Dr. Natascha Merten
Assistant Professor in the Department of Population Health Sciences and Department of Medicine (Geriatrics & Gerontology)
Can Midlife Hearing, Vision, Olfactory and Motor Function Improve the Long-Term Prediction of Neurodegeneration and Cognitive Impairment?
Dementia has a long preclinical phase with pathological and neurodegenerative changes often starting decades before clinical symptoms. Early detection of high-risk individuals in midlife has great potential for future targeted treatments and prevention but we currently lack non-invasive, low-cost screening tools. Over the past decades, researchers have been utilizing risk scores such as the CAIDE dementia score and the Framingham Risk Score to predict the onset of cognitive impairment and dementia. Sensory (hearing, vision, olfaction) and motor changes are common in aging adults and have been associated with increased risk of development of cognitive impairment, dementia, and Alzheimer’s Disease. However, research on the predictive value of sensory and motor function for early neurodegeneration is limited. The Beaver Dam Offspring Study (BOSS) is a longitudinal cohort study on sensory and cognitive aging that invited almost 3300 (primarily middle-aged) participants to a baseline examination in 2005 and followed participants over 10 years. I will present results from two projects using data from BOSS that aimed to assess whether midlife sensory and motor function can contribute to the risk prediction of neurodegeneration, cognitive decline, and cognitive impairment later in life. Subsequently, I will introduce you to my most current work, the BOSS Neurocognitive Aging Study, which invites the BOSS participants to an 18-year follow-up study.
About the speaker
Dr Merten is a psychologist (MS) and aging epidemiologist (PhD) by training with research interests in sensory and cognitive aging. She aims to assess aging with a holistic approach through investigating general aging and neurodegenerative processes that affect multiple domains of brain aging. In this context, she studies early biomarkers of aging to identify individuals at risk for decline in various health conditions.