How Aging and Alzheimer’s Affect the Brain’s Blood Flow

We plan to model changes in blood flow around the brain across the lifespan, and to identify how Alzheimer’s affects this.

Our study is unique in that so-called normative modelling has been applied to brain imaging data before, but not to ASL derived measures of CBF. Furthermore, we will extend the statistics behind the normative model to capture longitudinal trajectories of people’s brain ageing over time. Finally, the proposal takes advantage of unique access to ASL MRI datasets, that we have collated and quality controls over recent years.

The benefit of our normative modelling approach is that it provides individualised details on CBF, which is a strong determinant of overall brain health. By mapping what is normal for CBF over the lifespan, we can make accurate predictions about how someone’s CBF will evolve over time. This should allow earlier identification of people with poorer CBF for their age, perhaps before they have cognitive symptoms Since the vascular component to brain health is essential, our work should allow CBF markers to be used alongside blood tests and other brain scans to predict Alzheimer’s.