Caroline McHutchison, PhD

Caroline McHutchison, PhD, is interested in understanding the difficulties with thinking (cognition) and behaviour (e.g., difficulty making decisions, finding words, feeling unmotivated) that some people with ALS experience. She works with Professor Sharon Abrahams (University of Edinburgh), Dr. Michael Benatar, and Dr Joanne Wuu (both University of Miami) to investigate when these features first begin, how they develop over time, and why certain people experience these changes while others do not. 

During her CReATe clinical fellowship she explored whether cognitive and/or behavioural symptoms change over time in people with ALS using data from the first CReATe Consortium’s Phenotype-Genotype-Biomarker study. The findings showed that for many, cognition remains stable, but a small group of people have cognitive difficulties at their first assessment with declines over time. This work led to a second fellowship, funded by the ALS Association, which aims to explore whether some people experience changes in their cognition and behaviour before they develop motor signs and symptoms using data from the Pre-Symptomatic Familial ALS (Pre-fALS) study. 

Dr. McHutchison is now a lecturer in psychology at the University of Stirling and continues to work collaboratively with researchers from the Universities of Miami and Edinburgh to develop criteria to identify mild impairment in cognition and behaviour in people who are at risk of developing ALS and related disorders. 

Relevant Publications: McHutchison CA et al. (2023). Temporal course of cognitive and behavioural changes in motor neuron diseases.