Research Focus
My research is concerned with cognitive changes associated with selective brain damage and normal aging in humans and animal models.
Current projects, involving animals and humans, investigate the pattern of lost and spared memory loss following damage to the hippocampus, with a particular interest in spatial memory and remote memory. A new initiative investigates the impact of stroke on cognition and motor function and recovery in rats considered to be at high or low risk. Other ongoing projects involving animal models study the effects of high dietary fat and insulin resistance on learning and memory, the effects of chemotherapy on aspects of cognition, hippocampal neurogenesis and memory, and the cognitive profiles of transgenic mice carrying genetic abnormalities associated with Alzheimer's disease.
Following a recently completed trial of a new cognitive rehabilitation protocol involving older adults, a new study is assessing the effectiveness of this program in cognitively impaired patients with white matter disease who are at high risk for stroke. The long-term plan includes extending this work to other populations, such as traumatic brain injury, and Mild Cognitive Impairment.
This research is supported by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council, Canadian Centre for Stroke Recovery (Heart and Stroke Foundation).