Healthy Brain Ageing Program, University of Sydney

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Healthy Brain Ageing Program, University of Sydney

The Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic is open to individuals aged 50-90 years who have noticed new changes in cognition and/or mood.

For more information, please contact our clinic coordinator on (02) 9114 4002 or email [email protected]. The Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic works with older adults to assess, prevent, and treat cognitive decline, dementia, and mood disorders, with the aim of supporting brain health and enhancing quality of life. All services are offered free of charge, as part of our ongoing research studies. O

ur Approach
At the heart of our approach is early detection and prevention. By identifying risk factors and the early signs of cognitive decline, we aim to implement strategies that may slow the progression of neurodegenerative conditions. While there are no known cures for many neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease, research has highlighted several risk factors for cognitive decline and depression in later life, including:

Vascular risks: high blood pressure, heart disease, and high cholesterol
Lifestyle factors: diet, exercise, and cognitive activity
Changes in mood or sleep
Our goal is to determine whether addressing these risk factors can reduce cognitive decline, depression, and the brain changes associated with dementia. Our multidisciplinary team consists of geriatricians, neurologists, neuropsychologists, nurses, researchers, and students. Our research informs our practice, and we view our patients and their families as our research partners. We invite you to join us in finding effective strategies to prevent cognitive decline and enhance the wellbeing and quality of life for both individuals living with cognitive impairment, as well as their families and carers. Eligibility
Our clinic is open to individuals aged 50-90 years who have noticed new changes in cognition and/or mood. To make an appointment, we request that your GP complete a referral form and send it to [email protected]. Our services
Our Specialists provide a thorough assessment
If you have concerns about your memory and/or mood, the Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic can provide you with a comprehensive assessment of your cognition. Over three hours, you will be seen by a neurologist or geriatrician, a research psychologist, and a clinical neuropsychologist. Depending on your specific needs, our specialists may also recommend that you have an MRI scan, blood tests, or complete a sleep study through the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research. We also offer wrist-worn devices that you can take home to track your sleep and monitor your blood oxygen levels during sleep, helping to screen for sleep apnea. Comprehensive Care
Within two to three weeks of your assessment, our neuropsychologist will send a detailed report to your referring physician to assist with your ongoing care. We will follow up with you in 18-24 months to monitor any changes in your thinking skills, memory, and mood, with additional follow-ups every two years for up to four visits in total. As part of our clinical and public health services research, all services are provided at no cost to you.

21/08/2026

👋 Meet the Team behind the Healthy Brain Ageing Program 👋

Ever wondered who's behind the work at the Healthy Brain Ageing team? We're so excited to launch our new Meet the HBA Team series, giving you a glimpse of the incredible people who make up this team, one person at a time! ✨

First up is Dr. Alessandra Lee, known to the team as Ally 💙, Clinical Neuropsychologist at the Healthy Brain Ageing team.

🧠 Ally is a Clinical Neuropsychologist at the Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic, where she assesses memory and thinking skills in people experiencing cognitive concerns. She also works across several research trials focused on healthy brain ageing and dementia prevention.

🎓 She's been with the team since 2018, when she joined as an Honours student, and has loved staying with the same team throughout her Master's and PhD, growing from student to clinician and researcher.

📖 Her PhD focused on bridging the gap between research and practice, investigating how cognitive interventions for people with mild cognitive impairment can be implemented in real-world clinical and community settings to improve access to care.

👉 Swipe through to hear from Ally on what she loves about the day to day work with HBA, what drew her to working in research and what keeps her passionate about this job!

School of Psychology, University of Sydney
Brain and Mind Centre
Science, University of Sydney
University of Sydney

16/08/2026

What a lovely afternoon at the Waverton Hub last week! 🙌

Dr Zoe Menczel Schrire and Dr Shawn Kong presented on Healthy Brain Ageing and shared simple strategies for keeping the healthy, plus an overview of our Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic. 🧠

Zoe also introduced our NeuroMusic trial with the Sydney of Music, looking at how can help in older adults. 🎼 🎤

It's always a privilege to connect with the community and share the work we do. Thank you to Waverton Hub for having us!

Know someone aged 60 to 90 who's noticed memory changes? NeuroMusic offers group keyboard, singing, or film discussion sessions over 3 months at the Conservatorium. Click the link below to find out more.

https://lnkd.in/gRMHxMEv

29/07/2026

🎉 Congratulations to Professor Sharon Naismith AM 🎉

We're thrilled to celebrate Director of our Healthy Brain Ageing Program, Professor Sharon Naismith, AM, who has been awarded a prestigious NHMRC Leadership Fellowship for TRANSEND (TRanslational AdvaNceS in mEchaNisms, trials, and services for Dementia) to lead a transformative program of research aimed at reducing the impact of dementia through prevention, earlier intervention, and improved care.

Dementia is one of the world's leading causes of disability, affecting cognition, behaviour and daily functioning for millions of people. Through the TRANSEND program, Professor Naismith will investigate how sleep can be harnessed as a modifiable risk factor for dementia, deliver clinical trials to identify interventions that can slow cognitive decline, and transform memory clinic services to improve diagnosis, care and equitable access, particularly for people living in regional and rural Australia.

The Fellowship builds on Professor Naismith's internationally recognised leadership of major national initiatives, including the NHMRC SIESTA Synergy program, extensive clinical trial networks, and the Australian Dementia Network (ADNeT) Memory Clinics initiative.

