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School of Psychology Professor Audrey Duarte Receives Grant From Alzheimer's Association

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Poor sleep is associated with an increased risk of AD. Neural signals measured during sleep may be sensitive to AD neuropathology that is, in turn, predictive of future memory decline and progression to dementia. Currently, neuropathology is only measurable with expensive and invasive procedures in the clinic. Sleep-related neural signals are measured using bulky, uncomfortable equipment in an unfamiliar lab setting that can make sleeping difficult. It is critical to understand the ability of these sleep signals to serve as inexpensive, early, noninvasive biomarkers of AD neuropathology. In this pilot study, we will develop, validate, and deploy a new, wearable, virtually imperceptible, system worn in the comfort of one’s own home that overcomes existing limitations to monitoring sleep neural signals in order to non-invasively detect biomarkers of Alzheimer’s disease in persons in the predementia stages. The PIs and key investigators on this project will leverage their complementary expertise in cognitive neuroscience of aging, mechanical/biomedical engineering, sleep neuroscience, and AD clinical neuropsychology to ensure the success of this interdisciplinary work. We will validate our novel system against a traditional in-lab EEG system for sleep EEG monitoring in healthy older adults. Next, we will ask older adults with known AD pathology and cognitive impairment to apply the Band-Aid® sized adhesive SKINTRONICS system to the forehead, where emerging evidence suggests sleep EEG signals associated with AD pathology are observed, in their own homes for multiple nights. If certain sleep EEG abnormalities are sensitive to AD pathology, they may serve as an early diagnostic biomarker of the disease and aid in early detection and treatment.

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  • Workflow Status:Published
  • Created By:kclark87
  • Created:08/30/2019
  • Modified By:lwhite35
  • Modified:08/30/2019

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