Cerebrovascular risk factors increase the likelihood of dementia. High cerebrovascular burden leads to vascular dementia, accounting for around 20% of dementia cases. Less well appreciated, is that up to 70% of patients with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) also have cerebrovascular disease at post-mortem. The impact of mixed pathologies is likely greatly underestimated. Clinical studies of neurodegenerative dementias rarely control cerebrovascular burden, beyond age and obvious magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) markers like white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). In this talk, I will show work investigating MRI markers of cerebrovascular burden in healthy ageing in 22 000 people from the UK Biobank. I will demonstrate new methods for the estimation of the spatial distribution of cerebrovascular risk-related WMHs and their impact on cognition. I will also present work looking at the importance of microstructural integrity of normal appearing white matter and integrity of grey matter in distributed brain networks for the preservation of cognitive function in healthy ageing and after ischaemic stroke. Together, I will build up a picture of the important MRI markers of cerebrovascular burden that may act as transdiagnostic markers of cognitive impairment. [mehr]