Surrey Hospital Foundation is funding a research grant to help Surrey-based scientists shed new light on the aging brain and late-life dementia.
This $10,000 research grant is helping to fund the “Physical health, brain health, and the risk of dementia” study led by Dr. Xiaowei Song, a clinical neuro-imaging scientist working at Surrey Memorial Hospital’s Neuro Tech Laboratory. Her research is looking at data from MRI scans of the brain to find the many small changes that can happen as people age.
Small changes don’t mean much, but added together, they may be a sign there is a risk of dementia or Alzheimer’s disease. By looking at this data for specific patterns, scientists can potentially develop new tools for diagnosing and treating brain aging.
“It is increasingly recognized that late-life dementia can result from brain health decline. The brain is complex; high-level functions such as memory and thinking rely on important parts of the brain working together,” says Dr. Song.
“My research has led to a new method, called Brain Atrophy and Lesion Index (BALI) to allow us to sum up many changes and track brain aging in a holistic manner.”
Thanks to the generous donors of Surrey Hospital Foundation, advances in brain health are being developed that could one day help prevent dementia and Alzheimer’s. Every dollar makes a difference.
