Blog: The Brain Dialogues, filtered by tag: Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing

Honours Student at CHeBA, Zara Page, keeps mentally fit through her study of differing languages. So far, she has mastered French along with some Italian and Spanish and hopes to move onto learning Mandarin. In keeping with her passion for languages, Zara is currently conducting research exploring the cultural fairness of cognitive assessments for culturally and linguistically diverse Australians.   How did you get into researching the ageing brain? When I enrolled in my degree, I knew that it was going to be a four-year program with the integrated honours. Ultimately, this was why I chose… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au In 1945 when Australians were celebrating the end of the Second World War, a baby girl was born west of Sydney, in Granville. Her parents named her Jean.   65 years later and with three loving sons, seven grandchildren and more than 50 years of a strong and happy marriage to husband Len Nesbitt, Jean was diagnosed with vascular dementia – the second most common form of dementia after Alzheimer’s disease.  On Friday, 11 September, just over 10 years since she was first diagnosed, Jean’s family said their loving goodbyes at a beautiful memorial held… Read More

RHIAGH CLEARY & HEIDI DOUGLASS Human beings are by nature social beings, and socialising is important to maintain mental, emotional and physical health.  Socialisation has been shown to boost immunity and have health benefits such as reduced osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis and improved cognitive function and cardiovascular health. According to researchers at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), those who socialise regularly are more likely to live longer, healthier, and happier lives.  Rhiagh Cleary Our research also shows that the pattern in which you socialise can… Read More

Research Officer in CHeBA’s Genetics & Epigenomics Group, Naga Mutyala, completed her PhD in March 2020 which focused on evaluating a rodent model and novel treatments for glioblastoma, a grade IV brain cancer, using gene expression profiling.  Glioblastoma is the most lethal grade of brain cancer in adults and resultantly has very poor patient outcomes with a median survival rate of only 15 months. To improve treatment success further evaluation of alternative therapies is urgently required. Therefore, we examined the efficacy of an antipsychotic drug olanzapine as an alternative… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Photo credit Brendan Esposito, ABC   Along with 6,000 other Australians, 77-year-old Paddy Goldsmith is playing a vital role in changing the future of Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias through her participation in the Maintain Your Brain research trial. Led by the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA) at UNSW Sydney, Maintain Your Brain is the world’s largest internet-based trial aimed at preventing dementia. My motivation to be involved in research came after losing two friends to dementia; one of whom was especially dear to me, says… Read More

Zara Page, a fourth-year Neuroscience Honours student, has spent the year working with Dr Nicole Kochan and Dr Karen Croot alongside CHeBA's CogSCAN and Sydney Memory and Ageing Study teams to explore the culture-fairness of computerised neuropsychological testing for culturally and linguistically diverse older Australians. Despite Australia’s multicultural society, older culturally and linguistically diverse Australians have been overlooked in dementia research. Traditionally, pencil-and-paper tests are considered as the ‘gold standard’ tool to diagnose and monitor dementia. However,… Read More

HEIDI DOUGLASS | h.douglass@unsw.edu.au Senior executives from Australia’s property industry are spending the next month increasing their physical activity in the lead up to the tenth Wipeout Dementia; a surf off contest at Bondi Beach which raises funds for dementia research at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA).  45 surfers across five teams (listed below) will compete in this year’s property industry event alongside Wipeout Dementia Ambassador and 1978 World Surfing Champion Wayne “Rabbit” Bartholomew AM, with the first ever Battle Royale occurring at the end of the Surf Off. … Read More