PhD student awarded emerging researcher exchange grant

Research Officer and PhD student at the Centre for Healthy Brain Ageing (CHeBA), Fleur Harrison, is the successful recipient of a Travel Exchange grant from Emerging Researchers in Ageing (ERA). This award will provide Ms Harrison the opportunity to spend six weeks at the newly established Dementia Centre of Excellence at Curtin University’s enAble Institute in Perth to advance her work on apathy as a possible target for dementia prevention and risk reduction.

With 57 million people worldwide living with dementia, understanding risk factors and developing risk reduction strategies has become paramount.

“Apathy is a reduction in motivation or goal-directed behaviour. which is common in older age, yet typically goes unnoticed,” says Ms Harrison. “It can also be mistaken for depression or fatigue.”

"My PhD research aims to validate assessment techniques for apathy, explore links between apathy and lifestyle health behaviours such as physical activity and alcohol consumption, and between apathy and inflammation. I will test whether apathy is linked with increased risk for dementia and mortality."

Fleur Harrison

Establishing an accurate measurement of apathy in the older population and the link to dementia risk could have significant impact on clinical practice and health outcomes.

“An accurate tool for early screening will help identify people at risk of dementia when interventions are more likely to be successful,” says Ms Harrison. “Implementing strategies to prevent dementia onset has the potential for enormous impact on the global burden of disease associated with this devastating condition.”

During her six-week exchange, Ms Harrison will be mentored by Professor Blossom Stephan, a leading neuroepidemiologist and global expert in dementia risk prediction and risk reduction. Professor Stephan, who was appointed as the inaugural Chair of Dementia (for Curtin University and Dementia Australia) in 2023, will mentor Fleur in sophisticated processes to study the possible pathways linking apathy and dementia risk. This collaboration will extend Ms Harrison’s current PhD project under the supervision of CHeBA Co-Director Professor Henry Brodaty, which is co-funded by CHeBA and Dementia Australia

"This exchange will allow Ms Harrison to strengthen the evidence supporting apathy as a predictive indicator of dementia risk," says Professor Stephan.

The DCE at Curtin University, established in 2023, focuses on tackling the challenges of dementia, through innovative multi-disciplinary approaches, to reduce its impact on individuals, carers, communities, and care systems.

Announced at the ERA Conference on Wednesday, 4 December, this success marks a significant milestone in Ms Harrison’s career toward a long-term goal of establishing her own independent, impactful and world-leading program of research on apathy.

The ERA Travel Exchange grant is a valuable opportunity for early-career researchers to expand their knowledge, network and collaborate with peers, senior academics and policymakers both within Australia and internationally, to further their research in the field of ageing.

"Apathy may be an early manifestation of dementia."

Fleur Harrison

“Through new collaborations I also plan to expand my program to focus on other potentially modifiable risk factors to enable broader impact within the field of dementia prevention.”