About Me
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Jagust Lab at the University of California, Berkeley and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, with experience in experimental design, multi-modal neuroimaging methods, and advanced statistical analyses. I completed my Ph.D. in Cognition and Neuroscience with Dr. Denise Park at the University of Texas at Dallas.
I am interested in changes in cognition, brain structure, and brain function in older adults. Specifically, using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) and Positron Emission Tomography (PET), I study behavioral and brain differences in healthy older individuals and those at the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). My research also incorporates advanced statistical methods (e.g., linear/nonlinear regression, mixed effects modeling, causal inference approach, multivariate analysis, structural equation modeling, mixture modeling) and explores individual differences in aging. Ultimately, I am interested in understanding brain and behavioral changes in pathological, normal, and successful aging.
Experiences
- Developed a new fMRI experiment to assess specific memory deficits related to early AD pathology.
- Utilized FTP-PET and PiB-PET to examine the effect of normal aging and early AD pathology on longitudinal memory changes in older adults.
- Demonstrated key regions of tau deposition that are most predictive of future memory decline in older adults with and without AD pathology.
- Worked with a longitudinal dataset that includes multi-modal neuroimaging data and comprehensive cognitive measures in a large sample of healthy individuals across the adult lifespan.
- Examined longitudinal change across multiple cognitive domains using structural equation modeling.
- Performed neuroimaging analyses with PET, structural MRI, and functional MRI data in a large-scale, across-lifespan sample.
- Gained experience in working with cerebrovascular-reactivity and cerebral blood flow data and examined neurovascular effects on cognition.
- Demonstrated that subjective memory concerns in objectively normal adults was a valid indicator of worse memory performance, greater memory decline, and decreased brain function in the hippocampus.