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- Creators: School of Molecular Sciences
- Member of: Barrett, The Honors College Thesis/Creative Project Collection
Description
Individuals with Down syndrome (DS) display significantly earlier symptoms of Alzheimer's disease (AD) beginning around age 35. Because AD-like symptoms tend to be ever present in those with DS, it is difficult to accurately evaluate those with DS for earlier onset of AD. It has been suggested that physical activity and sleep are potential measures to monitor for manifestations of early AD-like symptoms in people with DS. Our lab has previously shown remarkable improvements in physical activity, cognition, and motor control while using Assisted Cycle Therapy (ACT) for adolescents with DS, Parkinson's disease (PD), and stroke populations. This novel exercise intervention is suggested to mediate improvements in cerebral activation through upregulated neurogenesis, angiogenesis, and neuro-plastic mechanisms. Despite prior research, there remains to be limited studies behind these concepts in adults with DS and sleep, which is suspected to be an accurate metric for AD-like manifestations. Fifteen older adult participants with DS were assigned to one of two cycling interventions: ACT or VC. All participants were provided Fitbit HR devices for sleep and physical activity tracking. Only five adults had viable continuous collection of data for both sleep and physical activity. While none of our results reached conventional levels of significance, there were trends towards significance in the VC group for total steps taken and in the ACT group for sleep-onset latency (SOL). Individual cases of improvement were noted but it globally can be supported that Fitbit devices are not optimistic for adults with DS due to poor long-term compliance. It comes to no surprise to those involved with these groups that cooperativity tends to be low with long term interventions in research design. In spite of this significant barrier, Fitbit devices offer to be a reliable and inexpensive record keeper of physical activity and sleep. Future research should lean to investigate the viability of Fitbit devices within younger populations, the role of heart rate variability on sleep efficiency and sleep onset latency in DS, and utilize more extensive compliance reinforcement to obtain volume of data collection needed to establish significant measurements of physical activity and sleep in populations with DS.
ContributorsDietz, Matthew David (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor) / Dean, W.P. Carey School of Business (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2018-12
Description
The purpose of this study, originally, was to contribute to the completion of a meta-analysis conducted by Mara Wierstra from the University of Virginia. Wierstra had requested individual participant data from two separate studies conducted in our lab: "Acute bouts of assisted cycling improves cognitive and upper extremity movement functions in adolescents with Down syndrome" and "Assisted Cycling Therapy (ACT) improves inhibition in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder." From the data requested, the participants were required to complete three separate tests (i.e., Tower of London, Trail Making Task and the Stroop Test). After compiling the data and sending it to her, we decided to conduct a small meta-analysis of our own, drawing connecting conclusions from the data from the two studies. We concluded that observationally our data suggest an advantage for ACT over voluntary cycling and no cycling across two separate populations (i.e., Autism Spectrum Disorder and Down syndrome), and across different measures of executive function (i.e., Stroop Test, Trail Making Test, and Tower of London). The data suggest that the ACT interventions may promote the upregulation of neurotropic factors leading to neurogenesis in the prefrontal cortex of the brain.
ContributorsParker, Cade Joseph (Author) / Ringenbach, Shannon (Thesis director) / Holzapfel, Simon (Committee member) / School of Nutrition and Health Promotion (Contributor) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor)
Created2016-12
Description
Statistics show that the termination rates for fetuses with Down syndrome are substantially higher compared to the general population. Perhaps pregnant women are led to believe that this is the best option for them. The information that leads them to this conclusion could be one of the leading factors for the high termination rates. In an attempt to understand the reasons behind the high termination rates the following question must be addressed: “What information is available to pregnant women that may influence their decision to terminate or not terminate fetuses with Trisomy 21?” In order to answer this question I completed a comprehensive literature review of the information available to pregnant women in the United States after they find out there fetus has Trisomy 21. The results showed that many sources publish information that is straightforward, factual, and attempts to make sure that pregnant women are fully informed on the reality of life with a child with Down syndrome. However, there are also many sources that publish information that is biased and attempts to influence a woman’s decision of whether to keep or abort her fetus with Trisomy 21. The results from this study suggest that the message conveyed from a given article relies heavily on who is doing the writing, the type of article it is, and were it is published. This provides women with a confusing array of different ideas, as opposed to offering them objective facts and consistent information. When a pregnant woman is told that her fetus is positive for the Trisomy 21 disorder and will be born with Down syndrome, it can be a very scary and emotional time. Women in this situation deserve easy access the correct information in order to help them make an informed decision based on their own choice and not the opinion of someone else.
ContributorsFitzgerald, Grace (Author) / Maienschein, Jane (Thesis director) / Ziganshina, Dina (Committee member) / Barrett, The Honors College (Contributor) / Department of Psychology (Contributor) / School of Molecular Sciences (Contributor)
Created2022-05