Using both epidemiological and brain imaging methods, I am investigating how people with higher cognitive reserve (i.e. higher premorbid IQ's, education, more demanding occupational attainments, or more engagement in cognitive-social-physical leisure activities) can cope better with the damage caused to their brains by AD. I am also exloring how cognitive, behavioral, genetic and imaging characteristics of patients with AD can contribute to clinical heterogeneity and predict subsequent disease course including cognitive-functional decline and risk for death or institutionalization.

More recently, I have developed a special interest in the contribution of diet in AD risk. Recent literature on the effect of individual dietary elements is conflicting. I am investigating the effect of composite dietary patterns (such as the Mediterranean Diet) in AD risk.

Select Publications:

• Scarmeas N., Levy G., Tang M., Manly J., Stern Y. Influence of leisure activity on the incidence of Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 2001; 57: 2236-2242
• Scarmeas N., Zarahn E., Anderson K., Habeck C., Hilton J., Flynn J., Marder K., Bell K., Sackeim H., Van Heertum R., Moeller J., Stern Y. Association of life activities with cerebral blood flow in Alzheimer's disease: Implications for the cognitive reserve hypothesis. Archives of Neurology 2002; 60: 359-365
• Scarmeas N., Habeck C., Anderson K., Stern Y.: APOE genotype and Cerebral Blood Flow in healthy young subjects. JAMA 2003; 290; 12: 1581-1582.
• Scarmeas N., Habeck C., Anderson K., Hilton J., Devanand D., Pelton G., Tabert M., Flynn J., Park A., Ciappa A., Tycko B., Stern Y. Altered PET functional brain responses in cognitively intact elderly at risk for Alzheimer's disease (carriers of the e4 allele). American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry 2004; 12: 596-605.
• Scarmeas N., Habeck C., Zarahn E., Anderson K., Park A., Hilton J., Pelton G., Tabert M., Honig L., Moeller J., Devanand D., Stern Y. Covariance PET patterns in early Alzheimer's disease and subjects with cognitive impairment but no dementia: utility in group discrimination and correlations with functional performance. Neuroimage 2004; 23(1): 35-45.
• Scarmeas N., Albert M., Brandt J., Blacker D., Hadjigeorgiou G.M., Papadimitriou A, Dubois B., Sarazin M., Wegesin D., Marder K., Bell K., Honig L., Stern Y. Motor signs predict poor outcomes in Alzheimer's disease. Neurology 2005; 64(10):1696-703.
• Scarmeas N., Brandt J., Albert M., Hadjigeorgiou G.M., Papadimitriou A, Dubois B., Sarazin M., Devanand D., Honig L., Marder K., Bell K., Wegesin D., Blacker D., Stern Y. Hallucinations and delusions are associated with worse outcomes in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Archives of Neurology 2005; 62: 1601-1608.
• Scarmeas N., Albert S., Manly J., Stern Y. Education and rates of cognitive decline in incident Alzheimer's disease. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2006; 77: 308-16.
• Scarmeas N., Stern Y., Tang MX. Mayeux R., Luchsinger JA. Mediterranean diet and risk for Alzheimer's disease. Annals of Neurology 2006; 59: 912-921.