Research

Scientific Mission

The Attention, Affect, and Aging Lab investigates how the brain changes across the adult lifespan and why some people preserve optimal cognitive functioning whereas others experience declines in cognition. Our research is interdisciplinary, integrating perspectives from psychological sciences, neuroscience, and gerontology to better understand the mechanisms underlying healthy and pathological brain aging.

Our research is centered around two long-term research goals.
1. To identify the neural and physiological mechanisms underlying age-related cognitive decline in order to inform interventions that promote healthy cognitive aging.
2. Develop early cognitive and neuropsychological biomarkers capable of detecting individuals in midlife who may be at elevated risk for developing significant neuropathology and transitioning to prodromal stage of Alzheimer's disease (e.g., mild cognitive impairment).

To address these goals, we use a multimodal approach that combines behavioral psychophysics, electroencephalography (EEG), eye tracking, and neuroimaging to better understand the relationships between cognition, physiology, and healthy aging. In combination with blood-based biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and neuropsychological assessments, our work aims to identify sensitive biosignals associated with the earliest stages of neurodegenerative disease progression. Through this work, we seek to bridge basic psychological science with translational neuroscience approaches that may ultimately contribute to early detection and intervention strategies for age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disease.

Current Research

The lifespan functional trajectory of the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline system.

This line of research examines how the locus coeruleus-noradrenaline (LC-NA) system changes across the adult lifespan and how these changes influence attention, arousal regulation, and cognitive aging. The locus coeruleus is the first brain region to exhibit Alzheimer's disease-related pathology (as early as the 20s) and thus dysfunction of the LC-NA system may contribute to the earliest functional changes associated with cognitive decline. Using multimodal approaches including EEG, eye tracking, pupillometry, and neuroimaging, we investigate how age-related shifts in tonic and phasic noradrenergic activity contribute to healthy cognitive functioning as well as risk for age-related cognitive decline and neurodegenerative disease. Our current focus is to identify when noradrenergic hyperactivity emerges across the adult lifespan and to determine the biosignals that are most sensitive to these functional changes.

The dissociable roles of neuromodulatory nuclei in mechanisms of affect and attentional control.

This research investigates the dissociable roles of dopaminergic, noradrenergic, and serotonergic systems in the mechanisms of attentional control, affective processing, and arousal regulation. We examine how distinct neuromodulatory systems contribute to selective visual attention, distractibility, emotion regulation, and goal-directed behavior. In addition, we aim to explore how dysregulation of these neuromodulatory systems contribute to affective disorders (e.g., anxiety, depression). This work aims to characterize how large-scale neuromodulatory systems shape cognition, affect, and mental health.

Cognitive and physiological biomarkers of aging and neurodegenerative disease.

This line of research investigates how cognitive markers of aging relate to neuropsychological assessments, blood-based biomarkers of neurodegenerative disease, and physiological measures of brain and autonomic functioning. By integrating cognitive performance with electrophysiology, psychophysiology, and biological markers, we aim to identify multimodal biosignatures associated with healthy aging with the goal of being able to predict the rate of progression of neurodegenerative diseases. Currently, our focus is to identify biosignals that indicate the likelihood for an individual to progress to prodromal stages of Alzheimer's disease, such as mild cognitive impairment.