It is recognized that cognitive changes may occur in aging, ranging from subtle alterations to frank dementia. Detecting and characterizing these cognitive changes, as well as understanding their physiologic basis, diagnostic implication and functional correlates has been a major and growing research domain. Neuropsychology and cognitive psychology clearly play a major role in this research. We have established a 2 to 3-year training program designed to give the trainee a solid research background in the cognition and neuropsychology of aging. To date, the program supports 2 trainees at any one time. We propose to increase this to 3 trainees. The trainee is exposed to and participates in studies utilizing a broad range of interrelated research approaches, including classic neuropsychological evaluation, experimental cognitive techniques, neuroepidemiology, and cognitive neuroimaging. The primary emphasis is on fostering the skills needed to formulate and carry out research, and to report findings in peer-reviewedjournals. Primary training comes through the trainee-preceptor relationship. Formal classes and seminars plus opportunities for more informal training are available. Trainees are encouraged to avail themselves of the expertise of the entire program faculty. While our goal is not to train clinicians, we include some clinical training because this area requires specialized clinical skills and much good research stems from astute clinical observation. The Cognitive Neuroscience Division at the SergievskyCenter and Taub Institute is uniquely equipped to provide the proposed training. Its strengths include a wide range of faculties expertise and ongoing research, diversity of patient and normal elderly populations available for research and clinical training, a strong emphasis on multicultural research, and expertise of faculty members available for consultation.

Public Health Relevance

This proposed training program will equip trainees with the skills to make major contributions to our knowledge in the areas of neuropsychology and cognition in aging and dementia. Given the projected increases in older individuals, increased understanding of the nature, causes, and consequencesof cognitive changes in aging and diseases of aging will be crucial and will be required for developing or testing any new interventions.

Agency
National Institute of Health (NIH)
Institute
National Institute on Aging (NIA)
Type
Institutional National Research Service Award (T32)
Project #
5T32AG000261-15
Application #
8458099
Study Section
Special Emphasis Panel (ZAG1-ZIJ-7 (J4))
Program Officer
Wagster, Molly V
Project Start
1998-06-15
Project End
2014-04-30
Budget Start
2013-05-01
Budget End
2014-04-30
Support Year
15
Fiscal Year
2013
Total Cost
$207,138
Indirect Cost
$12,409
Name
Columbia University (N.Y.)
Department
Neurology
Type
Schools of Medicine
DUNS #
621889815
City
New York
State
NY
Country
United States
Zip Code
10032
Van Dyk, Kathleen; Towns, Stephanie; Tatarina, Oksana et al. (2016) Assessing Fluctuating Cognition in Dementia Diagnosis: Interrater Reliability of the Clinician Assessment of Fluctuation. Am J Alzheimers Dis Other Demen 31:137-43
Zahodne, Laura B; Stern, Yaakov; Manly, Jennifer J (2015) Differing effects of education on cognitive decline in diverse elders with low versus high educational attainment. Neuropsychology 29:649-57
Zahodne, Laura B; Ornstein, Katherine; Cosentino, Stephanie et al. (2015) Longitudinal relationships between Alzheimer disease progression and psychosis, depressed mood, and agitation/aggression. Am J Geriatr Psychiatry 23:130-40
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Dmitrieva, Natalia O; Fyffe, Denise; Mukherjee, Shubhabrata et al. (2015) Demographic characteristics do not decrease the utility of depressive symptoms assessments: examining the practical impact of item bias in four heterogeneous samples of older adults. Int J Geriatr Psychiatry 30:88-96
Zahodne, Laura B; Stern, Yaakov; Manly, Jennifer J (2014) Depressive symptoms precede memory decline, but not vice versa, in non-demented older adults. J Am Geriatr Soc 62:130-4
Razlighi, Qolamreza R; Kehtarnavaz, Nasser (2014) Spatial Mutual Information as Similarity Measure for 3-D Brain Image Registration. IEEE J Transl Eng Health Med 2:
Zahodne, Laura B; Schofield, Peter W; Farrell, Meagan T et al. (2014) Bilingualism does not alter cognitive decline or dementia risk among Spanish-speaking immigrants. Neuropsychology 28:238-46

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