Europe is greying: this is the metaphor representing the increase in the life expectancy of people living in the European Union (EU). By 2025 more than 20% of Europeans will be 65 or over, with a particularly rapid increase in numbers of over-80s.
Healthy ageing is invariably associated with a progressive decline in cognitive functioning. This decline affects not only low-level stages of processing like hearing or vision, but also higher-level stages such as attention, memory, reasoning, and therefore decision-making.
With the increase of older adult’s population in the EU society, a better understanding of how age ultimately affects decision-making processes is therefore crucial.
Furthermore, a decline of cognitive efficiency is predictive of the transition from mild cognitive impairment, namely, a clinical condition in which the cognitive decline exceeds that of normal aging, but does not impair daily living, to a diagnosable state of dementia. Hence, research efforts aimed to improve cognition in old age and prevent dementia are extremely important for our society.
Advancing age is the single greatest risk factor for the development of neurodegenerative disorders, such as Parkinson’s disease (PD).
PD is deteriorating neurological disorder that starts with motor deficits, and as it progresses, mental processes (cognitive) and mood disorder can develop also. The staging in which the motor, then cognitive symptoms present is due to the progressive loss of dopamine first from the movement circuits of the brain, before the cognitive circuits. Research evidence suggests that the dopamine replacement medication prescribed to ameliorate the motor symptoms also impacts cognition in Parkinson’s. Specifically, cognitive deficits in PD patients mostly occur in high level cognitive functions like attention, impulse inhibition capacity, and consequently decision-making. However, it is not clear yet how different dopamine replacement medications specifically affect these processes. Hence new evidence is needed to better understand this phenomenon, and therefore reducing the impact of PD, and PD-related medication, on quality of life of both patients and caregivers.
Currently, more than 10 million people worldwide are living with PD. In Europe, PD affects 1.2 million EU citizens, a number expected to rise to 2.5 million in the next 15 years. This has important societal consequences. The EU currently spends €1.39 billion annually in direct and indirect PD-related costs, including healthcare services, the loss of productivity, and carer burden. Directly as a result of European greying, these numbers are projected to double by 2030, at enormous economic and social cost.
The present research project is therefore focused on the study of cognitive functions in both healthy ageing and Parkinson’s disease. More specifically, the two main overall objective of the current project are 1) understanding age-related cognitive changes and developing new cognitive stimulation techniques for healthy older adults, in order to improve their cognitive functions and quality of life and 2) defining the effects of dopaminergic medications on cognitive functions and well being in people with PD.
