# Cognitive Aging Trajectories: Cardiovascular Risk, White Matter, and Medication Predictors

> **NIH NIH F31** · UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA · 2020 · $40,099

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
The proposed training fellowship focuses on risks and protective factors in cognitive aging. Increases in the
older adult population have resulted concomitant increases in cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevalence, which
is a known risk factor for cognitive decline and related cerebrovascular dysfunction. While pharmacological
treatment has made substantial advances in reductions of CVD-related events (e.g. heart attack, stroke,
lowering cholesterol), there remain considerable gaps in the field’s collective knowledge regarding the impacts
of pharmacological treatment on cognitive outcomes. The proposed training plan provides the candidate
with additional training beyond that afforded by her Ph.D. program. Emphases afforded by the fellowship,
if awarded include (1) coursework in medical and pharmacological aspects of aging (epidemiology, geriatrics,
and neuroscience), (2) didactic and hands-on training in the processing of FLAIR and T1 MRI images (for the
quantification of white matter disease), and (3) advanced practice with longitudinal data analyses. The
candidate is supported by a strong, productive mentoring team with specific expertise in the proposed areas of
study. Training is motivated by a research plan that will investigate, in a sample of 20,368 adults aged 60 and
older, drawn from the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC). NACC participants along the
cognitive continuum (e.g. cognitively normal through dementia) with 2-10 years of follow-up will be included.
The NACC database offers an unusually rich source of data in which to investigate these questions because of
sample size, longitudinal occasions, broad sampling of individuals, concurrent imaging on a subset of
individuals, detailed medication inventories on all participants, and the use of a uniform data set for
neuropsychological data collection. The proposed work will investigate the associations between CVD
(including both risk factors like hypertension and comorbidities like myocardial infarction), vascular
neuropathology (white matter hyperintensities in regions of interest), and trajectories of change in four
cognitive domains (Memory, Attention, Executive Function/Processing Speed, and Language). The study will
further investigate whether pharmacological treatment (cardiovascular medication) mitigates cognitive decline.
Thus, the proposed study has two specific aims: (1) To confirm that participants’ level and longitudinal
rate of change in CVD is associated with level and rate of change in the four cognitive domains over the
subsequent decade; and to further investigate whether pharmacological treatment of CVD moderates that
association, and (2) In a subset of participants for whom structural MRI data were collected at baseline, to
determine whether baseline indicators of vascular neuropathology mediate the relationship between
baseline CVD on level and rate of change in cognition over time.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9926705
- **Project number:** 5F31AG063412-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
- **Principal Investigator:** Lindsay J Rotblatt
- **Activity code:** F31 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $40,099
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-05-16 → 2021-05-15

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9926705

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9926705, Cognitive Aging Trajectories: Cardiovascular Risk, White Matter, and Medication Predictors (5F31AG063412-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-06-11 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9926705. Licensed CC0.

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