For over 20 years, Dr. Pauline M. Maki has led a program of NIH-funded research focused on the role of sex steroid hormones on cognition, mood, brain function (neuroimaging) and stress responsivity in women. Women’s cognitive abilities, mood, and response to stress can be affected by changes in sex hormones, like estrogen, including changes that occur during the menopausal transition, during pregnancy, and across the menstrual cycle.  In particular, the goal of her work is to improve the lives of women by identifying factors that alter their risk of cognitive decline and affective disorders. Dr. Maki received her Ph.D. in experimental psychology from the University of Minnesota in 1994. She received post-graduate training at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in the dementias of aging and at the National Institute on Aging in neuroimaging. In 1999, she joined the Intramural Research Program of the National Institute on Aging. In 2002, she joined the faculty at the University of Illinois Chicago.

Dr. Maki is best known for her contributions to the field of menopause and cognition. A central focus of her research has been the effects of hormone therapy (HT) and alternative treatments for menopausal symptoms on cognition, mood, and brain function in women. Professor Maki’s primary contribution to clinical practice is her research on the risks and benefits of HT on cognition and brain function. Epidemiological studies demonstrate that women who used HT had a 39% reduced risk of Alzheimer’s disease compared to women who had not used HT. In contrast, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) demonstrated a doubling of dementia risk in women aged 65 years and older who were randomized to combined estrogen plus progestin treatment. It was unclear if the WHI findings generalized to younger women and to other HT regimens. Clinically this is important because: a) two-thirds of Alzheimer’s patients are women, b) 80% of women experience vasomotor symptoms (VMS; hot flashes and night sweats), c) most women who initiate HT do so at around age 50 (20+ years younger than women in the WHI), and d) non-hormonal therapies have limited efficacy in treating VMS.

Currently, Dr. Maki is funded by NIH to examine the role of vasomotor symptoms on cognition and brain function, as her pilot work showed that physiological hot flashes (measured with ambulatory skin conductance monitors) are associated with memory deficits, ischemic brain lesions, and functional alterations in the brain at rest (RF1 AG053504-01). She is also funded by the NIH to examine the role of an anesthesia procedure, Stellate Ganglion Blockade (SGB), as an effective non-hormonal treatment for vasomotor symptoms and related memory problems (R01 AG049924).