Grant: Master's Award: Canada Graduate Scholarships

My research proposal involves creating a paradigm that tests older adult's ability to recognize and navigate spatial environments as a screening measure for Alzheimer's disease (AD). The paradigm will be matched with neuropsychological tests that measure different aspects of cognition as well as neuroimaging to ensure the brain regions activated during the task (the parahippocampal gryus and hippocampus in particular which are located in the medial temporal lobe of the brain) are the regions that have been found to change with Alzheimer's disease. Demographic information such as sex, gender, health practices, education, bilingualism, head injury, medications and Socio-Economic Status will be taken into account to ensure that the paradigm is appropriate for usage across wide groups of people. This research builds strongly on past findings showing spatial navigation is impaired in older adults at-risk for developing AD as well as findings that show these same regions are impacted by demographic variables. A major component of this research will be designing a paradigm that can be implemented outside of the laboratory and without health professionals being present to ensure it can be widely used in the future.