Functional and Metabolic Mediators of Cognitive Reserve in Healthy Ageing

The healthy ageing process is associated with widespread changes in the integrity of the brain. These changes include alterations in the structural, functional, and metabolic connectivity of the brain. In addition, many people will show increased brain pathology such as amyloid deposition, a precursor of Alzheimer’s disease. Evidence suggests that older people with substantial cognitive reserve can compensate for these changes to maintain their cognitive health, even in the presence of significant brain changes. The current project will examine the relationship between cognitive reserve, functional brain activity, metabolic connectivity and amyloid deposition in healthy ageing. Candidates will develop, test and analyse a large-scale simultaneous fMRI-PET study using innovative methods developed at Monash Biomedical Imaging. Candidates will work under the mentorship of Dr Sharna Jamadar (primary advisor), a cognitive neuroscientist at Monash Institute of Cognitive and Clinical Neurosciences; together with Dr Zhaolin Chen and collaborators from the Monash Biomedical Imaging and Faculty of Engineering. Candidates with backgrounds in programming and quantitative methods preferred