The search for reliable early indicators of age-related cognitive decline represents an important avenue in aging research. Most research on late-life development charts cognitive change as a function of chronological age (CA), however, although CA is a commonly used developmental index, it offers little insight into the mechanisms underlying cognitive decline. In contrast, biological age (BioAge), reflecting the vitality of essential biological processes, represents a promising operationalization of developmental time. My overall programmatic doctoral research interests involve the identification of biological risk factors that predict age-related cognitive decline, impairment and dementia. In this dissertation document, I present: an overview of my empirical contributions to the BioAge and cognitive aging literature throughout my doctoral training; the dissertation project which uses preliminary data from the PREVENT study and provides evidence that elevated plasma pro-inflammatory proteins are associated with cognitive status (healthy controls (HC) vs Alzheimer’s disease dementia (AD)), cognitive performance and are related to poorer cognitive performance in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (a-MCI); and a discussion on the broad implications of the project results and future directions in BioAge research. / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:uvic.ca/oai:dspace.library.uvic.ca:1828/7405 |
| Date | 14 July 2016 |
| Creators | DeCarlo, Correne A. |
| Contributors | MacDonald, Stuart Warren Swain, Tuokko, Holly A. |
| Source Sets | University of Victoria |
| Language | English, English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Rights | Available to the World Wide Web |
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