AD Risk Neuroimaging

A central mission of the IRIS Lab is to understand how cerebrovascular and brain structural changes relate to cognitive decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD) risk. The lab's work — conducted in collaboration with Wake Forest School of Medicine, UC Davis, and partners in the U.S. POINTER lifestyle intervention trial — examines how metrics such as cerebrovascular reactivity (CVR), cerebral blood flow, white matter integrity, and arterial stiffness differ between individuals with normal cognition and those with mild cognitive impairment (MCI). Findings show that impaired cerebrovascular dynamics in both gray and white matter are associated with poorer cognitive performance, and that vascular risk factors including hypertension independently contribute to these deficits. These results support the use of MRI-derived vascular biomarkers as early, non-invasive indicators of AD risk.