a31\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-ec619ce7\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"facebook\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M504 256C504 119 393 8 256 8S8 119 8 256c0 123.8 90.69 226.4 209.3 245V327.7h-63V256h63v-54.64c0-62.15 37-96.48 93.67-96.48 27.14 0 55.52 4.84 55.52 4.84v61h-31.28c-30.8 0-40.41 19.12-40.41 38.73V256h68.78l-11 71.69h-57.78V501C413.3 482.4 504 379.8 504 256z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-32d99934\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"twitter\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 512 512\"><path d=\"M389.2 48h70.6L305.6 224.2 487 464H345L233.7 318.6 106.5 464H35.8L200.7 275.5 26.8 48H172.4L272.9 180.9 389.2 48zM364.4 421.8h39.1L151.1 88h-42L364.4 421.8z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-uagb-social-share-child uagb-ss-repeater uagb-ss__wrapper uagb-block-1d136f14\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__link\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/shareArticle?url=\" tabindex=\"0\" role=\"button\" aria-label=\"linkedin\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-wrap\"><span class=\"uagb-ss__source-icon\"><svg xmlns=\"https:\/\/www.w3.org\/2000\/svg\" viewBox=\"0 0 448 512\"><path d=\"M416 32H31.9C14.3 32 0 46.5 0 64.3v383.4C0 465.5 14.3 480 31.9 480H416c17.6 0 32-14.5 32-32.3V64.3c0-17.8-14.4-32.3-32-32.3zM135.4 416H69V202.2h66.5V416zm-33.2-243c-21.3 0-38.5-17.3-38.5-38.5S80.9 96 102.2 96c21.2 0 38.5 17.3 38.5 38.5 0 21.3-17.2 38.5-38.5 38.5zm282.1 243h-66.4V312c0-24.8-.5-56.7-34.5-56.7-34.6 0-39.9 27-39.9 54.9V416h-66.4V202.2h63.7v29.2h.9c8.9-16.8 30.6-34.5 62.9-34.5 67.2 0 79.7 44.3 79.7 101.9V416z\"><\/path><\/svg><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One of the first cognitive abilities to decline with age is our spatial memory, the mental map that helps us remember where we left our keys or parked our car. Scientists at Stanford Medicine, in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered new insights into why this happens, comparing brain activity across young, middle-aged and elderly mice in their latest study.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41467-025-63229-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Published<\/a> on Oct. 3 in Nature Communications, the study finds that the medial entorhinal cortex \u2014 often dubbed the brain&#8217;s GPS \u2014 becomes less stable and less attuned in older mice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">These changes correlate with impaired spatial memory, a discovery that could have significant implications for understanding aging and dementia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cYou can think of the medial entorhinal cortex as containing all the components you need to build a map of space,\u201d senior author Lisa Giocomo, a professor of neurobiology at Stanford, said in a news release. \u201cBefore this study, there was extremely limited work on what actually happens to this spatial mapping system during healthy aging.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A Challenging Task<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To conduct their research, the scientists employed a fascinating experimental setup. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mice of varying ages \u2014 young (3 months old), middle-aged (13 months old) and old (22 months old), which roughly correspond to 20, 50 and 90 human years \u2014 ran on stationary balls within a virtual reality environment, searching for hidden rewards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Over multiple days of repetition, all age groups learned to locate these rewards. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">However, when the task was modified to randomly alternate between two different tracks, each with distinct reward locations, older mice struggled significantly more than their younger counterparts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIn this case, the task was more similar to remembering where you parked your car in two different parking lots or where your favorite coffeeshop is in two different cities,\u201d Giocomo added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Young and middle-aged mice adjusted quickly to the alternation, but the older mice showed confusion, reflected in erratic brain activity captured through grid cell firing patterns in their medial entorhinal cortices.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Hope From an Unexpected Source<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Interestingly, there were variations even among the older mice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One elderly male mouse, in particular, excelled at the spatial tasks, performing as well as, if not better than, younger mice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This &#8220;super-ager&#8221; mouse revealed important insights into the genetic and neural mechanisms that might protect against cognitive decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cIt was the very last mouse I recorded and, honestly, when I was watching it run the experiment, I thought, \u2018Oh no, this mouse is going to screw up the statistics,\u2019\u201d added lead author Charlotte Herber, a medical-doctoral student at Stanford.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The researchers discovered 61 genes with higher expression levels in mice with unstable grid cell activity. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">One, Haplin4, contributes to the network of proteins surrounding neurons and might help maintain grid cell stability.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Bridging to Human Health<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The findings have crucial implications for human health, especially for understanding diseases like Alzheimer&#8217;s and other forms of dementia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cJust like mice, people also exhibit a variable extent of aging,\u201d Herber added. \u201cUnderstanding some of that variability \u2014 why some people are more resilient to aging and others are more vulnerable \u2014 is part of the goal of this work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:18px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Source:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/med.stanford.edu\/news\/all-news\/2025\/10\/aging-mental-map.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\" title=\"\">Stanford Medicine<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>One of the first cognitive abilities to decline with age is our spatial memory, the mental map that helps us remember where we left our keys or parked our car. Scientists at Stanford Medicine, in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered new insights into why this happens, comparing brain activity across [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"single-no-separators","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[259,38],"class_list":["post-30134","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","tag-stanford-medicine","tag-university-of-california-san-francisco"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":false,"thumbnail":false,"medium":false,"medium_large":false,"large":false,"1536x1536":false,"2048x2048":false},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"The University Network","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/author\/funky_junkie\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"One of the first cognitive abilities to decline with age is our spatial memory, the mental map that helps us remember where we left our keys or parked our car. Scientists at Stanford Medicine, in collaboration with the University of California, San Francisco, have discovered new insights into why this happens, comparing brain activity across&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30134"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30162,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30134\/revisions\/30162"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30134"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30134"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30134"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}