Dr. Mahsa Dadar, Anna Marier, funded by the Alzheimer Society of Canada

Alzheimer’s disease affects hundreds of thousands of Canadians, yet not everyone is affected in the same way. Black, Hispanic, and lower-income older adults often experience higher rates of dementia, but we do not fully understand why. Some people with similar levels of brain changes remain mentally sharp, a phenomenon called cognitive reserve. This study will explore how factors such as education, income, neighborhood quality, and social support influence brain health and cognition across different racial and ethnic groups. Our goal is to determine which protective factors are most important for each community. Our findings will help doctors, healthcare workers, and community organizations develop better; more personalized strategies tailored to each community's needs to ensure everyone has equal opportunities to maintain cognitive health and independence as they age.

Over the next 4 years, we will develop and validate three tasks sensitive to subtle changes in (a) how individuals speak; and (b) how good they are at naming people and objects. 

Our task will be aimed at detecting the earliest changes Alzheimer’s disease is likely to elicit within the brain. With it, we hope to provide a reliable method for early detection of this disease that is suitable for screening at a population scale, as the task will be low cost; non-invasive; quick; and deployable in remote locations. It will be administered on a tablet; freely available to clinicians across the country; and capable of providing instantaneous results. Beyond its benefits in disease screening, repeated administration of our test should prove equally useful in tracking disease progression over time. 

Following the development phase, we will examine the test’s performance and attributes in comparison to existing methods and self-reported concerns.