Joe Verghese

At a glance

• Neurologist and geriatric researcher, now at Stony Brook Medicine; previously spent many years at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York.
• First author of a widely cited New England Journal of Medicine study (2003): older adults who often read, played board games or danced had a lower risk of dementia.
• Described the ‘motoric cognitive risk syndrome’: slow walking speed combined with memory complaints, a simple signal of increased dementia risk.
• Recent research compares ‘super movers’ — older adults who move exceptionally much — with their peers on cognitive ageing and brain health (Neurology, 2026).
• Also studies inflammatory blood markers and their link with spatial navigation in older adults.
• Relevant because the work shows how closely walking and thinking are connected: the way you walk says something about your brain, and movement is one of the few levers you control yourself.