Dr. Anne Maass from the Deutsches Zentrum fÜr Neurodegenerative Erkrankungen e. V. (DZNE)

Abstract:

While some memory decline in old age is “normal”, there are also very old individuals who perform much better than expected for their age. What underlies successful cognitive aging? Are successful cognitive agers resistant to or resilient against age-related pathology and neurodegeneration, and which environmental (or genetic) factors relate to the superior cognition? In our group, we aim to unravel the molecular underpinnings underlying normal and pathological cognitive aging including Alzheimer’s disease in the living human brain by means of multimodal neuroimaging. Therefore, we use PET for the assessment of tau pathology, which early accumulates in the medial temporal lobe, as well as and functional, structural and vascular MRI at 3T and 7T. In my talk I will show our recent findings on successful aging as well as previous work on fMRI-based functional changes in people at risk for Alzheimer’s disease.