Molecular Aspects of Age-related Cognitive Decline: the Role of GABA Signaling

Overview

Journal Trends Mol Med

Specialties General Medicine
Molecular Biology

Date 2015 Jun 14

PMID 26070271

Citations 94

Authors

Joseph A McQuail

Charles J Frazier

Jennifer L Bizon

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Alterations in inhibitory interneurons contribute to cognitive deficits associated with several psychiatric and neurological diseases. Phasic and tonic inhibition imparted by γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) receptors regulates neural activity and helps to establish the appropriate network dynamics in cortical circuits that support normal cognition. This review highlights basic science demonstrating that inhibitory signaling is altered in aging, and discusses the impact of age-related shifts in inhibition on different forms of memory function, including hippocampus-dependent spatial reference memory and prefrontal cortex (PFC)-dependent working memory. The clinical appropriateness and tractability of select therapeutic candidates for cognitive aging that target receptors mediating inhibition are also discussed.

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