Courses
Psychology of Aging; Biological Psychology

Research Interests
Professor Head conducts research on the neural basis of cognitive aging. Her research uses behavioral testing and both structural and functional neuroimaging in healthy and pathological aging (e.g. dementia of the Alzheimer type) populations. One line of research explores the relative contributions of frontostriatal circuits and medial temporal regions to skill learning and memory. A particular focus is on executive control processes including working memory, inhibition, temporal processing and task switching. A related interest concerns the impact of cardiovascular health on brain integrity and cognitive performance in older adults. Another developing line of research is focused on combining virtual reality technology and neuroimaging to investigate spatial navigational ability in older adults.

Selected Publications:

Head, D., Snyder, A.Z., Girton, L.E., Morris, J.C., and Buckner, R.L. (2005). Frontal-hippocampal double dissociation between normal aging and Alzheimer's disease. Cerebral Cortex, 15, 724-738.

Buckner, R.L., Head, D., Parker, J., Fotenos, A., Marcus, D., Morris, J.C., Snyder, A.Z. (2004). A unified approach for morphometric and functional data analysis in young, old and demented adults using automated atla-based head size normalization: reliability and validation against manual measurement of total intracranial volume. NeuroImage 23, 724-738.

Head, D., Buckner, R. L., Shimony, J.S., Girton, L.E., Akbudak, E., Conturo, T.E., McAvoy, M., Morris, J.C., and Snyder, A.Z. (2004) Differential vulnerability of anterior white matter in nondemented aging with minimal acceleration in dementia of the Alzheimer type: evidence from diffusion tensor imaging. Cerebral Cortex 14, 410-423.

Raz, N., Gunning-Dixon, F., Head, D., Rodrigue, K., Williamson, A., and Acker, J.D. (2004). Aging, sexual dimorphism, and hemispheric assymetry of the cerebral cortex: replicability of regional differences in volume. Neurobiology of Aging, 24, 377-296.

Raz, N., Rodrigue, K.M., Head, D.P., Kennedy, K.M., and Acker, J.D. (2004). Differential aging of the media temporal lobe: A study of five-year change. Neurology, 62, 433-438.