While neurodegenerative diseases can strike at any age, the majority of afflicted individuals are diagnosed at older ages. Due to the important impact of age in disease diagnosis, the field of neuroscience could greatly benefit from the many of the theories and ideas from the biology of aging—now commonly referred as geroscience. As discussed in our complementary perspective on the topic, there is often a “silo-ing” between geroscientists who work on understanding the mechanisms underlying aging and neuroscientists who are studying neurodegenerative diseases. While there have been some strong collaborations between the biology of aging and neuroscientists, there is still great potential for enhanced collaborative effort between the 2 fields. To this end, here, we review the state of the geroscience field, discuss how neuroscience could benefit from thinking from a geroscience perspective, and close with a brief discussion on some of the “missing links” between geroscience and neuroscience and how to remedy them. Notably, we have a corresponding, concurrent review from the neuroscience perspective. Our overall goal is to “bridge the gap” between geroscience and neuroscience such that more efficient, reproducible research with translational potential can be conducted.

中文翻译：

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弥合差距：面向具有潜在协作应用的神经科学家的老年科学入门

虽然神经退行性疾病可以在任何年龄发作，但大多数受折磨的人都是在年纪较大时被诊断出来的。由于年龄在疾病诊断中的重要影响，神经科学领域可以从衰老生物学（现在通常称为老年科学）的许多理论和思想中受益匪浅。正如我们在该主题的补充观点中所讨论的那样，致力于了解衰老潜在机制的老年科学家和研究神经退行性疾病的神经科学家之间经常存在“孤岛”。虽然衰老生物学和神经科学家之间进行了一些强有力的合作，但加强这两个领域之间的合作仍有很大潜力。为此，在这里，我们回顾了老年科学领域的现状，讨论神经科学如何从老年科学的角度思考中获益，最后简要讨论老年科学和神经科学之间的一些“缺失环节”以及如何补救它们。值得注意的是，我们从神经科学的角度进行了相应的同步审查。我们的总体目标是在老年科学和神经科学之间“弥合差距”，以便可以进行更高效、可重复的具有转化潜力的研究。