Understanding Lifelong Brain Adaptation and Healthy Aging
Official title: Beyond Reserve: Dynamic Neurocognitive Adaptation
Funded at Cleveland Clinic Foundation · NIH-11169756 · Data updated 2026-11-12
This research looks at how people's brains adapt throughout their lives, from childhood to old age, to help us understand healthy aging and resilience against conditions like Alzheimer's.
Quick facts
| Grant type | NIH-funded research |
|---|---|
| Study type | NIH-funded research |
| Funding institution | Cleveland Clinic Foundation NIH-funded |
| Lab location | 1 site (Cleveland, United States) |
| Project start | September 1, 2015 |
| Project end | June 30, 2026 |
| Funding year | 2025 |
| Award (this year) | $68,745 |
| NIH project number | 5P20GM109025-10 |
| Project ID | NIH-11169756 on NIH RePORTER |
Who could benefit from this research
✓Could help
This research is interested in understanding brain health across the lifespan, particularly focusing on individuals aged 0-10 years and those 65 years and older, to understand how life experiences shape cognitive adaptation.
✕Less likely to help
Patients seeking immediate treatment or intervention for an existing condition may not directly benefit from this foundational research.
What this research studies
We are exploring how engaging in protective activities, both cognitive and leisure, throughout your life might help your brain adapt and stay healthy as you age. This involves using a special scale to track these activities and comparing them with detailed brain and thinking tests. We also consider how factors like early signs of Alzheimer's disease and inflammation might influence this adaptation. Our goal is to uncover the specific ways your brain adapts to its environment over time, potentially revealing new insights into resilience against cognitive decline.
Why it matters
Potential benefit: If successful, this work could help identify specific behaviors and brain mechanisms that promote lifelong cognitive health and resilience against age-related conditions like Alzheimer's disease.
How similar studies have gone: While the concepts of cognitive reserve and resilience are established, this approach of dynamically tracking adaptation across the lifespan with a specific dNA scale and linking it to neurophysiological markers is a novel direction.
Where this research is happening
-
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
Cleveland, United States Active
Researchers
- Principal investigator: Cieri, Filippo — Cleveland Clinic Foundation
- Study coordinator: Cieri, Filippo
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About this research
- This is an active NIH-funded research project — typically early-stage science, not a clinical trial accepting patient enrollment.
- Some NIH-funded labs run parallel clinical studies or seek volunteers for related work. To check, contact the principal investigator or institution listed above.
- For full project details, budget, and progress reports, visit the official NIH RePORTER page.