The effectiveness of two interventions, dietary fortification with antioxidants and a program of behavioral enrichment, was assessed in a longitudinal study of cognitive aging in beagle dogs. A baseline protocol of cognitive testing was used to select four cognitively equivalent groups: control food-control experience (C-C), control food-enriched experience (C-E), antioxidant fortified food-control experience (A-C), and antioxidant fortified food-enriched experience(A-E). We also included two groups of young behaviorally enriched dogs, one receiving the control food and the other the fortified food. Discrimination learning and reversal was assessed after one year of treatment with a size discrimination task, and again after two years with a black/white discrimination task. The four aged groups were comparable at baseline. At one and two years, the aged combined treatment group showed more accurate learning than the other aged groups. Discrimination learning was significantly improved by behavioral enrichment. Reversal learning was improved by both behavioral enrichment and dietary fortification. By contrast, the fortified food had no effect on the young dogs. These results suggest that behavioral enrichment or dietary fortification with antioxidants over a long-duration can slow age-dependent cognitive decline, and that the two treatments together are more effective than either alone in older dogs.

an independent study by an additional group. We have therefore begun to characterize the function of AGC1 in cell and animal models. We have developed mice with a targeted disruption of AGC1. Remarkably, the AGC1-deficient animals have profound decrease in the levels of structural myelin proteins. This appears to be due to a significant decrease in the levels of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), which is important in myelin lipid synthesis. Further characterization of this model will shed light on the role of AGC1 in brain function and may shed light on a molecular and cellular pathology that may contribute to autism susceptibility.

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