I am presently an associate professor with primary affiliation with the Combined Ph.D. program in Psychology. As a clinical neurospychologist, my research interests involve the study of severe cognitive deficits in the elderly. For the past twelve years, my colleagues and I have examined genetic and environmental factors that appear to influence the risk of developing severe cognitive impairments such as dementia of the Alzheimer's type. In a project funded by the National Institute on Aging, we have conducted interviews, cognitive testing, and clinical evaluations in a population of over 5,000 seniors residing in Cache County, Utah. This project has been ongoing since 1995 and has involved four county-wide screens for dementia, in addition to collecting longitudinal data on cognition, occupational history, and health and psychiatric information. Currently, our focus has expanded to explore the question why some individuals with mild cognitive impairment, or MCI, progress to develop dementia while others do not. Additionally, we are investigating genetic and environmental factors that influence the clinical expression of dementia after onset. In this project, we are among only a few studies in the world to follow a population based sample of individuals with dementia and their caregivers. As a result of work in the above projects, many research questions have been addressed and several more are on the horizon. With students and colleagues from University of Utah, Utah State, Duke, Brigham Young, and Johns Hopkins Universities, our research team has studied diverse topics of aging such as the cognitive correlates of late-life depression, the influence of cardiovascular and cerebrovascular disease on memory and other cognitive abilities, the role of various medications in reducing the risk for Alzheimer's disease, neuroimaging correlates of cognitive impairment, behavioral disturbances in dementia, and the influence of family history of Alzheimer's disease and other genetic factors on an individual's cognitive performance. Several of these studies have been presented at national and international conferences and published in medical journals. Student investigators have opportunities to serve primary roles in data collection, designing and conducting analyses, writing-up projects for publication, and presenting their research at seminars and scientific conferences.
Articles
Neuropsychiatric Symptoms in Dementia Patients With and Without a History of Traumatic Brain Injury (with Vani Rao, Paul Rosenberg, Quincy Samus Miles, Deepa Patadia, Kate Treiber, Melaine Bertrand, Maria Norton, Martin Steinberg, and Constantine Lyketsos), Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences (2010)
The authors aim to determine if a history of traumatic brain injury (TBI) assessed before...
A Brief Metacognition Questionnaire for the Elderly: Comparison with Cognitive Performance and Informant Ratings, The Cache County Study (with Trevor Buckley, Marla C. Norton, M. Scott Deberard, and Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer), International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry (2009)
Objective To examine the utility of a brief, metacognition questionnaire by examining its association with...
Caregiver-Recipient Closeness and Symptom Progression in Alzheimer's Disease: The Cache County Dementia Progression Study (with Maria C. Norton, Kathleen W. Piercy, Peter V. Rabins, Robert C. Green, John C. Breitner, Truis Ostbye, Christopher Corcoran, Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer, and Constantine G. Lyketsos), Journal of Gerontology, Series B (2009)
Applying Rusbult's investment model of dyadic relationships, we examined the effect of caregiver–care recipient relationship...
Early Parental Death and Late-Life Dementia Risk - Findings from the Cache County Study (with Maria C. Norton, Truls Ostbye, Ken R. Smith, and Ronald G. Munger), Age and Aging (2009)
SIR—Dementia is a major public health problem. Alzheimer's disease (AD) comprises the majority of dementia...
Neuropsychological performance in advanced age: Influences of demographic factors and Apolipoprotein E: Findings from the Cache County Memory Study (with Kathleen A. Welsh-Bohmer, Truls Ostbye, Linda Sanders, Car; F. Pieper, Kathleen M. Hayden, and Maria C. Norton), The Clinical Neuropsychologist (2009)
The Cache County Study of Memory in Aging (CCMS) is an epidemiological study of Alzheimer's...
Contributions to Books
Alzheimer's Disease: Risk Factors and Preventive Strategies (with J.C. S. Breitner), Principles and Practice of Geriatric Psychiatry (2010)
The renowned Principles and Practice of Geriatric Psychiatry, now in its third edition, addresses the...