Retired high-performance athletes are being asked to take part in a study which aims to examine links between sport-related brain injury and dementia.
The study is being led by researchers at Trinity College Dublin, who are looking to recruit 360 former athletes who played contact sports such as rugby, soccer and GAA.
As part of the study, known as the RESOLVE project, researchers are recruiting former high-level competition athletes aged between 40 and 59.
TCD said researchers will explore how to reduce the risk of dementia through lifestyle changes such as exercise programmes and managing blood pressure.
Representatives from several sporting bodies are collaborating with the research team in recruiting participants for the study.
"Scientists already know that experiencing a sport-related brain injury (TBI) during your lifetime increases the risk of dementia in later life by around 3-15%," said TCD's Prof Lorina Naci, principal investigator of the study.
"However, we don't fully understand how sport-related TBI impacts cognition and brain health in mid-life, prior to the development of dementia symptoms," she said.
Detailed clinical, cognitive, physical and lifestyle assessments will be undertaken as part of the study, the college said.
These assessments will take place at the initial visit and then again two years later.
TCD said that the results from these assessments will be compared to those of "700 control individuals", to identify who is most at risk of TBI-related dementia.
Researchers are also hoping to identify early intervention on how to reduce the risk of dementia.
Prof Fiona Wilson, co-principal investigator of the study, said: "We aim to find new ways to measure TBI-related dementia risk, and to identify changes in lifestyle that could reduce this risk in contact sports athletes and the wider population, some 20-30 years before symptoms, such as memory loss and confusion, develop."
Speaking on RTÉ's News at One, Prof Wilson said that the research team has a "good outline" of the factors which they think might predict dementia, adding that the team hopes to explore other elements too.
"It'll be a big general, healthy physical that will include brain scanning and things like blood tests, physical health, ECG, blood pressure," she said.
"We will take some blood samples, some urine samples, salivate samples, and we'll do a battery of cognitive tests, so it's really a large health testing battery that will be done on these people."
She said that through the testing, a participant may discover that they are at risk of dementia and may be able to intervene.
"The chances are we may find something that you can do something about which will reduce your risk of getting dementia," Prof Wilson said.
TCD said that the RESOLVE study is funded by a recent €1.3 million award from Taighde Éireann (Research Ireland).
