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The Brain and Body Donation Program (BBDP) at Banner Sun Health Research Institute (http://www.brainandbodydonationprogram.org) started in 1987 with brain-only donations and currently has banked more than 1600 brains. More than 430 whole-body donations have been received since this service was commenced in 2005. The collective academic output of the BBDP is now described as the Arizona Study of Aging and Neurodegenerative Disorders (AZSAND). Most BBDP subjects are enrolled as cognitively normal volunteers residing in the retirement communities of metropolitan Phoenix, Arizona. Specific recruitment efforts are also directed at subjects with Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and cancer. The median age at death is 82. Subjects receive standardized general medical, neurological, neuropsychological and movement disorders assessments during life and more than 90% receive full pathological examinations by medically licensed pathologists after death. The Program has been funded through a combination of internal, federal and state of Arizona grants as well as user fees and pharmaceutical industry collaborations. Subsets of the Program are utilized by the US National Institute on Aging Arizona Alzheimer's Disease Core Center and the US National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke National Brain and Tissue Resource for Parkinson's Disease and Related Disorders. Substantial funding has also been received from the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research. The Program has made rapid autopsy a priority, with a 3.0-hour median post-mortem interval for the entire collection. The median RNA Integrity Number (RIN) for frozen brain and body tissue is 8.9 and 7.4, respectively. More than 2500 tissue requests have been served and currently about 200 are served annually. These requests have been made by more than 400 investigators located in 32 US states and 15 countries. Tissue from the BBDP has contributed to more than 350 publications and more than 200 grant

The purpose of the present investigation was to compare the performance patterns of healthy younger and older women and men on a Large Space Spatial Memory Task, and a Small Space test of Immediate and Delayed Free Recall, Immediate Recognition, and Immediate and Delayed Spatial Recall. The major findings of the study were that (1) older adults who were similar in ability to their younger counterparts on verbal (item) Free Recall and Recognition Memory demonstrated impaired Spatial Memory on both the Small and Large Space Tasks; (2) Spatial Memory on the Small Space Task was impaired even when Free Recall performance was entered into the analysis as a covariate; (3) only the younger group demonstrated task-general learning, reflected in improved performance from the Practice to the first Learning Trial; (4) learning rates on the Large Space Task were not significantly different; (5) spatial representations of both groups remained stable even in the absence of some environmental cues (Probe Trials), and when the cues were rotated relative to the walls of the environment (Performance Trials), suggesting an encoding, rather than a retrieval deficit in older individuals; (6) similar performance on tests of Free Recall and Recognition Memory in the presence of impaired Spatial Memory suggests particular vulnerability of spatial memory to the healthy aging process; (7) distinct patterns of performance on the Large and Small Space Tasks, in addition to the results of a factor analysis, indicate that the demands of the two tasks are quite different: these patterns suggest that performance on the Small Space Task may reflect gene ral memory skills and perhaps intelligence level, whereas performance on the Large Space Task may reflect more purely spatial memory. However, ceiling effects on the Large Space Task may have obscured some group differences. Therefore, further investigation of these effects will be required. The current findings are discussed in terms of possible ne

The clinical utility of electrodermal response measures as a predictor of outcome from traumatic vegetative state was investigated. Electrodermal potential data were obtained from five subjects in acute vegetative state at 1 to 3 months post-trauma (Acute group), five subjects in persistent vegetative state at more than 1 year post-trauma (PVS group), five subjects who were more than 1 year post-trauma and had recovered from vegetative state (RVS group), and 10 normal subjects (Control group). Measures included startle response amplitude, baseline lability, habituation and orientation to tones, responses to famous faces and written commands, and total number of skin potential responses. In addition, subjects in the Acute group were reassessed with respect to clinical outcome at 6 months post-trauma. Results revealed significant group differences between the Control group and each of the brain-injured groups in startle response amplitude, baseline lability, and total number of responses. The RVS group had significantly larger startle response amplitudes than the PVS group. Some subjects in the PVS group and all subjects in the Acute group exhibited no startle response on one or more days of testing. Significant group differences also were found for habituation and orientation. Habituation was present in 80% of the Control and RVS subjects, 20% of the Acute subjects and 0% of the PVS subjects, and orientation was present in 80% of the Control subjects, 20% of the Acute and RVS subjects and 0% of the PVS subjects. Group variance in startle response amplitude, baseline lability and total number of responses was significantly greater in the Control group compared with the brain-injured subject groups. In the Acute group, a larger startle response amplitude, greater baseline lability, a greater total number of electrodermal responses, and habituation and orientation were associated with a positive outcome at 6 months post-trauma. These results indicate electrodermal respo

Health professionals as well as families are being confronted with long-term care and caregiver issues that accompany the increasing incidence of individuals surviving traumatic brain injury. A sample of parents and brain-injured offspring from 20 families served as informants. The purpose of this study was to identify a qualitatively generated theory describing the parent's experience following a brain-injured child's return to the home setting. An exploratory qualitative design using grounded theory methodology was used during data collection and analysis. All the brain-injured offspring had survived a moderate-to-severe traumatic brain injury; were living with at least one parent; and were ages 17 to 34. A three-phase theory, Investing in the Comeback, was generated using grounded theory methodology. The theory's three stages, centering on fostering independence and seeking stability, describe the work of the parent living with a brain-injured offspring. The first phase, Centering On, involves the parent's focusing attention and behavior primarily on the brain-injured offspring. During Fostering Independence, the second phase, the parent initiates and maintains efforts to promote the offspring's resumption of independent functioning. The final phase, Seeking Stability, consists of the parent working to establish a regime that maintains the brain-injured offspring's optimal performance, while minimizing the strain on other family members. Theoretical sampling guided the identification of categories, properties, conditions, and consequences of each phase. Four quantitative measures supplied descriptions of sample characteristics and included demographics, cognitive deficit ratings of the child by the parent and the investigator, and the parent's perception of the family's functioning.