Cerebral small vessel disease (SVD) refers to a syndrome attributed to pathological processes involving the arterioles, venules and capillaries of the brain which is often associated with hypertension, diabetes, hyperlipidaemia and smoking. It is the most common cause of vascular cognitive impairment and vascular dementia.

My aim is to use sensitive, new measures of working memory in order to:

1. Detect deficits at an earlier stage in SVD (before they become apparent on standard neuropsychological testing) and

2. Enable better tracking of disease progression

I will then build upon the behavioural findings to improve our understanding of the neurobiology underpinning working memory deficits. Specifically, I shall relate deficits in working memory control in SVD to underlying brain network dysfunction using diffusion- weighted magnetic resonance imaging and resting state network analyses.

DPhil Student

• Khazanah–Oxford Centre for Islamic Studies Merdeka Scholar