Research Focus
My research program focuses on 1) advancing our understanding of the relationship between cognition and emotion in healthy aging and in disorders of the elderly, including late-life depression (LLD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and Alzheimer’s disease (AD), and 2) applying this knowledge to improve diagnosis and treatment of disorders associated with late life. My aim to answer questions such as: How does depression or worry about memory changed increase the risk of developing AD and other dementias? Do interventions that target brain regions relevant to depression improve cognition in older adults? To address these questions, my research employs converging methods including behavioural paradigms, neuropsychological tools, psychophysiology, brain imaging, and neurostimulation in healthy older adults and in clinical populations. I am leading studies that examine the impact of emotion dysregulation on risk of developing AD and is the PI or site PI on clinical trials using non-invasive brain stimulation to reduce risk of AD in older adults with subjective cognitive decline, MCI, or LLD.