New project seeks to understand the workings of the brain

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/18/science/project-seeks-to-build-map-of-human-brain.html?_r=0

According to news reports, the Obama administration is planning a decades-long effort called the Brain Activity Map Project to examine the workings of the human brain and build a comprehensive map of its activity. Scientists see the effort, which may be unveiled as early as March, as way to develop the technology essential to understanding diseases like Alzheimer’s and to find new therapies for a variety of mental illnesses. President Obama mentioned Alzheimer’s in his State of the Union address and referenced the need for smart investment in research.
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Most Common Health Issues of Aging

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Some of them might not be serious but any of them can make your life miserable. The health issues include pneumonia, dementia, depression and arthritis. Click here to find out more.

Most Common Health Issues of Aging

• Pneumonia
• Flu
• Stroke
• Heart conditions (hypertension, vascular disease, congestive heart failure, high blood pressure and coronary artery disease)
• Dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease
• Depression
• Incontinence (urine and stool)
• Arthritis
• Osteoporosis
• Diabetes
• Breathing problems
• Frequent falls, which can lead to fractures
• Parkinson’s disease
• Cancer
• Eye problems (cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration)

Source: Aging Care

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French Actress, 85, Nominated for Oscar

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If French acrtress Emmanuelle Rova, 85, wins the Oscar on Feb. 24 for best supporting actress in Amour, she can also celebrate becoming the oldest winner of any competitive Oscar award – and on her birthday. Click here to view article.

When Emmanuelle Riva was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in Amour, she became, at age 85, the oldest actress ever nominated for such an honor. Her performance as Anne, a woman who suffers a stroke, has been praised by critics as exhibiting courage and honesty in portraying the deterioration of Anne’s body and soul.

If Riva wins, she could become the oldest winner of any competitive Oscar award, beating out Christopher Plummer, who last year, at age 82, won best supporting actor for Beginners. Other actors who continue to work into their 80s include Hal Holbrook, who, at 83, was the oldest man to ever receive an acting nomination when he was nominated for an Oscar for best supporting actor for his brief but moving role in 2007’s Into the Wild.

Eve Marie Saint, who is 88 and won her first Oscar in 1954 for On the Waterfront, is in a new movie with Russell Crowe. Prior to this film, her latest role was Superman’s mom in Superman Returns (2006). Laurel Bacall, the 1940s screen siren who is now 88, is still working, most recently in the films Dogville and Birth.

Like Bacall and Saint, Riva got an early start in acting, although her parents discouraged her at first. Growing up in a small town in France, Riva dreamed of being an actress, but was forced to settle for being a seamstress. Disheartened by her life, she convinced her parents to let her go to Paris to enter an acting contest, where she won a scholarship and started her acting career in the theater

In 1958, Riva got her big break in film. Director Alain Resnais chose her to play the female lead in his film,Hiroshima Mon Amour, which became one of the most acclaimed and representative movies of the French New Wave and launched Riva’s career. From that point, she became a star in French cinema, as well as in TV, throughout the 1960s.

In the 1970s and ‘80s, Riva’s career slowed down, although she was still able to find occasional good roles. Her reentry into the international film scene came after Austrian director Michael Haneke found her doing a theater production. Amour follows Georges (Jean-Louis Trintignan) and Anne (Riva), a long-time married couple whose life changes drastically when Anne suffers a stroke and Georges must cope with her decline. The film has won numerous awards, including the Palme d’Or at the 2012 Cannes Film Festival and from the National Society of Film Critics.

If Riva wins the Oscar award on Feb. 24 for the best actress, she’ll have two things to celebrate; it’s also her 86th birthday.

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Music to Soothe the Soul and Mind

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Many people with neurological damage are learning to move better, remember more and even regain speech through music. Music therapy is being used for a broad spectrum of requirements, such as addressing individuals’ physical, emotional, cognitive and social needs. Click here to view article.

The video has become familiar to a lot of Internet users: It shows an elderly man named Henry, who has been in a nursing home for 10 years and has become largely unresponsive, spending his days slumped over in a wheelchair (“Help Spread the Music—and Give New Life to Someone You Love,” Music and Memory). But when he is given an iPod filled with familiar music, almost instantly he comes alive and starts singing along to the music. When an interviewer asks him about the music, he becomes talkative and articulate about what he likes about the music and who his favorite musician is (Cab Calloway).

