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Neuroscientist Tomáš Paus has been recruited by the Rotman Research Institute at Baycrest to investigate how our minds and bodies are shaped over time — and he’s inviting Toronto families to join him on this voyage of discovery. His fascination with the human brain began in the Czech Republic almost 30 years ago when he published an award-winning study on vitamin C and attention while still in his teens. Today, this noted brain-mapping expert and pioneer of population neuroscience (an emerging discipline that combines epidemiology, genetics and brain science) is about to embark on an ambitious project that, in the long run, could help us live not just longer lives but stronger lives.
The Long View
On a sunny January afternoon, Dr. Paus settles into his new office at Baycrest where he will co-direct the new Toronto Trans-generational Brain and Body Centre. He is also the new Anne and Max Tanenbaum Joint Chair in Population Neuro-science at Baycrest and the University of Toronto.
The new research centre will recruit generations of families (children, parents and grandparents) from different ethnic groups for a large-scale study that will take several years to complete. The purpose is to investigate how our genetic traits combined with environmental factors – what we eat, how we manage stress, our level of physical activity, and so on – influence whether or not we will develop health problems such as depression, addiction, obesity, diabetes and high blood pressure. These diseases are all associated with cognitive decline.
Families who sign on for the project will undergo brain and body scans and various blood tests. They will also be asked about their lifestyle and behaviours. Once gathered and analyzed, the data could potentially transform the way we age. The findings would guide the development of interventions and treatments for use earlier in the lifespan – as early as childhood – to prevent or slow breakdowns in our mental and bodily health later on.
Joining Dr. Paus as co-director of the TTBBC is his wife and fellow Czech, Dr. Zdenka Pausova. A scientist with the Hospital for Sick Children, she is the “body” or metabolism part of the endeavour. Her research focuses on cardio-vascular disease in adolescence. The couple recently returned to Canada where they had worked for 15 years in Montreal before moving to the University of Nottingham in England in 2004 to establish its pioneering brain and body science centre.
The couple recently returned to Canada where they had worked for 15 years in Montreal before moving to the University of Nottingham in England in 2004 to establish its pioneering brain and body science centre.
While in Canada, the scientists began an ongoing population-based study of 600 teenagers in the Saguenay region of Quebec, looking at genetic and environmental factors that influence health and behaviour. One notable finding is that children born to mothers who smoke during pregnancy are more likely to experi-ment with drugs in their teens. The study suggests that prenatal exposure to maternal smoking may interfere with the development of the orbitofrontal cortex, a part of the brain associated with evaluating rewards and regulating emotion.
Because of its rich cultural diversity, Toronto is an ideal location for the Trans-generational Brain and Body Centre, Dr. Paus believes, and he is committed to helping raise the $10 million needed to build it. He and his team at the centre will study not just teenagers, but parents and grandparents from thousands of families, representing different ethnicities.
Why the need for multiple gener- ations from different communities?
“The consequences of different risks for these complex diseases, whether environmental or genetic, develop over time,” Dr. Paus explains. “In order to fully understand the mechanisms that underlie the emergence of disease or protection against disease, we would need to follow individuals over their lifetime, but that would take 80 years or more. Another way to do it is to study large numbers of at least three generations of families with different genetic backgrounds.”
A population-based approach will help reveal “the different pathways that may lead to the same disorder,” he adds, citing as an example research which found that the Pima Indians, when they adopted a fattier diet, developed very high rates of obesity and diabetes but not – as might be expected – high rates of elevated blood pressure (hypertension). French Canadians, on the other hand, have been found to have higher rates of hypertension and relatively lower rates of obesity and diabetes.
Dr. Paus and Dr. Pausova “bring tremendously important lifespan, developmental perspectives to our core neuroscience program at the Rotman Research Institute,” says Dr. William Reichman, president and CEO of Baycrest. “Their research will shed light on those influences – whether genetics, lifestyle habits or just normal aging – that are the best predictors of whether we each will have a positive experience of aging or a less than positive experience.”
Research conducted at the Toronto Trans-generational Brain and Body Centre is expected to contribute significantly to the Baycrest-led international project to build the world’s first functional, virtual brain, a tool to help doctors diagnose and treat patients. It will also support the Baycrest Centre for Brain Fitness which has teamed with MaRS to launch a new company that will develop and market scientifically-validated brain fitness products to help adults extend their memory and cognitive abilities longer in the lifespan.