Research summary
Many people experience a decline in their thinking ability as they age. For example, they may think more slowly or have trouble multitasking, focusing or recalling short-term information. Those who develop neurodegenerative diseases and dementias will have much more significant difficulties with these tasks. As Canada Research Chair in Data Analytics and Digital Health in Cognitive Aging and Dementia, Dr. Angela Roberts aims to improve cognitive aging outcomes in older adults suffering from neurodegenerative diseases and dementias.
She and her research team are figuring out how to slow age-related cognitive decline and mitigate cognitive and communication impairments in people with these conditions. They are studying speech patterns and characteristics that could help detect cognitive decline and exploring the relationships between different cognitive aging outcomes and factors like physical activity, sleep and social engagement. Finally, they are studying innovative clinical outcomes for speech-language therapies designed to help patients with dementia communicate.