Owen A Williams
BSc, MSc, PhD
POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH ASSOCIATE
I investigate the ways that cognitive abilities change over the course of healthy ageing and as a consequence of pathological brain changes due to stroke and neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease. Specifically, I seek to understand individual differences in longitudinal trajectories of cognitive decline leading to impairment. My primary aim is to produce work that will be clinically relevant and ultimately improve how patients are assessed, monitored and treated for vascular cognitive impairment and dementia. For example, during my PhD I developed a neuroimaging analysis tool to provide longitudinal measures of cerebral small vessel disease progression which could accurately predict conversion to dementia.
As a postdoc in the Translational Neuropsychology Group I am working on a longitudinal study of the long term psychological consequences of stroke (Ox-Chronic). I will be working on improving our understanding of the prevalence, mechanisms and trajectories of cognitive impairment (e.g. inability to sustain attention or memory failures) and psychological wellbeing (e.g. depression and anxiety) in long term (> two years post-stroke) survivors of stroke.
Key publications
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Apolipoprotein E ε4 allele effects on longitudinal cognitive trajectories are sex and age dependent.
Journal article
Williams OA. et al, (2019), Alzheimers Dement, 15, 1558 - 1567
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Predicting Dementia in Cerebral Small Vessel Disease Using an Automatic Diffusion Tensor Image Segmentation Technique.
Journal article
Williams OA. et al, (2019), Stroke, 50, 2775 - 2782
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Vascular burden and APOE ε4 are associated with white matter microstructural decline in cognitively normal older adults.
Journal article
Williams OA. et al, (2019), Neuroimage, 188, 572 - 583
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Profiles of Cognitive Change in Preclinical and Prodromal Alzheimer’s Disease Using Change-Point Analysis
Journal article
Williams OA. et al, (2020), Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 1 - 12
Recent publications
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Associations between cognitive and brain volume changes in cognitively normal older adults
Journal article
Armstrong NM. et al, (2020), NeuroImage, 223, 117289 - 117289
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Pandora: 4-D White Matter Bundle Population-Based Atlases Derived from Diffusion MRI Fiber Tractography
Journal article
Hansen CB. et al, (2020), Neuroinformatics
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Association of Poorer Hearing With Longitudinal Change in Cerebral White Matter Microstructure
Journal article
Armstrong NM. et al, (2020), JAMA Otolaryngology–Head & Neck Surgery, 146, 1035 - 1035
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Lasting consequences of concussion on the aging brain: Findings from the Baltimore Longitudinal Study of Aging
Journal article
June D. et al, (2020), NeuroImage, 221, 117182 - 117182
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Accelerated decline in white matter microstructure in subsequently impaired older adults and its relationship with cognitive decline.
Journal article
Williams OA. et al, (2020)