Maddison Mellow

Dr. Maddison Mellow is a Research Fellow in the Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA) at UniSA Allied Health and Human Performance. She completed her PhD at the University of South Australia in 2023 and received the 2022 Higher Degree Researcher of the Year award and PhD Student of Year from ARENA. Her research examines how 24-hour time-use compositions (physical activity, sedentary behavior, sleep) influence brain health and cognition in older adults, with particular focus on dementia risk factors.

Mellow employs advanced methods including compositional data analysis, accelerometry, MRI, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), and neuropsychological testing. Her work demonstrates that moderate-vigorous physical activity shows stronger cognitive benefits in APOE ε4 carriers, suggesting genetically tailored dementia prevention strategies. Recent research integrates neuroimaging to investigate grey matter volume as a mediator between time-use patterns and cognitive function.

Her systematic reviews establish evidence for combined physical-cognitive interventions and methodological standards for time-use research. Key publications analyze how reallocating time between behaviors affects cognition and identify optimal activity compositions for brain health. She actively co-supervises students across cognitive neuroscience and clinical exercise physiology disciplines.

Mellow received the 2022 Higher Degree Researcher of the Year award and ARENA's PhD Student of the Year award. Current projects include co-designing digital time-use interventions and investigating cardiorespiratory fitness-cognition relationships through the IGNITE trial.

She collaborates internationally on large cohort studies including the ACTIVate study. Future work focuses on personalized dementia prevention through precision lifestyle prescriptions based on genetic and neurophysiological profiles.