SCANS

St George’s Cognition And Neuroimaging in Stroke

SCANS

Study Aims

The aim of the SCANS study is to investigate the changes in the brain and the changes to cognitive abilities that occur in cerebral small vessel disease, as well as the relationship between the 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.

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 use Magnetic Resonance Imaging (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 hope to recruit 120 patients with cerebral small vessel disease, and see them once a year for four years. At each point, we will complete an MRI scan and a cognitive testing session. This will allow us to monitor changes in the brain and in cognitive abilities and investigate relationships between the two.

This study follows from earlier work in our group.

• Past editions of newsletters.
• The Participant Information Sheet (PDF)