Helena Gellersen
Research interests(BSc Jacobs University Bremen, MRes Maastricht University, PhD Cambridge) for Experimental Psychology
I am a cognitive neuroscientist studying how healthy ageing and the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease alter brain function and memory processes.
Memories vary widely in terms of the amount of detail we recall, yet most prior studies used simple binary (correct vs. incorrect) measures. During my PhD at the University of Cambridge, I designed new tests to assess the fidelity with which people recall information uncovering cognitive processes that explain inter-individual differences in memory precision during ageing.
During my Fellowship at St John’s, I will use functional MRI to identify the neural underpinnings of memory fidelity in healthy ageing and determine features of brain dynamics that can explain youth-like performance even into old age. In collaboration with the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, I will test whether memory fidelity tasks are promising for early detection of the preclinical phase of Alzheimer’s disease where individuals do not yet show obvious cognitive decline but harbour silent brain pathology. Using novel high-resolution neuroimaging methods, I will obtain a precise characterisation of the effects of preclinical pathology on memory systems at an unprecedented resolution. These insights are crucial to improve current memory tests for screening of at-risk older adults and monitoring potential treatment effects
I am a cognitive neuroscientist studying how healthy ageing and the earliest stages of Alzheimer’s disease alter brain function and memory processes.
Memories vary widely in terms of the amount of detail we recall, yet most prior studies used simple binary (correct vs. incorrect) measures. During my PhD at the University of Cambridge, I designed new tests to assess the fidelity with which people recall information uncovering cognitive processes that explain inter-individual differences in memory precision during ageing.
During my Fellowship at St John’s, I will use functional MRI to identify the neural underpinnings of memory fidelity in healthy ageing and determine features of brain dynamics that can explain youth-like performance even into old age. In collaboration with the German Center for Neurodegenerative Diseases, I will test whether memory fidelity tasks are promising for early detection of the preclinical phase of Alzheimer’s disease where individuals do not yet show obvious cognitive decline but harbour silent brain pathology. Using novel high-resolution neuroimaging methods, I will obtain a precise characterisation of the effects of preclinical pathology on memory systems at an unprecedented resolution. These insights are crucial to improve current memory tests for screening of at-risk older adults and monitoring potential treatment effects