State Innovation Promotion of the Free State of Saxony

Scholarship title: Significance of sensorimotor parameters in Alzheimer´s disease

In general, the human population is experiencing a constant increase of life expectancy which can be explained by technical, medical and care-related progress. However, pronounced aging is accompanied by various disease patterns, such as different kinds of dementia. The incurable Alzheimer´s disease (AD) is the most common form amongst them, accounting for approx. 65%. The number of people affected by AD in Germany is particularly high, especially in the Free State of Saxony. AD is characterized by a progressive loss of cognitive brain function (e.g. memory or learning ability), which most commonly manifests around the age of 65 years. However, AD is also characterized by motor impairments (e.g. deteriorated balance and gait parameters), which may already occur during earlier stages of the disease. Unfortunately, test batteries to date mainly rely on cognitive tests to identify AD. Therefore, the present "Landesinnovationsstipendium" / PhD-scholarship aims to examine further and still unexplored motor parameters to better identify and understand this disease. The outcomes of this PhD scholarship may be of importance to derive specific knowledge, which could be useful for early intervention purposes and to raise patients’ quality of life.

Contact:

Daniel Schmidt, Telephone +49 371 531-32989, E-Mail daniel.schmidt@hsw.tu-chemnitz.de