Impact of pre-existing subclinical depressive symptoms on the mental health of older adults during the COVID-19-related confinements: assessment of moderating factors including meditation training.

The COVID-19 pandemic significantly challenged mental health of populations worldwide. We aimed to assess changes in mental health of cognitively unimpaired (CU) older adults with pre-existing subclinical depressive symptoms during pandemic-related confinements, and the factors that could modulate these changes. CU older adults with (DepS, n = 53) and without (NoDepS, n = 47) pre-existing subclinical depressive symptoms (defined using the Geriatric Depression Scale at baseline) from the Age-Well randomized controlled trial (NCT02977819) were included - for whom data at baseline, post-intervention visits and during the two national confinements were available.

Allostatic load, a measure of cumulative physiological stress, impairs brain structure but not -accumulation in older adults: an exploratory study.

Introduction: Allostatic load (AL) is a composite score of progressive physiological dysregulations in response to long-term exposure to everyday stress. Despite growing interest, limited research has focused on links with cerebral and cognitive aspects of aging and with markers sensitive to Alzheimer's disease (AD) in a healthy elderly population and with a multimodal approach.

Methods: At baseline, 111 older adults (without cognitive impairment) from the Age-Well trial completed blood and anthropometric markers collection, cognitive assessments and multimodal neuroimaging within 3 months.

Circulating Stress Hormones, Brain Health, and Cognition in Healthy Older Adults: Cross-Sectional Findings and Sex Differences in Age-Well.

Background: Increased stress is a proposed risk factor for Alzheimer's disease (AD). We examined cross-sectional associations between circulating stress biomarkers and multimodal measures of brain health and cognition susceptible to AD in older adults and sex-specific subgroups.

Methods: Baseline data from 132 cognitively unimpaired participants without depression (age, mean ± SD = 74.

Anterior-temporal network hyperconnectivity is key to Alzheimer's disease: from ageing to dementia.

Curing Alzheimer's disease remains hampered by an incomplete understanding of its pathophysiology and progression. Exploring dysfunction in medial temporal lobe networks, particularly the anterior-temporal (AT) and posterior-medial (PM) systems, might provide key insights, because these networks exhibit alterations in functional connectivity along the entire Alzheimer's continuum, potentially influencing disease propagation. However, the specific changes in each network and their clinical relevance across stages are not yet fully understood.

Decoding meditation mechanisms underlying brain preservation and psycho-affective health in older expert meditators and older meditation-naive participants.

Meditation is a mental training approach that can improve mental health and well-being in aging. Yet the underlying mechanisms remain unknown. The Medit-Ageing model stipulates that three mechanisms - attentional, constructive, and deconstructive - upregulate positive psycho-affective factors and downregulate negative ones.