Event overview
The Psychology Department Seminar will be given by Dr Ashok Jansari, Goldsmiths, who will present his work on the early detection of mild cognitive impairment.
Detecting Pre-Clinical Signs of Mild Cognitive Impairment or Dementia in Healthy Elderly Populations
While memory deficits, particularly amnesia, are classically linked to medial temporal lobe damage, evidence over the last two decades has demonstrated that there are other groups who show different, but nonetheless significant patterns of forgetting. These can include older adults at risk of dementia and an emerging group of individuals whose memory problems may be related to contact sports. While amnesia can be detected using standard clinical measures, many elderly individuals pass these tests despite subjective complaints of memory problems; however, meta-analyses have shown that about 20% of these individuals go on to develop dementia.
Given the personal, financial and societal costs of dementia in an ageing population, and the benefits of early identification of those at risk of dementia, and separately, the increased reporting of early onset dementia in those who have played contact sports for many years, a more sensitive test is required. In this talk, a series of studies spanning 20 years will be reviewed demonstrating the development of a new paradigm, the Verbal Associative Learning & Memory Test (VALMT).
Our findings suggest that VALMT is detecting rapid forgetting in otherwise healthy ageing populations who might be at risk of developing dementia in the next few years and therefore might have potential as a preclinical screening tool. Other studies have shown that VALMT may also be useful in another group that is becoming more prevalent in society, namely those suffering from early onset dementia through repeated non-concussive head injuries through contact sports such as football and rugby. The findings could have important implications in terms of providing early support for such individuals as well as for highlighting the negative impact of repeated head injuries to the sporting world.
Dates & times
| Date | Time | Add to calendar |
|---|---|---|
| 2 Nov 2023 | 4:00pm - 5:00pm |
Accessibility
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