Project title: "Sensitive behavioural and neuroimaging markers in detecting cognitive ageing"
Collaborating institution: Department of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chang-Gung University (Taiwan)
About the project
Cognitive decline is a natural and inevitable process, part and key feature of the normal process of ageing. Emerging evidence from human MRI imaging studies indicates that mild impairment in memory is specifically related to reduction in hippocampal volume. The hippocampus is a key brain area involved in representing the environment, forming episodic memory, and many other cognitive functions, which is vulnerable to the ageing process and other brain conditions. But other brain structures, not well-known up to date for intervening in ageing processes, may also play a part in the cognitive functions that are primarily affected by normal ageing processes. More importantly, it has been proposed that connections between brain regions are very sensitive in pointing to earlier signs of cognitive decline and predicting future cognitive abilities before brain pathological symptoms emerge. This project is part of a multidisciplinary project that joins brain scientists from UK and psychologists and imaging experts in Taiwan to study this topic.
Specifically our role within this multidisciplinary international collaboration is to integrate, refine, apply and evaluate methods to process human MRI scans in different neurodegenerative pathologies including different types of dementia and Huntington’s disease.
Collaborating insitutions
Professor Jiun-Jie Wang |
Dr Maria Valdes-Hernandez |
Affiliated institutionDepartment of Medical Imaging and Radiological Sciences, Chang-Gung University (Taiwan) |
Affiliated institutions at The University of Edinburgh (UK)
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| Email address: jwang@mail.cgu.edu.tw | Email address: M.Valdes-Hernan@ed.ac.uk |
Awarded grants
This project received funds from the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) through the International Partnership Award BB/P025315/1”
Publications
Oh Sher Li, Chen Chiung-Mei, Wu Yih-Ru, Valdes Hernandez Maria, Tsai Chih-Chien, Cheng Jur-Shan, Chen Yao-Liang, Wu Yi-Ming, Lin Yu-Chun, Wang Jiun-Jie (2021). Fixel-Based Analysis Effectively Identifies White Matter Tract Degeneration in Huntington’s Disease. Frontiers in Neuroscience, vol. 15, p. 1191
Publication link - Frontiers in Neurosicence (external link)
Key contact
Please, get in touch with Dr Maria Valdes-Hernandez for more information about this project and further collaboration.