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Brain-predicted age: a potential biomarker of brain ageing with applications in health and disease.

When: —
Venue: Birkbeck Main Building, Malet Street

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Dr James Cole, Kings

Brain-predicted age: a potential biomarker of brain ageing with applications in health and disease.

Abstract: The brain changes as we age, and these changes are associated with cognitive decline and an increased risk of dementia. Neuroimaging has been used to measure these age-related changes, and considerable variability in patterns of brain ageing is evident. Equally, rates of age-associated decline affect people very differently. This motivates research into biomarkers of the brain ageing process. Here I will present my work on a potential brain-ageing biomarker, derived using machine learning analysis of structural neuroimaging data. I will present results on the application of this biomarker to studies of the general population and outline some insights gained from studying brain ageing in specific diseases. These diseases include Down's syndrome, HIV, traumatic brain injury, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer's. Finally, I will talk about ongoing developments, including the application of deep learning methods to the study of brain ageing.

Bio: James recently started a UKRI Innovation fellowship, based at the Department of Neuroimaging, KCL. Since finishing his PhD in 2010 he has worked at Imperial College, UCL and KCL, researching a range of different neurological and psychiatric disorders. His research has focused on the use of multiple neuroimaging modalities to quantify longitudinal changes to the brain. Recently, James has been using machine learning to quantify patterns of brain ageing using neuroimaging data, which is the focus of his fellowship research.

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