Neuropathology Unit - Dementia, Neurodegeneration, Ageing - Honours in 2009

An Honours project undertaken in this lab would be administered by the Discipline of Pathology.

Our laboratory focuses upon understanding the effects of ageing and dementia.

The substrate of memory impairment in Frontotemporal dementia (FTD)

Supervisor + contact details:

• Associate Professor Jillian Kril

Level 4 Blackburn Building D06 Email: jilliank@med.usyd.edu.au; Phone: 9036 7118 Project description: FTD is a form of dementia which is as common as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the <65y age group and accounts for 12-20% of all dementia. It is characterised by disturbances in social and interpersonal conduct and language abnormalities. One feature used to distinguish FTD from other forms of dementia is the relative preservation of memory function early in FTD. Nevertheless a proportion of FTD patients do present with amnesia and these are commonly mis-diagnosed as AD.

Pathologically FTD shows marked degeneration of the cerebral cortex and hippocampus. Neuropathology in the hippocampus correlates well with memory deficits in AD, however the same does not hold true for patients with FTD. This project will investigate the pathological substrate of memory impairment in FTD.

Human postmortem tissue from a prospective brain donor program is available for study. The type, severity and distribution of pathology will be examined in cortical brain regions known to have a role in memory function and the findings from patients with and without amnesia compared.