Stephanie Cosentino, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Neuropsychology
Columbia University Medical Center
630 West 168th Street, P&S Box 16
New York, NY 10032
Ongoing Research:
From a broad standpoint, my primary interests involve understanding heterogeneous presentations of Alzheimer's disease (AD) with regard to metacognitive functioning, cognitive profiles, and rates of change. Toward this end, I am currently involved in several lines of research:
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Metacognition in Alzheimer's Disease: Disordered awareness of memory loss is a striking yet variable symptom of early AD. The etiology and nature of this metacognitive disturbances are unclear, in part due to variable and subjective mesurement of awareness across studies. I am applying an objective metamemory task in an effort to develop a reliable assessment tool that can be used to deconstruct the clinical phenomenon of disordered awareness into identifiable cognitive components. Additionally, my work focuses on understanding the neural correlates and practical implications of disordered self-awareness in dementia. This work is supported by the Paul B. Beeson Career Development Award in Aging.
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Cognitive Decline in Alzheimer's Disease: The rate at which cognition declines is highly variable across individuals and likely reflects a host of genetic and environmental differences. I am studying the factors which contribute to rate of change within a longitudinal, community-based study of incident AD in residents of Northern Manhattan.
Representative Publications
Cosentino, S., Stern Y., Sokolov, E., Scarmeas, N., Manly, J., Tang, M.X., Schupf, N., & Mayeux, R. (in press). Plasma amyloid beta predicts cognitive decline. Archives of Neurology.
Cosentino, S., Scarmeas, N., Helzner, E., Glymour, M., Brandt, J., Albert, M., Blacker, D., & Stern, Y. (2008). APOE e4 allele predicts faster decline in mild Alzheimer's disease. Neurology, 70, 1842-1849.
Cosentino, S., Metcalfe, J., Butterfield, B., & Stern, Y. Objective metamemory testing captures awareness of deficit in Alzheimer's disease. Cortex, 43(7), 10014-19.
Cosentino, S., Chute, D.L., Libon, D.J., & Grossman, M. (2006). How does the brain represent scripts? A study of executive processes and semantic knowledge in dementia. Neuropsychology, 20(3), 307-318.
Cosentino, S., & Stern, Y. (2005). Metacognitive theory and assessment in dementia: Do we recognize our areas of weakness? Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 11(7), 910-919.