The gift of the iPod comes via a program started by Music and Memory, a non-profit organization that “trains nursing home staff and other elder care professionals, as well as family caregivers, how to create and provide personalized playlists using iPods and related digital audio systems that enable those struggling with Alzheimer’s, dementia and other cognitive and physical challenges to reconnect with the world through music-triggered memories.” Based on research that shows improvement among those struggling with dementia and Alzheimer’s, the group aims to make this form of music therapy a standard throughout the health care industry.

But music therapy is not just for those who are suffering from severe forms of memory loss and cognition problems. A growing body of evidence is showing that music, one of the most universal of all languages, can help functioning seniors improve their memory and hearing. A study by Northwestern University scientists discovered that a lifetime of musical training slows some aspects of hearing and memory loss (“Music Training May Delay Hearing and Memory Loss,”psychcentral.com). “Previous studies suggest that musical training offsets losses in memory and difficulties hearing speech in noise — two common complaints of older adults.”

The Ideas Institute is also researching the benefits of music therapy. “Research from the fields of music and art therapy has clearly shown that active engagement of elders in appropriate music and art activities reduces anxiety and pain and increases feelings of self-worth.” To fulfill its mission “to provide solutions that improve the lives of older adults through the conduct of rigorous applied research,” the institute is researching “the extent to which long-term care homes and arts organizations are providing arts programs . . . that facilitate resident engagement—a cornerstone to quality of life.”

Researchers don’t know exactly how the brain and body process music, but evidence indicates that we process music with almost every part of our brain, according to Concetta Tomaino, a certified music therapist and director of the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function at Beth Abraham Family of Health Services in New York (“Dementia Therapy and Music,” from the website A Place For Mom).

Tomaino and other researchers have found a strong link between the human brain’s auditory cortex and its limbic system, where emotions are processed. “This biological link makes it possible for sound to be processed almost immediately by the areas of the brain that are associated with long-term memory and the emotions,” she says.

Tomaino and her colleagues, including noted neurologist Dr. Oliver Sacks, found that “many people with neurological damage learned to move better, remember more, and even regain speech through listening to and playing music. In numerous clinical studies of older adults with Alzheimer’s and other forms of dementia, familiar and likable music, not medication, has reduced depression; lessened agitation; increased sociability, movement and cognitive ability; and decreased problem behaviors,” according to A Place for Mom.

There’s a big difference between passively listening to music and actively engaging in it, such as singing or dancing or playing an instrument. Suzanne Hanser, department chair of music therapy at Berklee College of Music in Boston, says that “when we actively make music, as opposed to passively listening to it, we activate another part of the brain that controls balance and movement—the cerebellum—in addition to cognitive and limbic areas” (from A Place for Mom).

Hanser once played some familiar ragtime music for a man with Alzheimer’s, while his wife strummed an autoharp. Something about the sound and vibration of the music caused the man to start moving his legs, and he ended up dancing with his wife for the first time in years. Such physical activity can also strengthen other movements, such as holding a fork or glass, according to Tomaino (A Place for Mom).

Using music to heal, today called “music therapy,” started after World War II when physicians and nurses in veterans hospitals noticed their patients improved after listening to music (A Place for Mom). Today, more than 70 music therapy programs are accredited in the United States by the American Music Therapy Association, which defines music therapy as “an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals. . . . Music therapy also provides avenues for communication that can be helpful to those who find it difficult to express themselves in words. Research in music therapy supports its effectiveness in many areas such as: overall physical rehabilitation and facilitating movement, increasing people’s motivation to become engaged in their treatment, providing emotional support for clients and their families, and providing an outlet for expression of feelings.”

The association reports several successful uses of music therapy:

• The Nordoff-Robbins Music Therapy Clinic helps 100 handicapped children learn and relate to and communicate with others.
• Ida Goldman, a 90-year-old woman, told a Senate hearing, “Before I had surgery, they told me I could never walk again. But when I sat and listened to music, I forgot all about the pain.” During the hearing, she was able to walk, although with assistance.
• The Rusk Institute of New York uses music therapy to work with rehabilitation patients. “Music therapy has been an invaluable tool with many of our rehabilitation patients,” said Acting Director Mathew Lee. “There is no question that the relationship of music and medicine will blossom because of the advent of previously unavailable techniques that can now show the effects of music.”
• Oliver Sacks views music therapy “as a tool of great power in many neurological disorders—Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s—because of its unique capacity to organize or reorganize cerebral function when it has been damaged.”

