Item-Level Scoring of Memory Tests as an Approach to Detect and Study Abnormal Cognitive Ageing

Although considerable progress has been made over the last few years in diagnosing neurodegenerative conditions, a number of challenges still exist. One of these is defining valid and easy-to-implement routines that allow disease detection at the earliest stage possible, ideally before the onset of symptoms.

Neuropsychological tests are of crucial importance in diagnosing these conditions, but ordinary test scores have significant limitations, as they are typically influenced by a range of abilities and have numerical constraints.

It is for this purpose that item-level test scores have been introduced: instead of scoring test performance as a whole, each test item is scored separately to characterise performance in more detail. These indices offer a significant opportunity to define objective measures of abnormal cognitive mechanisms.

In this project, the student will focus on a large database of test scores and will design and test novel item-level test scores sensitive to clinical neurodegeneration.

Brunel offers a number of funding options to research students that help cover the cost of their tuition fees, contribute to living expenses or both. See more information here: https://www.brunel.ac.uk/research/Research-degrees/Research-degree-funding. The UK Government is also offering Doctoral Student Loans for eligible students, and there is some funding available through the Research Councils. Many of our international students benefit from funding provided by their governments or employers. Brunel alumni enjoy tuition fee discounts of 15%.