Network disruptions following brain infarction: cognition, behaviour and regional brain volume change

One in 3 Australians will develop dementia after retirement. Thirty percent of the cost of dementia care is driven by the management of the behavioural and psychiatric symptoms of dementia, an estimated $USD200 billion globally.

For many patients and their families, the management of these symptoms is one of the most difficult aspects of their dementia journey. Unfortunately, these symptoms are a common feature of brain disease. Current pharmacological treatments for BPSD have limited efficacy and significant risk. Side effects from these therapies remain a significant cause of illness, disability and death in the elderly [5]. Similarly, one in 3 patients will dement following stroke, yet the neuroanatomical substrates of these symptoms remain poorly understood. Advanced imaging techniques allow us to interrogate not just the structural substrates associated with such behaviours, but also their functional network correlates. We need to better understand the drivers of these behaviours by investigating specific neuroanatomical networks and their associations with behavioural and cognitive change using these advances.

Li, Q., Pardoe, H., Lichter, R., Werden, E., Raffelt, A., Cumming., Brodtmann, A. Cortical thickness estimation in longitudinal stroke studies: a comparison of 3 measurement methods NeuroImage:Clinical (in press)

Brodtmann A, Werden E, Pardoe H, Li Q, Jackson G, Donnan G, Cowie T, Bradshaw J, Darby D, Cumming T. Charting cognitive and volumetric trajectories after stroke: protocol for the Cognition And Neocortical Volume After Stroke (CANVAS) study. Int J Stroke. 2014 Aug;9(6):824-8

Brodtmann. A. Pardoe, H. Li, Q.,  Lichter, R. Ostergaard, L., Cumming, T. Regional variability in brain volume three months after stroke Journal of the Neurological Sciences Nov 15 2012 322(1-2):122-8