Dr. Kristen Kennedy is Founders Professor in the Department of Psychology in the School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences at the University of Texas at Dallas and the Center for Vital Longevity. Dr. Kennedy studies the Cognitive Neuroscience of Aging and her research focuses on disentangling normal from pathological aging of the brain and cognition (e.g., Alzheimer’s disease). Her research uses neuroimaging approaches such as MRI and PET to investigate age-related differences and longitudinal changes in brain gray matter and white matter structure and function using task-based fMRI. Additionally, Dr. Kennedy’s work examines the environmental, genetic, and health and lifestyle modifiers of brain aging. Her research has been continuously federally funded by National Institute on Aging since 2010. She has published over 100 scientific peer-reviewed papers that have been cited over 15,000 times. Dr. Kennedy has many years of service as a journal editor and currently serves as Senior Editor at Imaging Neuroscience.
Title: Modifiers of healthy brain and cognitive aging and their implications for Alzheimer’s related diseases.
Abstract: This talk will discuss the major sources of heterogeneity in aging across individuals. Of the myriad genetic, health, and lifestyle factors that influence aging of the brain and cognition, health of the cerebrovascular system is among the most salient, the most common, and fortunately the most amenable to treatment. Vascular risk also appears to act often in synergistic associations with other key risk factors for suboptimal cognitive and brain aging, namely inflammation, beta-amyloid deposition, APOEe4 genotype and other AD-related risk factors. This talk will summarize work conducted by my lab and close collaborators over the years examining these modifying effects on the brain’s structure and function, and their impact on cognitive aging.
