Stimulation of compensatory mechanisms to combat age- and dementia-related deficits in cognition

Healthy older adults differ from young adults in a variety of cognitive tasks and many of these deficits are further increased in an age-related syndrome - mild cognitive impairment - which in more than 50% of cases leads to dementia. A leading hypothesis that accounts for age-related cognitive deficits is that of prefrontal decline and the current project aims to study the effect of prefrontal stimulation on older adults and patients with mild cognitive impairment.

One method of stimulation - repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) - has yet to be fully applied to the study of age-related prefrontal deficits. rTMS is a non-invasive technique which delivers cyclic magnetic stimulation to cortical areas. It has been shown to either enhance or inhibit (depending on frequency) targeted areas of the brain and has demonstrably improved older adults’ ability to complete a range of psychological tasks. The project will explore rTMS procedures that have the potential to alleviate age-related and dementia-related cognitive decline.

The Department of Psychology at Nottingham Trent University (NTU) is a large and thriving group that has grown significantly in recent years to be one of the largest in the UK. Research within the Department is flourishing, with Psychology at NTU being one of the top risers in the latest Research Excellence Framework. All of our applied research was rated as either world leading (73%) or internationally excellent (27%). We house over 60 PGR students and offer extensive training (as part of our Doctoral School training events or bespoke events) and specialist training in relation to particular methods or analyses. All PhD students are invited to attend their respective Research Group meetings so that they are part of the research culture within the Department.

This studentship competition is open to applicants who wish to study for a PhD on a full-time basis only. The studentship will pay UK/EU fees (currently set at £4,195 for 2017/18 and are revised annually) and provide a maintenance stipend linked to the RCUK rate (this is revised annually and is currently set at £14,553 for the academic year 2017/18) for up to three years. Applications from non-EU students are welcome, but a successful non-EU candidate would be responsible for paying the difference between non-EU and UK/EU fees. (Fees for 2017/18 are £12,900 for non-EU students and £4,195 for UK/EU students). The studentships will be expected to commence in October 2018.