Health Care Professionals > Research Conferences > Thinking, Moving, & Feeling

Thinking, Moving and Feeling: Common Underlying Mechanisms?
September 5-7, 2007, Bethesda, MD

Supported by: The National Institute on Aging, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the American Geriatrics Society.

About the Conference

Geriatricians have long observed the frequent coexistence of problems with cognition, mobility and mood. Is this coexistence simply co-occurrences of common disorders, a web of bi- and tri-directional relationships, or are there unrecognized and overlapping underlying causal mechanisms? The purpose of this "bedside to bench" conference was to examine evidence about the co-occurrence of these conditions, explore potential causal mechanisms, address methodological challenges, and identify implications for future basic and clinical research, with the ultimate goal of improving the lives of aging Americans. Since inquiry into these phenomena has been accumulating within disciplines that have not traditionally interacted, the conference sought to bring together experts in the fields of cognition, mobility and affect from both basic and clinical perspectives to share insights, promote opportunities related to aging and develop a common framework for future research. This initiative effort was consistent with the NIH Roadmap, which emphasized the need to pursue questions using teams that cross both traditional disciplinary lines and the clinical-basic interface. This conference was also intended to foster possible new opportunities for collaborative work within and across Institutes and programs from NIA, NIMH, NINDS, NIDRR, the private sector, foundations and others (see Conference Agenda).

The specific aims of the conference were to: (1) present evidence for co-occurrence of disorders of cognition, movement and mood in the older adult; (2) explore potential common causal pathways from multiple basic and clinical perspectives; (3) propose methods to help discriminate common pathways from random co-occurrence and bi- or tri-directional secondary effects; (4) discuss implications for clinical practice; and (5) identify knowledge gaps and future directions for multidisciplinary research.

Conference Planning Committee
Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH University of Pittsburgh	Stephanie Studenski, MD, MPH University of Pittsburgh	Michael Zigmond, PhD University of Pittsburgh
Susan Nayfield, MD, MSc* University of Florida	Joseph Verghese, MB, BS Albert Einstein College of Medicine

Conference Report

The Conference Planning Committee is currently preparing a report on the Conference.

PowerPoint™ Presentations
Howard Aizenstein, MD David Bennett, MD Shalender Bhasin, MD Nicolaas I. Bohnen, MD, PhD Richard Camicoli, MD Carl W. Cotman, MD Pamela Duncan, PhD, PT, FAPTA, FAHA Luigi Ferrucci, MD Lotta Granholm-Bentley, MD Evan Hadley, MD*	Jeffrey M. Hausdorff, PhD Roee Holtzer, MD Lew Lipsitz, MD Richard B. Lipton, MD William Milberg, MD Andrew A. Monjan, PhD, MPH Susan Nayfield, MD, MSc* Anne Newman, MD, MPH Mukaila Raji, MD, MSc Eric Schon, PhD (N/A)	Joe Verghese, MD Molly Wagster, MD Group Presentations Circulatory Systems Initiation Factors Metabolic, Humoral, and Inflammatory Factors Methodological Issues and Techniques Neural Systems

*Denotes NIH representative
** Abbreviated presentations

Thinking, Moving and Feeling: Common Underlying Mechanisms? September 5-7, 2007, Bethesda, MD

About the Conference

Conference Planning Committee

Conference Report

PowerPoint™ Presentations

Thinking, Moving and Feeling: Common Underlying Mechanisms?
September 5-7, 2007, Bethesda, MD