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

Demographic shifts around the world have resulted in a rapidly aging population. Age remains the strongest risk factor for developing Alzheimer's Disease (AD), the cause of which is currently unknown. The disease progression is slow however, underscoring the importance of earlier identification of those at greatest risk in order to maximize targeted intervention strategies. Variability in behaviour (e.g., response time, walking speed) appears to be a more sensitive indicator of age-related cognitive and physical decline than traditional measures, such as using a person's average score. Changes in neural activity are thought to precede the cognitive and physical impairments regularly observed in AD. Increased variability in neural activity confers positive benefits and reflects an advantageous brain ready state characterized by increased neural complexity. The proposed project will investigate variability in neural and physical function to improve the detection of cognitive impairment by examining variability in brain blood flow and walking patterns of healthy individuals, those with mild-AD and those with Mild Cognitive Impairment. It is expected that variability in neural activity will more accurately predict an individual's cognitive status than average neural activity and that individuals with mild-AD will show the least amount of neural variability overall. Combined with variability in walking patterns, the precision of identifying risk will be increased overall. The combined direct and indirect costs of dementia are estimated to rise from $33-$292 billion per year by 2040. Earlier and non-invasive identification of the preclinical stages of AD is imperative to allocate resources, to reduce caregiver burden and to improve overall quality of life for individuals with AD.