Event Details
Title: Building Cognitive Resilience One Layer at a Time
Presenter: Laura D. Baker, PhD
Professor, Internal Medicine, Neurology, and Public Health Sciences
Wake Forest University School of Medicine
Date/Time: Tuesday, May 16 @ 8:00-9:00am US ET via Zoom.
Cost: Free. CME credit available. Please email your name, degree title and institution if applicable to [email protected] during the event to claim credit.
Presentation
Dr. Baker’s presentation will provide a brief overview of how cognition changes with aging, and the impact of these changes for older adults and their families. Her presentation will describe some of her recent work that centers on non-pharmacological strategies to build resilience against decline. Dr. Baker will discuss what she and others have learned about the impact of physical activity on brain health for older adults, and new developments in the area of multi-factor risk reduction through lifestyle modification for adults who are at increased risk for cognitive impairment. Finally, she will present the results of her team’s recent study showing cognitive benefit with daily multi-nutrient supplementation, which could ultimately have important implications for the prevention of cognitive decline among older adults.
Biography
Dr. Laura Baker is Professor of Internal Medicine, Neurology, and Public Health Sciences at Wake Forest University School of Medicine, and Associate Director of the NIA-supported Wake Forest Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
She is an international leader in the areas of cognitive aging and lifestyle interventions to protect brain health and prevent cognitive decline, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia, and has been an investigator of over 55 clinical studies.
Most recently, she led the EXERT study, a multisite clinical trial testing whether regular physical exercise can protect against continued cognitive decline in adults with mild cognitive impairment, and now leads U.S. POINTER, a large multisite trial testing the effects of a 2-year multidomain lifestyle intervention on cognition in adults who are at increased risk for cognitive decline and dementia.
Dr. Baker is also co-Principal Investigator of the COSMOS-Mind trial that showed cognitive benefit with 3 years of multivitamin supplementation in a community-based sample of 2200 older adults.
Research Interests
- Aging
- Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Related Diseases
- Non-Pharmacological Clinical Trials
- Lifestyle Interventions to Prevent Cognitive Impairment