By integrating cutting-edge science, innovative models of care and large-scale implementation, the program aims to advance dementia prevention, strengthen evidence for secondary prevention, and deliver meaningful improvements in outcomes for people living with mild cognitive impairment and dementia. Leveraging existing NHMRC and MRFF investments, world-class infrastructure and national and international collaborations, this Fellowship will help drive the next generation of dementia research and translation into clinical practice.

This Fellowship is a testament to Professor Naismith's outstanding leadership and vision, and we congratulate her on this well-deserved achievement.

17/07/2026

Huge congratulations to our HBA team presenting their research at AAIC 2026 in London! 🧠

Swipe through to see the posters our researchers shared with the global Alzheimer’s research community this week:

🔹 Dr Aaron Lam shared findings linking greater hypoxemia during REM sleep to reduced basal forebrain volume in older adults who are ptau217 positive

🔹 Dr Lisa Shi presented on multimodal approaches to differentiating memory impairment in cognitively heterogeneous older adults at risk of dementia

🔹 Dr Nicole Espinosa Zarlenga presented on a blood brain memory pathway, showing how the CA1 region mediates the relationship between plasma NfL, pTau217 and memory in older adults at risk for Alzheimer’s

🔹 Rachel (PhD Candidate) presented two posters on neuroinflammation, including a systematic review and meta-analysis on markers sTREM2 and YKL-40 in Alzheimer’s pathology, and a look at how neuroinflammation changes across the Alzheimer’s continuum

So proud of the work our team is contributing to Alzheimer’s research on the world stage 👏

14/07/2026

Congratulations to Dr Aaron Lam from our Healthy Brain Ageing team, who presented at AAIC 2026 on behalf of Professor Sharon Naismith.
His talk, "Sleep Spindle Integrity in Mild Cognitive Impairment," explored how sleep spindles relate to hippocampal memory processes. The findings showed that in people with MCI, shorter spindle duration was linked to poorer overnight memory consolidation. Decreased central spindle density was also associated with poorer verbal memory, adding predictive value beyond what structural imaging alone can offer.
Great work highlighting the role of sleep physiology in early cognitive decline. 🧠💤

13/07/2026

Are you a woman aged 40 to 55 going through menopause, or within 2 years of your final period? 🌿

The Healthy Brain Ageing Clinic (University of Sydney) is running the MOSAIC Study, looking at how menopause affects memory, sleep, mood, work and brain health.

Taking part means:
✔ Memory and attention tests
✔ Blood sample
✔ Mood, sleep and symptom questionnaires
✔ Optional sleep tracking with a wearable device
✔ Optional MRI scan

You'll get personalised feedback on some assessments, plus you'll be helping advance research into women's health.

👉 Take the prescreening survey here:

https://redcap.sydney.edu.au/surveys/?s=CDY49KFFRCTW74L9

📍 100 Mallett St, Camperdown NSW 2050
📧 [email protected]

Join us and help make a difference for women's brain health! 💜🧡💚

29/06/2026

SIESTArs networking lunch 🧠 📖 📌

Sean² (Dr Shaun Eslick and Dr Shawn Kong), because one Sean leading the charge just wasn't enough. Our incoming chairs are already dreaming up big plans for how SIESTArs can support the next generation of early-career rising stars. 🌟

Watch this space. The future of sleep research is in very good (and very identically named) hands.

26/06/2026

Worry about your memory function?

Take part in a research study to help us better understand the benefits of a music-based intervention on cognition, wellbeing, and brain plasticity in older adults.

The study is suitable for older adults aged 60-90 years who:
- Have noticed changes in their memory function
- Musically naive (no musical instrumental playing or singing in an organised group in the last 6 months)
- Are interested in participating in keyboard or choral singing lessons.

Participation will include:

- Neuropsychological assessments / Questionnaires
- Blood tests
- If eligible, you will be randomly selected to participate in a group keyboard intervention, a choral singing intervention, or a film discussion group for 3 months.

If you are interested in participating in the study, please visit:

www.neuromusic.sydney.edu.au

25/06/2026

🎉 We're halfway there! 🎉

We're thrilled to be 50% through recruitment for the NeuroMusic study, our world-first study exploring whether musical training can slow cognitive decline and help prevent . With 50 million people globally living with dementia and that number set to triple, we believe could be part of the answer. Are you aged 60–90 with memory difficulties and no recent experience playing an instrument or singing in a group? You may be eligible!

Check the link below to learn more. 🎵

https://www.sydney.edu.au/brain-mind/about/our-stories/partnerships-and-collaborations/neuromusic-collaborative.html

22/06/2026

What a fantastic webinar today! 💻 🎉

A huge thank you to Research Services Librarians Vanah Montgomery and Cordelia Egerton-Warburton from Library and SIESTA Rising Stars for such an informative and practical session on navigating the journal submission process 📰 🔍

They walked us through:

→ Using and Web of Science to identify and compare journals in your field
→ Tools and strategies to assess quality and impact
→ How to navigate open access publishing successfully

Whether you’re preparing your first or looking to publish more strategically, it was a session packed with incredibly useful insights 🖋️ 💭

Address

Level 2, Building G, Brain And Mind Centre, 100 Mallett Street Camperdown
Sydney, NSW
2050

Website

https://www.sydney.edu.au/brain-mind/our-clinics/healthy-brain-ageing-clinic.html

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