St GEorge’s Neuropsychology and Imaging in the Elderly Study
Study Aims
The aim of the GENIE study is to investigate the changes in the brain and the changes to cognitive abilities that occur in normal ageing, as well as the relationship between brain and cognitive abilities.
By cognitive abilities we mean the mental processes that are involved in planning, organisation, keeping track of information, and memory, as well as how quickly information is processed.
We already know that the brain changes in a number of ways with age. The volume of the brain tends to reduce, and areas of damage called “white matter hyperintensities” become more common. In this study we are especially interested in the white matter of the brain.
The Brain
The brain is made up of grey matter and white matter. The grey matter contains a high density of neurons, and tend to be the areas of the brain that do all the hard work. The white matter connects together all of the different regions of the brain, enabling information to transfer between regions. We think that the changes in cognitive abilities that occur with age are due to damage to the white matter, which means that information is not transferring between regions efficiently. We use MRI to look at the brain.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI)
MRI enables detailed images to be created by the manipulation of a strong magnetic field. For more information see our departmental MRI page.
Study design and participants
We are investigating age-related changes in two ways.
1)By taking a large group of volunteers aged between fifty and ninety years old. This allows us to learn about how a group of people differ across different ages
2)By seeing the same people several times. This tells us about differences between individuals, and we hope to investigate why some people age “successfully”
A copy of the patient information sheet for the study can be downloaded below.
Study progress
Stage 1:
Stage 1 of the study is complete. 106 people took part, completing a wide range of cognitive tests and having a MRI scan.
Stage 2:
Stage 2 of the study is complete. Our volunteers repeated both the cognitive tests and the MRI scan.
Stage 3:
Stage 3 is underway. We are currently increasing the number of people we are seeing, and seeing our participants for the third time. This time we are just asking people to complete the cognitive tests.
Results
The results from stage 1 are summarized in the June 2005 newsletter for the study which can be downloaded below.
Publications
Peer review publications
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