AGS/NIA "Bedside to Bench" Conference Series

The final session in the AGS-initiated, National Institute on Aging (NIA)- supported "Bedside to Bench" research conference series, a session examining cognitive vitality, took place in March 2006.

Like the previous two conferences, the session, "Effects of Cognitive Activity on Cognitive Function in Late Life," focused on important but poorly understood problems of aging identified by clinicians in clinical settings.

Incremental age-related changes in memory and other aspects of cognitive functioning often start to appear in early adulthood, rather than beginning abruptly in late adulthood, the researchers who gathered in Philadelphia for the conference noted. Throughout the lifespan, however, physical and mental activity can help prevent such age-related cognitive decline, they reported.

The "Bedside to Bench" series began in 2004 with "Research Agenda for Frailty in Older Adults: Towards Better Understanding of Physiology and Etiology," led by Dr. Linda Fried. The second, "Working Conference on Understanding Co-morbid Disease and Total Burden of Disease in Older Adults," convened in the spring of 2005 under the leadership of Dr. G. Darryl Wieland. The 2006 session on cognitive vitality was headed by Dr. Howard Fillit.

The AGS Research Committee, under the leadership of Drs. Douglas Kiel, Mark Supiano and Fried, conceived and initiated the conference series. Looking forward to 2007, NIA has funded a 2nd "Bedside to Bench Series" with the first conference on "Thinking, Moving, Feeling: Common Underlying Mechanisms" slated for September 2007 in Bethesda, Maryland.