Top Highlights

• Aging is the primary risk factor for multiple neurodegenerative diseases, yet the intersection of natural neuronal aging and neurodegenerative states is not well understood.
• As a consequence of sensing and responding to the environment, the nervous system is known to play a role in physiological aging (Alcedo et al., 2013).
• In normal, healthy aging, C. elegans mechanosensory and other neuron classes develop morphological aberrations, including new outgrowths from the soma, novel process branching, and dendritic restructuring (Pan et al., 2011; Tank et al., 2011; Toth et al., 2012).
• Neuronal insulin signaling appears to be involved in this natural aging process; the link between normal aging and decline under disease conditions is relatively unexplored.
• We used Kaplan–Meier log-rank survival statistics to analyze differences in mean survival between RNAi treatment groups and p < 0.05 was noted as significant.

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