Proceedings from the Albert Charitable Trust Inaugural Workshop on white matter and cognition in aging

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

  • Farzaneh A. Sorond
  • Shawn Whitehead
  • Ken Arai
  • Douglas Arnold
  • S. Thomas Carmichael
  • Charles De Carli
  • Marco Duering
  • Myriam Fornage
  • Rafael E. Flores-Obando
  • Jonathan Graff-Radford
  • Edith Hamel
  • David C. Hess
  • Massafumi Ihara
  • Hugh S. Markus
  • Axel Montagne
  • Gary Rosenberg
  • Andy Y. Shih
  • Eric E. Smith
  • Alex Thiel
  • Kai Hei Tse
  • Donna Wilcock
  • Frank Barone

This third in a series of vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) workshops, supported by “The Leo and Anne Albert Charitable Trust,” was held from February 8 to 12 at the Omni Resort in Carlsbad, CA. This workshop followed the information gathered from the earlier two workshops suggesting that we focus more specifically on brain white matter in age-related cognitive impairment. The Scientific Program Committee (Frank Barone, Shawn Whitehead, Eric Smith, and Rod Corriveau) assembled translational, clinical, and basic scientists with unique expertise in acute and chronic white matter injury at the intersection of cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative etiologies. As in previous Albert Trust workshops, invited participants addressed key topics related to mechanisms of white matter injury, biomarkers of white matter injury, and interventions to prevent white matter injury and age-related cognitive decline. This report provides a synopsis of the presentations and discussions by the participants, including the existing knowledge gaps and the delineation of the next steps towards advancing our understanding of white matter injury and age-related cognitive decline. Workshop discussions and consensus resulted in action by The Albert Trust to (1) increase support from biannual to annual “White Matter and Cognition” workshops; (2) provide funding for two collaborative, novel research grants annually submitted by meeting participants; and (3) coordinate the formation of the “Albert Research Institute for White Matter and Cognition.” This institute will fill a gap in white matter science, providing white matter and cognition communications, including annual updates from workshops and the literature and interconnecting with other Albert Trust scientific endeavors in cognition and dementia, and providing support for newly established collaborations between seasoned investigators and to the development of talented young investigators in the VCI-dementia (VCID) and white matter cognition arena.

Original languageEnglish
JournalGeroScience
Volume42
Issue number1
Pages (from-to)81-96
Number of pages16
ISSN2509-2715
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2020
Externally publishedYes

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2019, American Aging Association.

    Research areas

  • Aging, Blood-brain barrier, Brain white matter, Cognition, Myelin, Neurovascular, Oligovascular, Vascular cognitive impairment (VCID)

ID: 286492595