Carol A. Barnes
Understanding of these changes may shed light on the processes, that contribute to age-related neurodegenerative disorders such as Alzheimer's disease.
She continued her education at Carleton University located in Ottawa, Canada, earning her Masters of Arts degree in psychology in 1972.
Barnes research spans 4 decades aiming to better understand the aging of the brain in relation to cognitive diseases.
[12] Her research is conducted by utilizing animal models such as primates and rats to explore and understand how memory is impacted in the normal aging process of the brain and the neurobiological mechanisms that are involved.
The use of animal models in Barnes research is translated into treatments used for abnormal functioning of the brain aimed at prolonging the cognitive lifespan of older individuals.
The nature of Barnes research entails the use of behavioral, anatomical, electrophysiological and molecular techniques to examine the implications of normal aging on the brain.
To study spatial learning and memory, Carol Barnes utilized a maze to test whether mice could remember the location of an escape box on a platform.
Designed in 1979, Barnes's maze was an alternative to study memory without the use of external reward or punishment, while also reducing the stress put on the animal throughout the process.
[14] Using MRI imaging techniques, Barnes and her team were able to see that in normally aged brains of rodents, the size of the hippocampus did not change.
[15] Looking deeper into the tissue affected, single-cell imaging showed there were 3 main types of cells that make up the hippocampus.
In addition, older monkeys displayed a lower density of inhibitory somatostatin positive interneurons in the CA3 sub-region of the hippocampus.
This finding relates to the increased hippocampal activity shown in imaging studies of older human adults.
This finding suggests that tall mammals use a stable amount of neurons to encode a similar virtual reality experience.
Once again studying macaques, Barnes and her team focused on two aspects of executive function, attentional monitoring and updating as well as set shifting.
Barnes and her team found that older monkeys needed a greater number of trials to accurately account for a rule change.
The most important discovery out of these studies, however, is that the two aspects of executive function, monitoring and updating and set-shifting, were shown to be independent systems that are affected differently with age.
