David is a full-time PhD candidate. He is a registered clinical neuropsychologist and has over 12 years of experience in clinical research in frontotemporal dementia and related disorders. His research interests include improving the diagnostic accuracy of primary progressive aphasia using cognitive tests and improving the clinical experience and management of people diagnosed with dementia.
Forefront Group: FRONTIER Research Group
Supervisor
Prof. Olivier Piguet and Prof. Muireann Irish
Expertise:
Affiliate Organisations
Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network Trials Unit (DIAN-TU)
Neurodegeneration of interest:
Primary progressive aphasia, frontotemporal dementia, Alzheimer’s disease
Specific Skills:
Project - Improving the diagnostic accuracy of primary progressive aphasia using cognitive tests (PhD project, 2018-2021)
Disease area:
Primary progressive aphasia
Research Project Description
Primary progressive aphasia (PPA) comprises three main variants: logopenic (lv-PPA), non-fluent (nfv-PPA) and semantic (sv-PPA). Differentiating the language profiles of the PPA variants remains challenging, especially between lv-PPA and nfv-PPA. Accordingly, there may be advantages in using tools that tap into other cognitive domains and circumvent language, to improve diagnosis. David’s PhD has investigated these ‘other’ cognitive domains, including visuospatial abilities, non-verbal memory, and attention. The findings from his research suggest that brief neuropsychological assessment of cognition above and beyond language can improve the diagnostic accuracy of PPA.
Key Publications from this project
Infographic / Medical Diagram / Scientific Diagram / Picture