Hanser and her colleagues found that familiar and, most importantly, likable, music gets the best responses from those suffering from mental deterioration. For example, an 80 year old would likely not be receptive to hard rock music. “To be most effective, music therapy procedures must be tailored to the individual needs of each person with dementia,” Hanser says. “Each music therapy strategy must also reflect the person’s history, preference and ability to engage with a certain type of musical experience. These are some of the factors that make it extremely challenging to conduct randomized controlled trials” (A Place for Mom).

In fact, study after study of music therapy reports positive results, but with a warning: Methodological limitations indicate the need for further research.

So no matter your mental functioning levels, or your age, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to dust off those piano keys, haul out the guitar from the garage, join a singing group, find a place to dance or even spend some time every day listening to your favorite music. The worst that could happen is that you’ll enjoy yourself and maybe rekindle old memories; you might improve your memory and hearing, too.

Benefits of Music Therapy

Therapists and foundations have reported good results for music therapy, although not all the results have been validated by research. The benefits cited show that music therapy can help to:

• Promote wellness
• Manage stress
• Alleviate pain
• Encourage clients to express feelings
• Enhance memory
• Improve communication
• Promote physical rehabilitation
• Provide pleasure for persons with dementia
• Offer an activity for persons in dialysis, on ventilation or bed-bound
• Increase cooperation and attention among nursing home patients, and reduce resistance to care, which helps staff
• Reduce agitation for those with dementia or Alzheimer’s
• Enhance engagement and socialization, fostering a calmer social environment
• Provide a valuable tool for reducing reliance on anti-psychotic and anti-anxiety medications

(Adapted from Music and Memory)

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Making Tax Time a Little Bit Easier

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Seniors may not be aware of all the income tax deductions available. Now that it’s tax season, we offer some tips for reducing your tax burden as well as where to find some free neighborly help. Click here to view article.

Making Tax Time a Little Bit Easier

It’s that time of year again, a time of teeth-gnashing and pencil-crunching, as we haul out our receipts and statements from last year and prepare to do our federal income tax returns. As tax deadline approaches, you may not be aware of all the deductions available to seniors or that free tax help is available in your neighborhood.

Medical and Dental Expenses

When you were younger, you might not have had enough medical expenses to make it worthwhile to itemize your deductions on Schedule A and instead took the standard deduction. However, increased age not only brings more wisdom but more medical issues and expenses. One estimate is that as much as 30 percent of a senior’s income is allocated to health care costs.

Not all of those costs are covered by your insurance plan or Medicare. In fact, the list of deductible medical and dental issues is exhaustive. For instance, you can deduct the cost of acupuncture, stop-smoking clinics and contact lenses (see sidebar). Other deductibles are health insurance premiums (including Medicare premiums), long-term care insurance premiums, prescription drugs, nursing home care and most other out-of-pocket heath care expenses.

You must include only the medical and dental expenses you paid this year, regardless of when the services were provided. That is, if you bought new glasses last year, but didn’t get the bill until this year, you won’t be able to deduct it until your 2013 taxes come around. And these are only for expenses you paid yourself; if the insurance company paid the tab, you can’t take the deduction.

Medical and dental expenses must exceed 7.5 percent of your adjusted gross income (AGI) in order to qualify for a deduction; this increases to 10 percent for 2013, making it more difficult to access next year. Similarily, itemized deductions will be subject to phase-outs beginning in 2013. For example, if your AGI was $100,000 in 2012, only your medical expenses above $7,500 (7.5% x $100,000 = $7,500) would be deductible. If you had $10,000 in medical expenses in 2012, you could deduct only $2,500 ($10,000 – $7,500).

Standard Deductions for Over 65

Even if you don’t itemize your deductions, if you are 65 or older by Dec. 31 of the tax year, you can take a standard deduction for your age. Single people over 65 can claim $1,450, while married people can take an extra $1,150 for 2012. You can also claim the higher deduction if only your spouse is older than 65 and you file a joint return. You qualify for a higher standard deduction if you are totally or partially blind—that is, you do not have corrected vision of at least 20/20 or you have an extreme limitation in your field of vision. These standard deductions will increase in 2013.

