Studies

LatAm-FINGERS is a Latin American initiative – and part of a global initiative – for the prevention of cognitive impairment and dementia, focused on healthy adults and older adults with risk factors for developing dementia. Interventions include cognitive training, physical activity, and nutritional and medical monitoring. Currently, twelve countries are collaborating on this project.

Many clinical conditions are related to memory loss. Tracking memory complaints in primary health care units enables the early identification of patients in the pre-dementia stages, which makes it possible to plan their future lives with their family members and/or caregivers.

Transient global amnesia (TGA) is a sudden condition of global amnesia, not accompanied by other neurological deficits, lasting two to 24 hours and recovering spontaneously. The CogNeuro is carrying out a longitudinal translational study with patients with TGA. Participants undergo neurological and neuropsychological assessments, in addition to MRI collection, transcranial Doppler, and peripheral blood collection to measure inflammatory/immune markers.

This project aims to investigate the prevalence of cognitive-motor risk syndrome in a sample of older adults in the community and whether there is a correlation with sociodemographic, clinical, and structural neuroimaging variables (i.e. MRI findings)

Brain functioning is influenced by educational level, one of the most important social determinants of health. The mechanisms behind this relation have been underinvestigated in the context of low educational levels, a common scenario for the elderly population in developing countries. Therefore, we propose to investigate the neural and cognitive effects of basic education acquired in adult life.

Some cross-sectional studies have reported the association between inflammatory markers and ALS. However, little is known about the association of such markers and genetic polymorphism, as well as their relationship with the clinical evolution of ALS. Therefore, this study proposes to carry out a study of clinical and molecular parameters in patients with ALS.

Frontotemporal Dementia (FTD) is the second leading cause of dementia before the age of 65. Its most common type is the behavioral variant FTD (vcDFT), characterized by changes in personality, social behavior, and cognition, in addition to several neuropsychiatric symptoms (NpS). Our research aims to investigate the influence of NpSs on social cognition (the way people perceive themselves and others) and how this can change the prognosis of patients with bvFTD.

A population-based study investigating successful brain aging in a cohort of oldest old people. The study was conducted in Caeté (MG) throughout 2007 when 1 251 individuals aged 75+ living in the city were invited to participate. 639 older adults were evaluated through clinical evaluations, interviews, neuropsychological tests, and MRIs. The Pietà study cohort is representative of the Brazilian oldest old population. Project data continues to be analyzed and published.