ERC awards €1.3m to investigate ageing
A cognitive ageing scientist from the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases (DZNE) has been awarded an ERC grant to investigate spatial orientation changes in elderly humans.
Professor Thomas Wolbers was awarded a ‘Starting Grant’ from the European Research Council (ERC) and will receive around €1.3m. It is the first ERC grant awarded to the DZNE.
Hartmut Möllring, minister of science and economic affairs in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany, said: “We are all living longer. Research into healthy and pathological ageing are, therefore, topics of special social importance. Especially in Saxony-Anhalt there are many high interesting research approaches to face the challenges of an ageing society. The EU funding is a testimony for the longstanding excellent research in Saxony-Anhalt.
Wolbers will investigate why the ability to find one’s way declines with age, as disorientation is often one of the first signs of dementia. “The ultimate goal is to detect dementia at an early stage and to develop measures to prevent dementia or at least counteract it. In addition, elderly people can only live an independent and active life if their sense of direction is still working well,” says Wolbers.
The project, based at the center’s Magdeburg site, combines the study of brain processes by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), mathematical models and advanced data analysis techniques. This is complemented by navigation within a realistically simulated environment using a “virtual theatre”. Within this 360 degree cinema, research participants can move on a treadmill in all directions and will have a simulated environment always in sight that adapts to their movements.