Retirement Plans

Another gift from the government is higher contribution limits for retirement plans (again, increasing in 2013). Once you turn 50, you can contribute more to an IRA, Roth IRA or 401(k). This means socking away more money in an IRA without having to pay taxes on it. (With the Roth IRA, you pay taxes upfront instead of when you withdraw, meaning that any interest earned is tax-free). For example, a married couple over 50 can contribute as much as $12,000 to an IRA and deduct the amount from their income tax.

Further, interest, dividends and investment capital gains are taxed at a lower rate than other income, typically 15 percent, and are not subject to Social Security or Medicare taxes. In 2013, income from such gains will be taxed at higher rates for high-income seniors, who will also see a higher effective Medicare tax rate.

You may also be able to include investment-related expenses (such as investment advice, fees for a safe deposit box and subscriptions to investment newsletters) that exceed 2 percent of your AGI in your other itemized deductions.

Home Sale

You may be thinking of downsizing into something more manageable or maybe escaping to a warmer climate. If you sell your home, you may not have to pay taxes on any profit made from your home’s sale if you lived in your home for at least two of the five years prior to selling it. Tax laws allow a single filer to claim, with no taxes, up to $250,000 in profit on a home sale, and up to $500,000 for a married couple filing together.

Paying Taxes on Social Security

Don’t forget that if you made substantial income while collecting Social Security, you may have to pay taxes on that income. This usually happens only if you have other substantial income (such as wages, self-employment, interest, dividends and other taxable income that must be reported on your tax return) in addition to your benefits. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rules state that no one pays federal income tax on more than 85 percent of his or her Social Security benefits.

The Social Security website advises that if you file either an individual tax return or joint return, and your combined income (that is, your adjusted gross income plus nontaxable interest plus one-half of your Social Security benefits) is between $25,000 and $34,000, you may have to pay income tax on up to 50 percent of your benefits. If your combined income is more than $34,000, up to 85 percent of your benefits may be taxable.

To let you know your Social Security earnings, each January the government will send out a Social Security benefit statement (Form SSA-1099) showing the amount of benefits you received in the previous year. If you do have to pay taxes on your Social Security benefits, you can make quarterly estimated tax payments to the IRS or choose to have federal taxes withheld from your benefits.

Help Is Around the Corner

Finally, if you find yourself getting grouchy about all the details and complex instructions for your taxes, you can find free help through the AARP Foundation. Tax-Aide is a free tax preparation service for people 60 and older with low to middle incomes.

In 2010, about 35,000 Tax-Aide volunteers prepared 2.6 million tax returns at thousands of locations across the country. Courtesy of the IRS, the software allows preparers to file electronic federal and state returns free of charge (New York Times: the New Old Age, “A Few Tax Tips for the Elderly,” March 18 2011).

Most cities offer free assistance (subject to income limits) through Volunteer Income Tax Assistance programs.

Sources:

Nolo.com: http://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/top-tax-deductions-seniors-retirees-29591.html

ehow.com: http://www.ehow.com/list_7433134_tax-deductions-seniors.html

FindLaw: http://tax.findlaw.com/federal-taxes/top-seven-senior-tax-breaks.html

Medical Expenses That Can Be Deducted

The IRS provides a long list of medical expenses that are deductible. While we provide a few here, to see the total list, go to IRS Publication 502, Medical and Dental Expenses.

• Acupuncture
• Alcoholism treatment
• Ambulance
• Annual physical examination
• Artificial limb
• Artificial teeth
• Body scan
• Braille books and magazines
• Capital expenses—equipment installed in a home for medical purposes
• Chiropractor
• Contact lenses
• Dental treatment
• Diagnostic devices used in diagnosing and treating illness and disease
• Eye exam
• Eyeglasses
• Eye surgery
• Hearing aids
• Home care
• Insurance premiums
• Laboratory fees
• Lifetime care—advance payments
• Long-term care
• Medicines
• Nursing home
• Nursing services
• Operations
• Osteopath
• Oxygen
• Psychiatric care
• Stop-smoking programs
• Surgery
• Transplants

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