Patterns and mechanisms of brain atrophy in healthy aging and dementia

The prevalence of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) increases sharply from 60 years, reaching about 50% in 90 year olds. At the same time, 50% of healthy elderly report worries about their own memory function. Thus, understanding the neural foundation for cognitive decrements in both demented and healthy aging is among the most important tasks for research in neuroscience. At the heart of this question is the role of amyloid protein in neurodegeneration and memory decline in both AD and healthy aging.

Current models hold that the influence of amyloid on the brain is largest in very early phases of AD, years before clinical symptoms become manifest, so it is paradoxical that the influence of amyloid on brain atrophy and memory problems in healthy elderly is little researched and with inconsistent results. Progress is hindered by methodological differences and statistically under-powered studies due to very costly data collection. The main objective of this project is to make a leap forward with researchers at the forefront of aging and AD, by launching a large database including 500 healthy and 500 patients.