Clare O'Donoghue

Clare complete her DPhil in 2018, supervised by Professor Clare Mackay. Clare’s research investigates why some older adults show increased risk of problems with memory or attention, whilst others show remarkable preservation of such cognitive functions in later life.

Maintenance of cognitive abilities in later life is imperative to allow older adults to function independently in society. As the number of people living to an advanced age rises, it is increasingly important to find effective interventions to reduce, or even entirely prevent, deterioration in cognitive ability in older adults. Such interventions will be informed by greater understanding of the compensatory mechanisms that allow older adults to cope with changes in cognitive functions in later life, as well as the mechanisms underlying increased risk of age-related cognitive decline. Clare aims to use neuroimaging methods to investigate how brain structure and function, as well as genetic and lifestyle factors, may contribute to risk and resilience in cognitive ageing.

Clare graduated with a BA in Experimental Psychology from St. Anne’s College, Oxford, and spent two years as a research assistant working on the Cognitive Health in Ageing (CHA) programme of research to promote cognitive health in the elderly population, based at the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity (OHBA).

http://www.psych.ox.ac.uk/research/translational-neuroimaging-group