Name of Fellow

    Dr Mario Parra

    Institution

    Funder

    Alzheimer's Society

    Contact information of fellow

    Country

    United Kingdom

    Title of project/programme

    Short-term memory binding: a sensitive cognitive marker for Alzheimer's disease

    Source of funding information

    Alzheimer's Society

    Total sum awarded (Euro)

    € 253,692

    Start date of award

    04/09/12

    Total duration of award in years

    3.0

    The project/programme is most relevant to:

    Alzheimer's disease & other dementias

    Keywords

    Research Abstract

    Early accurate diagnosis of AD is essential in treatment selection, care planning and correct placement in therapeutic trials. Cognitive assessment is vital in the diagnosis of AD. Current assessment tools investigate functions which are also sensitive to the effects of healthy ageing and to non-AD dementias. Short-term memory (STM) binding has proved sensitive to AD but insensitive to healthy ageing, depression or non-AD dementias. STM binding declines in the preclinical stages of familial AD. The present project investigates (a) whether STM binding declines in MCI, (b) the anatomical underpinnings of STM binding and (c) the functional implications of STM binding deficits. Eighty patients with MCI and 40 controls will be assessed longitudinally with a STM binding task and neuropsychological tasks. To investigate the neural correlates of STM binding, 20 MCI patients and 20 controls will be asked to perform the binding task within the fMRI scanner. To investigate the functional implications of binding deficits, performance of 60 patients with AD and 60 controls on a multimodal binding task (e.g., sounds-objects-locations) will be compared. The outcomes from this project will support the usefulness of STM binding as a marker for AD. Effective methodologies will be introduced in clinical practice

Types: Fellowships
Member States: United Kingdom
Diseases: Alzheimer's disease & other dementias
Years: 2016
Database Categories: N/A
Database Tags: N/A

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