Special Session: Behavioural methods for the study of Mild Cognitive Impairment

Date:  Wednesday August 29
Time:  14:00-17:10
Location:  Megaron

Organisers: Paolo Francesco Fabene and Giuseppe Bertini (University of Verona)

Abstract: Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a transitional state between normal aging and early dementia, and is  commonly considered as a prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (AD), although not all cases of MCI develop into AD. The analysis of the current literature reveals an incidence of MCI of 20 to 70 per 1000 person-years, and the importance of MCI assessment as a diagnostic tool is steadily increasing.

Although MCI is associated with a variety of symptoms, memory deficits are a dominant feature of the syndrome, and several different aspects of the memory function are routinely tested in order to contribute to the diagnosis.

The use of animal models is essential to understand the brain mechanisms of cognition and its deficits. To successfully translate findings from animal models to humans, tests should tap into comparable cognitive domains, independent of the apparent similarity of animal-vs.-human tasks.

In this symposium we bring together the experience gained in the context of Pharmacog, a European research program funded under the Innovative Medicines Initiative,  aimed at addressing the lack of impact that translational medicine has thus far made in AD drug discovery.

We will discuss the use of commonly adopted animal models and cognitive tasks in both preclinical and clinical models of MCI. Pitfalls and benefits of the different approaches will be discussed, and particular emphasis will be placed on the translatability of each of the described methods.

Program:

14:00  The Radial Arm Maze (RAM) for the Evaluation of Working and Reference  Memory Deficits in the Diurnal Rodent Octodon degus
  E. Tarragon (1), L. Lopez (1), F. Ros-Bernal (2), J.E. Yuste (1), V. Ortiz-Cullera (1), E. Martin (3) , E.  Schenker (4), F. Aujard (5), R. Bordet (6), J.C. Richardson (7) , and M.T. Herrero (1)
  1 School of Medicine, University of Murcia, Murcia, Spain. 
  2 University Jaume I of Castellon, Castelló de la Plana, Spain.
  3 University of Albacete, Albacete, Spain.
  4 Institut de Recherche Servier, France.
  5 Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, UMR, France.
  6 University Lille Nord de France, Lille, France.
  7 GlaxoSmithKline R&D China, U.K. Group, United Kingdom.

14:20  Evaluating MCI in AD Patients and the Effect of Symptomatic Drug Treatment
  J. Deguil, and R. Bordet
  University of Lille 2, Lille, France.

14:40  The Circular Platform Task for Evaluation of Mci in the Grey Mouse Lemur 
  (Microcebus murinus), a Non-human Primate Model
  A. Rhaman (1), F. Pifferi (1), S. Languille (1), J.L. Picq (2), and F. Aujard (1)
  1 CNRS UMR 7179, MNHN, Brunoy, France. 
  2 Université Paris 8, St-Denis, France.

15:00  The Use of Touchscreens as a New Tool in Mouse MCI Profiling 
  S.L Dix (1), S. Billa (1), D. Delotterie (2), C. Dorner-Ciossek (2), J. Gartlon (3) , T. Jacobs (4), 
  C. A. Jones 4 , L. Lerdrup 5 , A. Marti 2 , and J. C. Talpos 4 
    1 Eli Lilly, Lilly Research Centre, Windlesham, United Kingdom. 
  2 Boehringer Ingelheim Pharma, Biberach, Germany. 
  3 Eisai Ltd., European Knowledge Centre, Hatfield, UK.
  4 Janssen Research and Development, Beerse, Belgium.
  5 Synaptic transmission, H. Lundbeck, Valby, Denmark.

15:20  New Insight for the Study of Mild Cognitive Impairment: the Novel Object 
  Recognition Task and the Single Day Morris water Maze in Total Sleep Deprived 
  Rats 
  M. Pellitteri, V. Colavito, E. Moscardo, F. Schio, B. Salvetti, M. Bentivoglio, 
  P.F. Fabene, and G. Bertini 
  University of Verona, Italy.

15:40  Tea break

16:00  Whole Body Vibration and Spatial Learning: c-Fos and ChAT as Neuronal 
  Correlates of Cognitive Improvements
  E.A. Van der Zee (1), G. Riedel (2), F. Postema (1), B.J. Venema (1), and J.N. Keijser (1) 
  1 University of Groningen, The Netherlands. 
  2 University of Aberdeen, United Kingdom.

16:20  Discussion

17:10  End of session