Overview
My research centers around the use of structural and functional imaging measures to study the shifts in network architecture in the aging brain. I am specifically interested in changes in how changes in structural and functional connectivity associated with aging impact the semantic retrieval of word or fact knowledge. Currently this involves asking why older adults have particular difficulty in certain kinds of semantic retrieval, despite the fact that vocabularies and knowledge stores typically improve with age.
A second line of research involves asking questions about how this semantic system is organized in young adults, understanding which helps form a basis for asking questions about older adults. To what degree are these semantic retrieval processes lateralized? What cognitive factors affect this laterality? How are brain structures like the corpus callosum involved in mediating distributed activation patterns associated with semantic retrieval?
Current Appointments & Affiliations
Recent Publications
Unraveling Memory Representations: Perceptual and Conceptual Representations Interactively Support Memory Judgments
Preprint · June 24, 2025 Full text CiteMapping concept and relational semantic representation in the brain using large language models
Preprint · June 13, 2025 Full text CiteTrial-level Representational Similarity Analysis
Preprint · June 6, 2025 Full text CiteRecent Grants
Neural Mechanisms Underlying Attentional Resilience in the Aging Brain
ResearchCo Investigator · Awarded by National Institute on Aging · 2024 - 2029Understanding language production after right hemisphere stroke using lesion symptom mapping.
ResearchAdvisor · Awarded by National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders · 2022 - 2027Adaptive Neuromodulation of Working Memory Networks in Aging and Dementia
ResearchPrincipal Investigator · Awarded by National Institute on Aging · 2022 - 2027View All Grants