Friday, October 28, 2011
Hall 1-2 (San Jose Convention Center)
Studies have shown that eating fewer calories increases the lifespan of rodents. To test whether this was a conserved mechanism in insects, crickets were fed 50% of their daily calories throughout its lifespan. Results showed that on average, crickets that ate fewer calories lived 30% longer then crickets fed a normal diet. The current research is aimed to determine whether cognitive functioning is compromised or maintained in crickets with an elongated lifespan through a calorie restricted diet. Since aging is associated with a cognitive decline, it is ideal to use a simplistic animal model, like crickets, to identify neurocellular changes that occur during aging. This study is aimed to determine whether there are cellular alterations in the nervous system of aged individuals by using the immunohistochemistry technique BrdU, which will detect changes in neuronal proliferation. Memory function will also be tested via a memory maze, to test for cognitive agility between groups. Moreover, this research will characterize the differences of nervous system plasticity in normally fed and calorie restricted fed crickets. Information from this study will serve to better understand the process of aging and the elongation of lifespan through a restricted calorie diet.