Horizon CDT Year 1

地平线 CDT 第 1 年

• 批准号: 2887439
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Nottingham
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2023
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2023 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2887439
• 关键词: Horizon; CDT; Year

In 2020, the global prevalence of dementia exceeded 55 million individuals (World Health Organization, 2024). Research has found that having a Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) is a precursor of dementia (Janoutová et al., 2015) and that the medial temporal lobe is one of the first to deteriorate with Alzheimer's disease (Pasquini et al., 2019). Dementia impacts wellbeing. Detecting dementia not only enables the patient to live a better life but also lessens the burden on the NHS. Nonetheless, there is an eight-year time frame where the risk of dementia developing from MCI is high (Dang et al., 2019). Therefore, this PhD aims to forecast cognitive decline specifically in individuals with MCI, rather than dementia.Previous research has shown that a task may be able to predict the likelihood of developing dementia from MCI (Zola et al., 2013). However, this task is ambiguous as there are suggested two memory processes which are self- and retrieval-generated priming (Wagner, 1981) and both could be operating within this task. One study with healthy participants has shown evidence of this theory by manipulating times and finding different effects on relative recency and objects in place (Nitka et al., 2020). This reflects self- and retrieval-generated priming and distinguishes them. My PhD aims to explore a similar task as there were limitations of Nitka et al's (2020) task for example the images used were all easy to verbally distinguish (e.g. violin and hand), which means it could be testing verbal memory as well as recognition memory. Therefore, one of my studies will explore a similar task to this with healthy individuals however the 6 images within each trial will be more similar (e.g. in one trial all of the 6 images will be of the moon). Hence, this study will assess whether self- and retrieval-generated priming can be more accurately measured through relative recency and object-in-place. This approach offers a purer gauge of recognition memory compared to prior methods, particularly considering the increased difficulty in verbally discriminating the images.The potential following study could explore whether this computerised task could predict cognitive decline in individuals with MCIs. The use of relative recency and object-in-place may detect a selective deficit. This would mean that this task would presumably be more sensitive to a decline in cognitive performance compared to previous studies because a single affected form of priming could be compensated by the other form. In order to conduct this research, I will administer the ACE-3 with the task and again one year later to measure their cognitive function and decline.Additionally, this research may explore the eye movement data from the eye trackers to predict cognitive decline in individuals with MCI. As previous research found individuals with Alzheimer's disease have different eye movement data compared to healthy controls (Pereira et al., 2014). If the results are significant, this task could be utilised within GP settings to help medical staff and the patient know who is at risk of cognitive decline in the next year. Earlier detection would allow timely interventions and enrolment into clinical trials when treatments are most effective at slowing progression.

2020 年，全球痴呆症患病人数超过 5500 万人（世界卫生组织，2024 年）。研究发现，轻度认知障碍 (MCI) 是痴呆症的先兆（Janoutová 等人，2015），而内侧颞叶是阿尔茨海默病最先恶化的部位之一（Pasquini 等人，2019）。痴呆症影响健康。检测痴呆症不仅能让患者过上更好的生活，还能减轻 NHS 的负担。尽管如此，在八年的时间范围内，MCI 发展为痴呆的风险很高（Dang 等人，2019）。因此，本博士旨在预测 MCI 患者的认知能力下降，而不是痴呆症。之前的研究表明，一项任务可能能够预测 MCI 患者患痴呆症的可能性（Zola 等，2013）。然而，这个任务是模棱两可的，因为有两个记忆过程是自我产生的启动和检索产生的启动（Wagner，1981）并且两者都可以在这个任务中运行。一项针对健康参与者的研究通过操纵时间并发现对相对新近度和到位物体的不同影响，证明了这一理论的证据（Nitka 等人，2020）。这反映了自我和检索产生的启动并将它们区分开来。我的博士学位旨在探索类似的任务，因为 Nitka 等人（2020）的任务存在局限性，例如使用的图像都很容易用语言区分（例如小提琴和手），这意味着它可以测试语言记忆和识别记忆。因此，我的一项研究将探索与健康个体类似的任务，但每次试验中的 6 张图像将更加相似（例如，在一次试验中，所有 6 张图像都将是月球）。因此，本研究将评估是否可以通过相对新近度和就地物体来更准确地测量自我和检索产生的启动。与之前的方法相比，这种方法提供了更纯粹的识别记忆衡量标准，特别是考虑到口头辨别图像的难度增加。接下来的研究可能会探讨这项计算机化任务是否可以预测 MCI 患者的认知能力下降。使用相对新近度和就地对象可以检测选择性缺陷。这意味着与之前的研究相比，这项任务可能对认知能力的下降更加敏感，因为单一受影响的启动形式可以通过另一种形式来补偿。为了进行这项研究，我将在执行任务时使用 ACE-3，并在一年后再次测量他们的认知功能和衰退情况。此外，这项研究可能会探索眼动仪的眼动数据，以预测 MCI 患者的认知衰退情况。先前的研究发现，与健康对照组相比，阿尔茨海默病患者的眼动数据不同（Pereira 等，2014）。如果结果显着，则可以在全科医生环境中利用这项任务来帮助医务人员和患者了解谁在明年有认知能力下降的风险。当治疗最有效地减缓进展时，早期检测将允许及时干预并纳入临床试验。