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Mental rotation is a spatial ability allowing one to represent and rotate an object in one’s mind, and its performance declines with age. Given previous findings indicating that likening a to-be-rotated object to a human body improves mental rotation performance in young adults, we examined whether this human-body analogy would improve older adults’ mental rotation performance. We also tested whether the human-body analogy effect is age-dependent. In the present study, we analyzed data from 423 community-dwelling older adults (age range: 86–97 years; 219 men and 204 women) who answered two items of a paper-and-pencil mental rotation test: one on abstract cube objects (control condition) and one on cube objects with a human face (embodied condition). The results revealed that more participants correctly answered the item in the embodied condition (32.2%) compared to that in the control condition (19.6%), indicating that the human-body analogy is effective in an oldest-old population (i.e., people aged over 85 years). Notably, we found age differences in human-body analogy effects. While accuracy for mental rotation of abstract objects declined with age, accuracy for embodied objects was preserved with age. These findings suggest that the human-body analogy may prompt older adults to adopt a holistic, rather than a piecemeal, rotation strategy.

The mechanism and cause of motor neuronal cell death in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS),a devastating neurodegenerative disorder, are unknown; gain of function of oligomers andaggregation of misfolded proteins, including carboxyl-terminal fragments (CTFs) of TARRNA/DNA-binding protein 43 kDa (TDP-43), have been proposed as important causative fac-tors in the onset of ALS. We recently reported that a nuclear localization signal (NLS)-tagged25-kDa CTF of TDP-43 (TDP25) could dec rease the cell-death proportion compared with thatpromoted by TDP25 . Here, we show oligomeric states of NLS-TDP25 and its detailed local-ization prope rty using super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, FR ET, fluorescence recoveryafter photobleaching, and fluorescence correlation spectroscopy analysis. NLS-TDP25 effi-ciently formed a nucleolar cap structure via RNA binding in the presence of actinomycin D,but TDP25 did not. Although cytoplasmic inclusion bodies including TDP25 had a disorderedand immobile structure, NLS-TDP25 in the nucleolus was ordered and dynamic. In the diffusestate, TDP25 formed fewer oligomers and interacted with the molecular chaperone, HSP70;however, NLS-TDP25 formed oligomers. These results suggested that NLS-tagge d TDP25 canchange its structure to use ordered oligomeric but nontoxic state. Moreover, the structure ofordered oligomers as well as nuclear sequestration may be important in mediating cytotoxicityin ALS pathology.

The electric field strength was evaluated by using the intensity ratio of spectral bands of molecular nitrogen under streamer discharges in dry air at atmospheric pressure. The primary and secondary streamer discharges were observed in the needle-plane electrode by applying the positive impulse voltage. The reduced electric field strength of the primary streamer was 700 Td in this study and the value near the calculated one by simulation analysis.