The Sensory and Cognitive Interface in Mild Cognitively Impaired Older Adults As Revealed By Multimodal Neuroimaging
Description: Mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is tied to age-related impairments in cognitive functions. However, recent research has shown that sensory decline may play a role in the emergence of MCI, Alzheimer dementia (AD), and in individuals with normal cognition but subjective concerns that their cognition declined (subjective cognitive impairment, SCI). For example, age-related hearing loss (presbycusis) has been related to lower cognitive performance, faster cognitive decline and increased risk of incident dementia, and, from our own longitudinal work, to impaired cognitive learning and decreased cortical plasticity, due to the re-allocation of resources to sensory processing. Notably, previous research fell short of specifying how and which types of presbycusis (e.g. peripheral = pathology of cochlea; central = pathology of auditory-related brain circuits) interacted with cognitive decline and how brain anatomy in auditory-related and cognitive regions mediated these relationships. Thus, the main goals of my postdoctoral research are: 1) to identify profiles of subtypes of hearing loss in SCI, MCI and normal elderly controls (NEC) and assess their neuroanatomical correlates; 2) to investigate to what extent sensory decline precede, and could therefore be used as an early, cheap, non-invasive and fast diagnostic tool for cognitive decline as in SCI and MCI; and 3) to study coupled longitudinal changes of sensory processing and brain structure in NEC and SCI who are receiving a diagnosis of MCI and MCI who are receiving a diagnosis of dementia over the course of the study period. This postdoc mobility would allow be to gain access to the worldwide unique COMPASS-ND database, collected in Canada, which contains sensory, cognitive and neuroimaging data of a high number of SCI (N=300), MCI (N=200) and NEC (N=660). It assessed multiple domains of cognitive function (memory, executive function, etc.) and a variety of sensory tasks such as peripheral and central hearing. Furthermore, T1-weighted MRI images and DTI will document gray matter and white matter integrity. Wave 1 cross-sectional data will be fully available upon the beginning of this postdoctoral mobility fellowship (February 2018) and Wave 2 longitudinal data will be available approximately from October 2018.The goal of this research is to evaluate sensory decline as a potential early marker for cognitive decline. By investigating which aspects of hearing are relevant for a high level of cognitive functioning, more specific and individually-tailored treatment strategies for sensory decline can be created. Thus, this work will improve early diagnosis of cognitive decline in NEC, SCI and MCI and will furthermore support to build prevention strategies for sensory decline.
Amount: CHF 100,500
Funding type: fellowship
Funder scheme: Early Postdoc.Mobility
Start date: 2018-02-01
End date: 2019-07-31
Investigator: Giroud, Nathalie
Institution: Institution abroad - Canada
Subfield: Cognitive Neuroscience
Field: Neuroscience
Domain: Life Sciences
Funded outputs count: 1
Funder award ID: 174865
OpenAlex ID: G4149223992