Diversity in Black Brains Studied by Alzheimer's Scientist.
Lisa Barnes, a Black female cognitive neuropsychologist, has been running the Minority Aging Research Study since 2004, one of the largest studies of Alzheimer’s focused exclusively on Black people. Barnes has created a brain bank used by other researchers to understand the illness in this population. Her work has raised critical questions about how the disease differs in Black populations, why cognitive testing relied on to clinically diagnose dementia may fail Black patients, and whether the disease progresses differently in them. Barnes' research has shown that Alzheimer's does not progress the same way for all people and that social factors associated with racial categories, such as wealth, education, discrimination, and access to health care, play a significant role.