VOA:Researchers Find Clues that Depression May Speed Brain Aging

Researchers Find Clues that Depression May Speed Brain Aging

Memory and thinking skills naturally slow with age. Scientists are now looking inside living brains to tell if depression might speed aging. The scientists report that some of the signs they have found are worrisome.

随着年龄增长,人的记忆力和思维能力也随之减退.科学家正在研究活人大脑的内部情况,以判断抑郁症是否会加速大脑老化.科学家报告称,他们发现一些迹象令人十分担忧.

Depression has long been linked to some cognitive problems. Depression late in life even may increase the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease. Yet how depression might harm the ability to remember things and things and think clearly is not yet known.

长期以来,抑郁症就与一些认知障碍相关联.在晚年,抑郁症甚至可能增加患增加阿尔兹海默病的风险.而然,关于抑郁症会如何损害记忆力及清晰的思维能力,目前尚不清楚.

One pssibility : Brain cells communicate by sending messages across connections called synapses. Generally,good cognition is linked to more and stronger synapses. With a weakening of congnitive ability,those connections slowly shrink and die. But unitl recently,scientists could count synapses only in brain tissue collected after the person dies.

一种可能是: 脑细胞间通过被称为突触的连接进行交流.一般来说,良好的认知能力表明突触数量多且强健.随着认知能力的退化,突触会慢慢萎缩并消亡.但直到最近,科学家还仅能通收集逝者的大脑组织来计算出突触的数量.

Yale University scientists used a new method to study the brains of living people. They discovered that patients with depression had a lower density of synapses than healthy people of the same age.

耶鲁大学科学家采用了一种新方法来研究活人的大脑.他们发现,抑郁症患者的突触密度比同龄的健康人群要低.

The lower the density,the more severe the signs of depression. Yele University neuroscientist Irna Esterlis says this is especially true of problems with loss of interest in activities patients once enjoyed. She spoke at a meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

突触密度越低,患抑郁症的迹象越严重.耶鲁大学神经学家伊琳娜·埃斯特曾在美国科学促进会的一次会议发言上说: 病人对曾经喜欢的活动失去兴趣的问题尤其如此.

Esterlis was not studying just older adults,but people of all ages,including those too young for any cognitive changes to be noticeable. She was working from a theory that early damage can build up.

埃斯特里并不仅仅是在研究老年人,而是所有年龄段的人群,包括那些非常年轻,无法注意到任何认知变化的人群.她的研究建立在”早起伤害会不断积累”这一理论上.

“We think depression might be accelerating the normal aging,”she said.

她说: “我们认为抑郁症可能正加速正常衰老.”

Her studies are small. To prove if depression really does increase the risk of cognitive problem as we age would require more investigation. Jovier Evans is a scientist with the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health. He proposed a study of synaptic density on larger numbers of people as they get older,to see if and how it changes over time in those with and without depression.

她进行的是小型研究.要证明随着年龄的增长,抑郁症确实会增加认知障碍的风险需要进行更多的调查.乔维尔·埃文斯是美国国家心理健康研究所的科学家.他提出一项研究: 针对更多的人群,研究他们随着年龄的增长,突触密度的变化,以此来判断在那些患抑郁症和无抑郁症的人群中,随着时间的推移,突触密度是否改变以及如何改变.

Eaterlis has announced plans for a larger study to do that. Volunteers would be injected with a radioactive substance that links up to a protein in the vesicles,or storage containers,used by synapses. Then each volunteer would be given an imaging test,known as a PET scan. During the test,areas with synapses light up,enabling researchers to see how many are in different parts of the brain.

埃斯特里已宣布要进行大规模对的研究计划.志愿者将注射放射性物质,该物质与囊泡中的蛋白质或突触使用的储存容器相连.然后,每位志愿者将进行影像检查,也就是PET扫描.检查期间,突触区域会亮起来,这样研究人员就能够看到大脑的不同部位有多少突触.

Esterlis said there are no medications that target synapse damage.

埃斯特里表示目前没有专门治疗突触损伤的药物.

Doctor Mary Sano directs the Mount Sinai Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in New York. She was not involved in the new research.

玛丽·萨诺医生是纽约西奈山阿尔茨海默病研究中心的负责人.她没有参与这项新研究.

Sano warned that normal cognitive aging is complex process that involves other health problems,such as heart disease. It might be that depression does not worsen synaptic weakening. It could just makes the problem more noticeable,she said.

萨诺提醒说,正常的认知衰退是个复杂的过程,设计其他健康问题,比如心脏病.也有可能抑郁症不会加速突触退化.她说,抑郁症可能只是让问题更显而易见.

With depression “at any age,there’s a hit on the brain. At an older age hit may be more visible because there may already be some loss,” she explained.