Research

Overview

My research sits at the intersection of cognitive neuroscience and lifespan developmental psychology. I study how the brain changes with age and what this means for cognition — and whether behavioral and lifestyle factors, particularly education, can modify these trajectories.

I work primarily with data from the COBRA study (Cognition, Brain, and Aging), a longitudinal project following older adults with repeated PET and MRI neuroimaging, extensive cognitive testing, and behavioral assessments.

Dissertation

Influences of education on brain-cognition change associations in healthy aging

My dissertation investigates whether educational attainment moderates the association between age-related brain changes and cognitive decline. Across several studies using COBRA data, I examine:

  • Whether education relates to rates of dopamine D2/D3 receptor loss
  • Whether education moderates the link between hippocampal volume change and memory decline
  • How education and leisure activities relate to brain and cognitive change more broadly

The dissertation involves hundreds of Bayesian structural equation models estimated across multiple neuroimaging and cognitive outcomes.

Advisors: Prof. Martin Lövdén and Dr. Gaia Olivo.

Path diagram showing a bivariate latent change score model for dopamine and cognition

Bivariate latent change score model linking dopamine D2/D3 receptor binding and cognitive change, as used in my dissertation.

Methods

My work integrates multiple methodological approaches:

  • Neuroimaging: Structural MRI, PET (dopamine D2/D3 receptor binding)
  • Statistical modeling: Latent variable models, structural equation modeling (SEM), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), item response theory (IRT)
  • Machine learning: Applied to neuroimaging and behavioral data
  • Tools: R, Mplus, FreeSurfer, SPM, bash/git