Yaakov Stern, PhD
Professor of Clinical Neuropsychology (in Neurology, Psychiatry, and Psychology, in the Sergievsky Center and the Taub Institute)
Director, Cognitive Neuroscience Division, Department of Neurology
Taub Institute
630 West 168th Street
New York, NY 10032
Phone: 212-342-1350
Fax: 212-342-1838
Email: ys11@columbia.edu
Ongoing Research:
- Cognitive Reserve: I am interested in understanding the basis for individual differences in task performance in general, and more specifically, the reason why some individuals show more cognitive deficit than others given the same degree of brain pathology. Ongoing fMRI studies are designed to explore this issue using activation paradigms that carefully control for task difficulty and evaluating differential expression of brain networks across young and old healthy individuals and patients with Alzheimer's disease.
- Cognitive Intervention in Normal Aging: In parallel studies, we are exploring potential non-pharmacologic interventions that might improve cognition or cognitive/functional outcomes in normal aging. These include aerobic exercise and experimental videogames.
- Heterogeneity of Alzheimer's disease: A prospective study is designed to explore individual differences in the rate of decline and in the manifestation of cognitive, behavioral, psychiatric and neurologic features in AD patients. Ongoing clinicopathologic studies should give insight into this heterogeneity.
Representative Publications
Stern Y. What is cognitive reserve? Theory and research application of the reserve concept. JINS 2002;8:448-460.
Stern Y, Habeck C, Moeller J, Scarmeas N, Anderson KE, Hilton HJ, Flynn J, Sackeim H, van Heertum R. Brain networks associated with cognitive reserve in healthy young and old adults. Cerebral Cortex 2005;15:394-402.
Stern Y, Zarahn E, Habeck C, Holtzer R, Rakitin BC, Kumar A, Flynn J, Steffener J, Brown T. A common neural network for cognitive reserve in verbal and object working memory in young but not old. Cerebral Cortex 2008;18:959-967.
Stern Y. Cognitive Reserve. Neuropsychologia 2009;47:2015–2028.
Stallard E, Kinosian BP, Zbrozek AS, Yashin AI, Glick HA, Stern Y. Estimation and validation of a multi-attribute model of Alzheimer’s disease progression. Med Decis Making. 2010;30(6);625-38.