The successful treatment of memory impairments and neurodegenerative disorders critically depends on our understanding of the storage and recollection of memory episodes. Specifically, an understanding of the interaction between amnesic and neurodegenerative syndromes would aid the development of effective treatments. One of the key questions in neuroscience is: how do brain networks encode experience-dependent memory? Answering this question will give us a universal tool to treat multiple brain disorders.

1. Overview of Research Plans.

The aim is to evaluate the utility of a Connected Health model in supporting people with dementia and their carergivers in sustaining the patient at home. We propose that the CH model allows enhanced information- sharing between patient, carergiver and healthcare team, enabling streamlined clinical management, empowering the caregiver and enhancing the ability of the caregiver/patient dyad to cope.

Increased knowledge about the pre-clinical and early clinical stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD) will be key in developing preventative strategies for the disease as well as development of therapeutic treatment strategies. In addition, this approach will contribute to the development of biomarkers for the early diagnosis of AD.

The overall aim of this research is to examine the effect of regular exercise on:

1) Adult hippocampal neurogenesis

2) Cognitive performance in hippocampus-dependent memory tasks 

3) Microglial activation and neuroinflammatory profile using the transgenic mouse model of Alzheimer’s Disease [amyloid precursor protein (APP)SWE/presenilin-1 (PS-1)].