Dr. Nicole Anderson
- Intervention research
- Patient-based research
- fMRI
Research Focus
I am currently pursuing three questions. First, a hallmark feature of mild cognitive impairment (MCI) is that people repeatedly ask the same question or say the same thing, and they do so without any evidence that the question or statement is familiar. Unlike you and I, they do not retract and say "Did I already ask you that?" This suggests that familiarity is impaired in MCI, but the existing evidence is evenly split, with half of the studies showing intact familiarity in MCI, and the other half showing that it is impaired. I am currently developing novel ways to assess familiarity in order to see if it is indeed impaired in MCI. I will then see how these measures of familiarity map on to physiological markers of familiarity - what is that gut sense anyway, and is it impaired in MCI? Second, survivors of childhood trauma can have exquisitely detailed episodic autobiographical memory, even for events occurring in the typical "childhood amnesia" period. Does early life trauma curtail childhood amnesia, and how does it affect autobiographical memory for later, non-traumatic periods in one's life? Finally, there is currently no effective treatment for dementia, so how can we prevent it? Dr. Howard Chertkow and I will be opening up the world's first research-driven community centre, the Kimel Family Centre for Brain Health and Wellness, for personalized dementia risk reduction. Members will receive a deep dementia risk evaluation, and then will be prescribed programming within the centre to reduce their personal risk factors.
Select Publications
- Rabi R, Chow R, Paracha S, Hasher L, Gardner S, Anderson ND, Alain C. (2022). Cognitive and neural inhibitory sundowning in individuals with amnestic mild cognitive impairment. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 90, 869-890.
- Rotenberg S, Leung C, Quach H, Anderson ND, Dawson D. (2022). Occupational performance issues in older adults with subjective cognitive decline. Disability and Rehabilitation, 44, 4681-4688.
- LaPlume A, McKetton L, Levine B, Troyer AK, Anderson ND. (2022). The adverse effect of modifiable dementia risk factors on cognition amplify across the adult lifespan. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment, & Disease Monitoring, 14, e12337.
- LaPlume A, McKetton L, Levine B, Anderson ND, Troyer AK. (2022). Sex differences and modifiable dementia risk factors synergistically influence cognition over the adult lifespan. Alzheimer’s & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring (special issue), 14, e12301.
Curriculum Vitae
