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: | Julia Neitzel |
| Institution: | Erasmus MC |
| Department: | Radiology/Epidemiology |
| Country: | |
| Proposed Analysis: | The project aims to determine the potential impact of modifiable lifestyle and health factors on brain pathology and late-life cognitive impairment to enable more targeted interventions against dementia. The long preclinical phase of dementia can be divided into a resistance phase, where a favourable lifestyle could help a person to avoid pathology, and into a resilience phase, where a favourable lifestyle could help a person to better cope with pathology (Arenaza-Urquij & Vermuri, Neurology, 2018). Differentiating the impact of lifestyle factors on each of these phases will provide valuable information about the timing of related lifestyle interventions. Individuals are exposed to different early-life (unmodifiable) risk factors, e.g. genetic factors. Mismatches (i.e. better-than-predicted outcome) between these early-life risk factors and neuropathology and between neuropathology and cognition will elucidate which group of people will profit the most from lifestyle interventions. Risk profiles will be defined using two alternative approaches: (1) a well-established risk scoring based on ApoE genotype and (2) a novel, extended risk scoring based on polygenic risk, sex and education. Neuropathology profiles will be determined based on established magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) markers reflecting neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular pathologies that are closely related to AD as well as molecular imaging of AD-typical. Cognition profiles will be measured based on a composite score including multi-domain neuropsychological assessment (e.g. memory, executive functions). Lifestyle profiles will be defined based on the twelve established lifestyle factors contributing to dementia risk (Livingston et al., Lancet, 2020). Model specification will be performed in a strictly hypothesis-driven manner and using gold-standard approaches to longitudinal observational data analysis. Single lifestyle factors may have differential effect on neuropathology or cognition which could be occluded when summarized into a composite profile score. To address this potential risk, follow-up analyses will be conducted for separate lifestyle factors. |
| Additional Investigators |
