Aaron Lam

Aaron is a PhD candidate researching the impact of obstructive sleep apnoea on older adults whom may be at risk of developing dementia. He has an interest in dementia, imaging, and sleep research.

Forefront Group: Healthy Brain Ageing Program

Supervisors:

Professor Sharon Naismith, Dr Angela D’Rozario, Associate Professor Craig Phillips, Professor Ron Grunstein

Expertise:

  • Sleep
  • Ageing
  • Imaging

Affiliate Organisations:

University of Sydney, Woolcock Institute of Medical Research

Neurodegeneration of interest:

AD, FTD

Specific Skills:

  • Freesurfer
  • FSL
  • Python
  • SPSS
  • R
  • GraphPad Prism

Projects:

Impact of obstructive sleep apnoea on older adults at risk of dementia

Disease area:

Dementia, MCI, obstructive sleep apnoea, sleep disorders, ageing

Research Project Description

  • Obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) and sleep-dependent memory in older adults
    • Investigating whether OSA impacts sleep-dependent memory in older adults with and without MCI
    • More specifically, looking at the relationship between OSA and ability to recall words after 8 hours of sleep opportunity.
  • OSA and memory in older adults at risk of dementia – verbal memory and hippocampal subfields
    • Examining whether OSA impacts verbal memory in those at risk of developing dementia as well as hippocampal subfields (CA1, CA3, DG) that have been previously associated with memory.
  • OSA and hippocampal tractography in older adults at risk of dementia
    • Using TractSeg and DWI, I am investigating whether OSA influences tracts that connect the hippocampus to other brain regions. The tracts of interest are those associated with memory.
  • The utility of OSA screening tools in a memory clinic
    • Exploring whether questionnaire based and take-home oximeter are feasible in a memory clinic

Research Publications

Lam A, Haroutonian C, Grummitt L, Ireland C, Grunstein RR, Duffy S, D'Rozario A, Naismith SL. Sleep-Dependent Memory in Older People With and Without MCI: The Relevance of Sleep Microarchitecture, OSA, Hippocampal Subfields, and Episodic Memory. Cereb Cortex. 2021 May 10;31(6):2993-3005.