Biological correlates of cognitive and olfactory trajectories in aging and dementia

Olfactory impairment has emerged as a potent marker of future dementia and cognitive impairment. The underlying biological mechanisms for this olfaction-dementia link remain, however, largely unexplored.

Recent technological developments have made assessment of biomarkers (e.g. amyloid β, tau) of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) more easily accessible.

These new blood-based biomarkers (BBB) can help identify age- and dementia-related changes and understanding the link between cognitive and olfactory decline and future dementia development.

This project will investigate the longitudinal trajectories of cognitive and olfactory abilities in relation to aging and dementia and a range of dementia biomarkers.

We will target 4 main areas: associations between 1) AD biomarkers and cognitive and olfactory decline in aging and across the preclinical dementia spectrum, 2) AD biomarkers and starting point and rate of cognitive and olfactory decline in relation to a future dementia diagnosis, 3) olfactory impairment and incident dementia across different biomarker profiles, and 4) cross-sectional links between BBB of AD, neuroimaging markers, and specific memory and olfactory abilities in a newly added cohort.

We will use data from a Swedish population-based study-SNAC-K, with extensive biomarker assessment at baseline and repeated measures of olfaction, cognition and dementia across >20-years. The project will lead to new and important knowledge regarding the olfaction-dementia association.