Preserved tactile acuity in older pianists

Age-dependent increased sag amplitude in human pyramidal neurons dampens baseline cortical activity

Aging involves various neurobiological changes, although their effect on brain function in humans remains poorly understood. The growing availability of human neuronal and circuit data provides opportunities for uncovering age-dependent changes of brain networks and for constraining models to predict consequences on brain activity. Here we found increased sag voltage amplitude in human middle temporal gyrus layer 5 pyramidal neurons from older subjects and captured this effect in biophysical models of younger and older pyramidal neurons. We used these models to simulate detailed layer 5 microcircuits and found lower baseline firing in older pyramidal neuron microcircuits, with minimal effect on response. We then validated the predicted reduced baseline firing using extracellular multielectrode recordings from human brain slices of different ages. Our results thus report changes in human pyramidal neuron input integration properties and provide fundamental insights into the neuronal mechanisms of altered cortical excitability and resting-state activity in human aging.

In search of disambiguation: development of eye drop bottle sleeves to aid in identification and survey among possible users. A cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND

Considerable numbers of individuals present low vision, blindness, illiteracy and other conditions that could possibly impair their identification of medications, such as eye drops. Through helping these individuals to identify their eye drops, they can achieve greater autonomy. Misidentification can be avoided through use of multisensory sleeves that can be adapted to most eye drop bottles. Correct use of eye drops is important for preventing progression of diseases like glaucoma that could potentially lead to blindness.

OBJECTIVE

To develop bottle sleeves to aid in identification of eye drops and then interview a group of possible users to evaluate the acceptance of the solution.

DESIGN AND SETTING

Cross-sectional survey performed at an ophthalmological clinic in São Paulo (SP), Brazil.

METHODS

We describe the development of multisensory sleeves to assist in identification of eye drops. To assess the acceptance of this solution, we interviewed 18 patients who were currently using three or more types of eye drops.

RESULTS

We developed four prototypes for eye drop bottle sleeves and conducted an acceptance test on them. Most of the patients who answered the survey about the sleeves were elderly. Most (95%) reported believing that the sleeves would help reduce the risk of mixing up eye drops with other medications that also dispense drops. They also believed that these would increase their autonomy in using eye drops.

CONCLUSION

The solution presented was well accepted and may help increase safety in using eye drops through preventing misidentification.

Exploring the influence of reading medium on braille learning outcomes: A case series of six working-age and older adults

Tactile sensitivity is known to decline with age. Braille provides a vital method of reading and writing for working-age and older adults with acquired visual impairment. The proliferation of low-cost braille displays raises new possibilities for adult braille learners, with dots of greater height than standard paper braille, potentially benefitting older adults with reduced tactile sensitivity. This study explored the influence of reading medium (paper vs braille display) on the accuracy and speed of six working-age and older adult braille learners and examined differences when transitioning from one reading medium to another. Findings indicate that (1) learning letters on a braille display resulted in better speed and accuracy (time: M = 44.2, SD = 37.3, accuracy: M = 83%, SD = 24.8%) than on paper (time: M = 54.3, SD = 40.4, accuracy: M = 80.6%, SD = 28.1%); (2) transitioning from one medium to another generally resulted in the same or better performance (reading times decreased by 11.2% and accuracy improved by 2.4%); and (3) the advantage of the braille display appears to be greatest when reading letters in combination (reading times decreased by 26.8% and accuracy improved by 6.5% for letter-pairs vs a 1.9% reduction in speed and a 2% improvement in accuracy for single letters). The benefit of the braille display condition was most pronounced for participants with reduced tactile sensitivity. Although preliminary, these findings suggest that the use of braille displays in early braille instruction may decrease frustration for those with reduced tactile sensitivity and should not adversely affect the ability for learners to transition to standard paper braille, assuming that both formats are introduced and reinforced throughout training.