WEBINAR SERIES—Vascular Contributions to Dementia

May 18, 2022
11 a.m. EDT

Two of the major risk factors for late-onset Alzheimer’s disease are age and cardiovascular disease. Thus, aging of the cerebral vasculature has emerged as a likely candidate contributing to the initiation and/or progression of late-onset Alzheimer’s disease. With advancing age, increased stiffness of the large elastic arteries is associated with cerebrovascular dysfunction and cognitive decline. This webinar will discuss the evidence for the vascular contributions to Alzheimer’s disease with a specific focus on large artery stiffness. The importance of examining sex differences in vascular function and Alzheimer’s disease risk will also be discussed.

Speaker

Ashley Walker, PhD, is an assistant professor at the University of Oregon. Her research seeks to determine the causes of vascular dysfunction with advancing age and the consequences of these impairments. A focus of Walker’s research is to understand the effects of age-related increases in arterial stiffness on cognitive decline and Alzheimer’s disease pathology.