Chronic Outcomes after Traumatic Brain Injury: Investigating Cognitive Decline, Brain Age and Risk of Alzheimer’s Disease

This thesis examined the chronic long-term period (≥ 10 years) following a single moderate to severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). We found that TBI results in a persistent but stable change in cognitive function. Individuals with TBI had biologically ‘older’ brains, which was estimated from MR imaging of grey and white matter. This change to ‘brain age’ was also stable over time and we found no evidence of accelerated brain ageing. Finally, we found no evidence that the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer’s disease, amyloid-β and tau pathology, persist or accumulate in the chronic period after TBI.