Grant: Doctoral Award - Frederick Banting and Charles Best Canada Graduate Scholarships

Alzheimer disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia. Subjective cognitive testing and a clinical history are still the principal methods for diagnosing AD. Current research suggests that metabolic and functional brain changes occur in AD decades prior to the onset of memory impairment. Alzheimer disease progression measured from brain changes on magnetic resonance images and positron emission tomography may provide more sensitive methods to measure disease progression and status before the presentation of memory impairment. Moreover, there is growing evidence to suggest that small vessel cerebrovascular disease contributes to cognitive decline in persons with AD. Therefore, an aim of this project is to determine if there is an interaction between small vessel disease and dementia, which may worsen cognition. Advanced magnetic resonance imaging techniques, which are capable of visualizing brain architecture at high spatial resolution, will be used to investigate these relationships. In addition, positron emission tomography will be used to examine AD-specific pathology in persons with cognitive impairment. A further goal will be to assess whether these brain measures correlate with cognitive performance, in particular, different aspects of executive function and memory. With this integrated approach, these investigations can elucidate brain-behaviour relationships and also better determine which tools may be useful for diagnosis, for monitoring progression and potentially for evaluating therapeutic response.