Research Studies

Familial Alzheimer's disease (FAD) is a rare autosomal dominant form of Alzheimer's disease, generally affecting individuals below the age of 60, which results in offspring of affected parents having a 50% chance of developing the disease themselves. It was at UCL, in 1991, where the first FAD gene (APP) was found, and during the last two decades FAD research has accelerated significantly.

At the Dementia Research Centre, we see people with familial Alzheimer's disease as part of four main studies:

• Longitudinal study of FAD
• Longitudinal (DIAN-L) study
• Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer’s Disease Network treatment trial (DIAN-TU)
• Fibroblast study

Please visit the FAD study page for more information about these.

This study aims to improve characterisation and diagnosis of posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) and to investigate behavioural interventions/strategies to ameliorate symptoms.

Recruiting people with posterior cortical atrophy and typical Alzheimer’s disease.

What does the Longitudinal Study of PCA Involve?

• A 1 or 2 day annual visit to the DRC (can be a home visit if more appropriate)

• Neuropsychological tasks

• An MRI scan

• A neurological assessment

• A blood test (only at initial visit)

Participants may be approached about one-off studies (e.g. looking at reading or balance abilities).balance abilities).

To find out more about this study, please visit the PCA Longitudinal project website. 

This study is investigating the impact of dementia-related visual impairment on every day activities (e.g. locating objects, getting around independently) in order to develop aids/strategies to minimise such impairment.

Recruiting people with posterior cortical atrophy or typical Alzheimer’s disease.

What does SWTS involve?

1. A full day visit to the PAMELA lab (Tufnell Park, London)

Participants will be asked to walk around or locate objects within a simplified environment

2. A half-day interview at home with researchers about individual coping strategies used. This will be audio recorded.

Participants are not required to take part in both aspects of this study.

To find out more, please visit the SWTS project page.

For more information, please visit the project page. 

The C-PLACID (‘Computational PLatform for the Assessment of Cognition In Dementia’) project aims to improve cognitive assessments using new technology (e.g. eye-tracking, voice-recording and virtual reality).

Recruiting people with behavioural variant and linguistic forms of frontotemporal dementia, typical Alzheimer’s disease, posterior cortical atrophy and healthy volunteers.

What does C-PLACID involve?

• A day long annual visit for three years to the DRC

• Neuropsychological tasks

• Tracking eye-movements and audio/video recording responses

• Interacting with characters within a simulated scene who will ‘chat’ to you

• Filling out questionnaires

To find out more about this study, please visit the C-PLACID project page.

A team of researchers at the DRC focus on understanding how disease of the brain's white matter is related to ageing and dementia. For more information, please visit the White Matter Disease project page.

Auditory information processing in dementia, or the Brain Signatures study, investigates the ways in which the brain’s processing of complex sounds (such as speech, music and environmental noises) goes wrong in different dementia diseases.

Recruiting people with both behavioural and linguistic variants of frontotemporal dementia as well as people with typical Alzheimer’s disease. All participants must have an available caregiver or partner with them during their visits.

What does this study involve?

• A 2 day visit to the DRC

A combination of :

• Structural and functional MRI scans
• Neuropsychological tests
• Autonomic and EEG recordings

To find out more, please visit the Brain Signatures study page.

This work investigates the effects of dementia diseases on chemosensory processing (perception and recognition of odours and flavours) using joint behavioural and neuroimaging techniques. Our goal is to identify chemosensory signatures of dementia diseases that are relevant to daily life symptoms such as abnormal eating behaviour.

Patients with Alzheimer’s disease are usually prescribed Donepezil; a medication that works by boosting the function of certain brain cells. We want to assess how effective Donepezil is by using a technique called transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS).

TMS involves stimulating a small part of the brain using a magnetic pulse, which results in a brief (about 1 second) and painless twitch of hand muscles.

The study uses two sets of TMS experiments on the same day: one before, and one after, the daily dose of Donepezil is taken (NB: healthy volunteers will not take the Donepezil). This is repeated two weeks later.

Recruiting people with Alzheimer’s disease and healthy volunteers.

• DIAN is an international research partnership of leading scientists determined to understand a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease that is caused by a gene mutation.
• Understanding of this form of Alzheimer's disease may provide clues to decoding other dementias and developing dementia treatments.
• Funded by a multiple-year research grant from the National Institute on Aging, DIAN currently involves 14 outstanding research institutions in the United States, Australia, United Kingdom (the DRC), and Germany.
• DIAN is currently enrolling study participants who are biological adult children of a parent with a mutated gene known to cause dominantly inherited Alzheimer’s disease. Such individuals may or may not carry the gene themselves and may or may not have disease symptoms.

To find out more about the project, please see the DIAN website.