Cognitive Longitudinal Study

The cognitive ageing collection consists of DNA, lymphocytes, serum, urine and brain donation samples from Caucasian participants aged 50 years and above, living in the North West and North East of England. In 1983 volunteers displaying no symptoms of dementia were asked to take part in a longitudinal cognitive study in order to monitor changes in cognitive functioning in old age. Psychometric measurements of memory, processing speed, fluid intelligence and vocabulary ability were taken every 5 years with a follow-up of between 15 and 20 years.

Collection of biological samples commenced in 2000 with the aim of identifying genes associated with non-pathological cognitive decline. Remaining participants are monitored for depression and dementia. Additional data (genetic and phenotypic) is available upon request including GWAS (imputed to 2 million SNPs), health (physical and mental) and demographic.

Steering committee: Professor Bill Ollier, Professor Mike Horan, Dr Neil Pendleton, and Dr Tony Payton (University of Manchester).

If you would like further information about this sample collection please contact us.