Simon Cox
Henry Dale Fellow

- Lothian Birth Cohort Studies group
- Psychology
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
- Tel: +44 (0)131 650 8493
- Email: simon.cox@ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
Room F8, Psychology Building
- City
- 7 George Square, Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9JZ
Availability
Office Hours are generally 9am to 5pm, but please contact me to make an appointment.
Background
I am Director of the The Lothian Birth Cohort Studies. These are Edinburgh-based follow-up studies of the Scottish Mental Surveys of 1932 and 1947. I am the Principal Investigator on the Age UK, BBSRC and ESRC-funded Lothian Birth Cohort Study 1936. I work with multi-cohort neuroimaging, cognitive and other data to conduct research into lifecourse correlates of brain and cognitive differences. I was recently awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship, jointly supported by Wellcome and the Royal Society. Click to the Research tab below for more information. A full list of publications can be found here.
Selected publications
Cox SR, Harris MA, Ritchie SJ, Buchanan CR, Valdés Hernández MC, Corley J, Taylor AM, Madole JW, Harris SE, Whalley HC, McIntosh AM, Russ TC, Bastin ME, Wardlaw JM, Deary IJ, Tucker-Drob EM. (2021). Three major dimensions of human brain cortical ageing in relation to cognitive decline across the 8th decade of life. Molecular Psychiatry 26:2651-2662.
Cox SR, Lyall DM, Ritchie SJ, Bastin ME, Harris MA, Buchanan CR, Fawns-Ritchie C, Barbu MC, de Nooij L, Reus LM, Alloza C, Shen X, Neilson E, Alderson HL, Hunter S, Liewald DC, Whalley HC, McIntosh AM, Lawrie SM, Pell JP, Tucker-Drob EM, Wardlaw JM, Gale CR, Deary IJ. (2019). Associations between vascular risk factors and brain MRI indices in UK Biobank. European Heart Journal, 40:2290-2300
Cox SR, Ritchie SJ, Fawns-Ritchie C, Tucker-Drob EM, Deary IJ (2019). Structural brain imaging correlates of general intelligence in UK Biobank. Intelligence, 75:101376.
Cox SR*, Ritchie SJ*, Tucker-Drob EM, Liewald DC, Hagenaars SP, Davies G, Wardlaw JM, Gale CR, Bastin ME Deary IJ. (2016). Ageing and brain white matter structure in 3513 UK Biobank participants. Nature Communications, 7:13629.
Cox SR, Dickie DA, Ritchie SJ, Karama S, Pattie A, Royle NA, Corley J, Aribisala BS, Valdés Hernández MC, Muñoz Maniega S, Starr JM, Bastin ME, Evans AC, Wardlaw JM, Deary IJ. (2016). Associations between education and brain structure at age 73 years, adjusted for age 11 IQ. Neurology, 87, 1820-1826.
Books and book chapters
Della Sala S, MacPherson SE, Cox SR, Girardi A & Iveson M. Handbook of Frontal Lobe Assessment (2015). Oxford University Press, Oxford UK.
MacPherson SE & Cox SR (2017). The frontal ageing hypothesis: evidence from normal ageing and dementia In: The Handbook of Gerontology Research Methods: Understanding Successful Ageing, Riby, L (Ed). Routledge Psychology Press, UK.
Open to PhD supervision enquiries?
Yes
Current PhD students supervised
Yeung Hon Wah
Eleanor Conole
Jure Mur
Arish Mudra Rakshasa-Loots
Hannah Smith
Rebekah Smikle
Maximiliano Cueva
Beth Jones
Past PhD students supervised
Danielle Page
Federica Conte
Ami Nwankwo
Emily Wheater
Clara Alloza
Joanna Moodie
Paula Martha Grill
Research summary
I am interested in how the brain facilitates complex cognitive abilities, how the structure and function of brain networks can be measured and how potential determinants of cognitive ageing might alter their composition, integrity and functioning. Ongoing projects include:
Preterm birth as a determinant of neurodevelopment and cognition in children: mechanisms and causal evidence (Medical Research Council)
Factors of biological ageing: does it all go together when it goes? (Wellcome and the Royal Society)
The Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 Waves 6 and 7 - (ESRC and BBSRC core funding)
Large-Scale Genomic Analysis of Aging-Related Cognitive Change Prior to Dementia Onset (US National Institutes of Health RF1)
Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 - Brain Imaging and Cognitive Ageing (Medical Research Council)
Lothian Birth Cohort 1936 - The Disconnected Mind Phase 4 (Age UK)
Evaluating longitudinal changes in the human structural connectome in relation to cognitive ageing (US National Institute on Aging R01)
Lifecourse of Place - how environments throughout life can support healthy ageing (Economic and Social Research Council)