There are many active research projects accessing and applying shared ADNI data. Use the search above to find specific research focuses on the active ADNI investigations. This information is requested annually as a requirement for data access.
| Principal Investigator | |
| Principal Investigator's Name: | Emanuele Plini |
| Institution: | Trinity College Institute of Neuroscience |
| Department: | Psychology |
| Country: | |
| Proposed Analysis: | Recent evidence suggested a new theoretical model where Noradrenergic System and Attentional related networks could play a key role as protective factor in cognitive decline and neurodegeneration. As proposed by Robertson, the ability to sustain Attention and Arousal may increase general awareness and everyday continuous stimulation whom is positively contributing as component of Cognitive Reserve. This noradrenergic theory of cognitive reserve is identifying its neural basis in Locus Coeruleus (LC) where noradrenergic system originates and in right fronto-parietal regions. Pursuing the above theoretical model, the main aim of the proposed analyses is to explore whether LC volumes can be predictors of attentional performances and cognitive reserve. This will be investigated in three different groups of Healthy Controls and MCI and AD patients. The statistical design foresees to perform Anova treating LC Grey Matter volumes as a factor divided in three levels (the three groups: HC, MCI and AD) and treating as continuous variables the scores of Attentional performances and the indices of cognitive reserve (in this case broadly inferred by the NART). All the analyses will have as covariates age and educational parameters. Analyses will carried out in SPM12 using CAT12 toolbox implemented in MatLab. Bibliography Robertson, I.H. 2014. A right hemisphere role in cognitive reserve. Neurobiol. Aging 35: 1375–1385. Robertson, I.H. 2013. A noradrenergic theory of cognitive reserve: implications for Alzheimer’s disease. Neurobiol. Aging 34: 298–308. Wilson, R.S., S. Nag, P.A. Boyle, et al. 2013. Neural reserve, neuronal density in the Locus Coeruleus, and cognitive decline. Neurology 80: 1202–1208. Clewett, D.V., Lee, T.H., et al.2016. Neuromelanin marks the spot: identifying a Locus Coeruleus biomarker of cognitive reserve in healthy ageing. Neurobiol. Aging 37: 117-126. |
| Additional Investigators | |
| Investigator's Name: | Gaia Rikhye |
| Proposed Analysis: | She is going to help me organising the excel databases. Particularly classifying subjects jobs in order to define better the indexes of Cognitive Reserve |
