Project Overview

The hippocampus is the brain region which shows the most severe changes in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Magnetic resonance imaging can be used to measure these changes in order to improve diagnosis and evaluate potential treatment options for patients with Alzheimer’s disease.

The hippocampus is not a uniform brain region, but displays differences in both structure and function comparing its front to back portions. However, methods have not yet been developed to measure changes throughout the hippocampus in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Our study will use cadaver brain samples to develop a new method which is capable of evaluating the entire hippocampus in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. We will then evaluate whether our measurements can accurately measure the pathology of this condition. Finally, we will determine whether measurements made with our technique can identify which specific patients with early Alzheimer’s disease will worsen over time. We believe our study could have a major impact on Alzheimer’s disease, as it will result in a new tool to measure the brain region most severely affected in this condition. This will be extremely helpful for clinical trials aimed at evaluating promising new treatments for this condition.

Principal Investigator

Trevor Steve , University of Alberta