# Mechanisms of Sensory Modulation of Aging

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR · 2021 · $392,429

## Abstract

Project Summary
Scientists and laypeople have long been fascinated by the senses. Aristotle distinguished four of them, each
linked with one of the four elements – vision with water, sound with air, smell with fire, and touch with earth.
Since that time we have become aware of many more, including those involving position or pain. Now, research
across a range of disciplines has revealed that sensory perception is capable of modulating many aspects of
physiology and health. Indeed, evidence from work in the nematode, Caenorhabditis elegans, and from our work
in the fruit fly, Drosophila melanogaster, has established that aging is strongly modulated by sensory systems and
that this modulation is evolutionarily conserved. Apfeld and Kenyon used the nematode model to show that
suppression of sensory input could extend lifespan. Subsequent work from our lab and others has extended
these results to Drosophila and revealed an increasingly nuanced relationship between sensory perception and
aging. For example, some sensory neurons enhance longevity while others suppress it. In this renewal, we
continue our research to focus on the dissection of interpretive circuits in the brain that process and interpret of
sensory experiences in the brain. Having identified specific olfactory and gustatory manipulations that modulate
aging, we propose here to build on the foundational results described above and probe deeper to identify specific
signaling molecules and control regions in the brain that orchestrate sensory modulation of aging. Recent
discoveries from our laboratory and others have revealed cause and effect relationships linking the neurobiology
of perception to complex behavioral outputs; thus making Drosophila arguably the most relevant, powerful, and
flexible model system to dissect the mechanisms underlying central control of aging and whole-organism
physiology. We believe that harnessing the neurobiology of simple model systems to study the biological impact
of sensory systems will yield insights into the broad influence of sensory perception across taxa. In support of
this view, there is evidence to suggest that human sensory perception can modulate health and aging in response
to social and nutritional cues in ways that we do not yet understand. The human demographic and
epidemiological literatures are filled with associations linking emotions, cognitive experience, and subjective
assessments of “well-being” with health and lifespan. The presumed importance of these factors belies a near
complete lack of understanding of the causality of the relationships. Herein we propose a mechanistic
framework for studying them.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10065476
- **Project number:** 5R01AG030593-13
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN AT ANN ARBOR
- **Principal Investigator:** SCOTT PLETCHER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $392,429
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2007-06-01 → 2023-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10065476

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10065476, Mechanisms of Sensory Modulation of Aging (5R01AG030593-13). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10065476. Licensed CC0.

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