(Maria) Natasha Rajah
Associate Professor
Department of Psychiatry
Director
Douglas Brain Imaging Centre
2114
CIC Pavilion
Douglas Mental Health University Centre
6875 Lasalle Blvd,
Verdun, Quebec
H4H 1R3
Office#: 2114
Phone: 514-761-6131
E-mail: maria.rajah at mcgill.ca
Douglas
Institute, Research Profile
Research Areas
Behavioural Neuroscience,
Cognition-Language-Perception
My research is focused on understanding the role of
distinct regions of the prefrontal and medial temporal cortices to the
recollection of personal memories across the adult lifespan. To this aim I use
behavioral experimentation and functional magnetic resonance imaging, to assess
regional changes in neural activity in healthy young, middle aged and older
adults while they perform memory tasks. I am also interested in examining
age-related changes in region-specific brain volumes, and in understanding how
the association between brain volume and brain activity changes across the
adult lifespan and thus impacts memory functions. The goals of my research are:
1) understand the neurobiology of episodic memory in young adulthood, 2)
investigate how the brain changes across the adult lifespan and how this in turn
impacts memory processes, 3) identify neural mechanisms that support optimal
memory performance into older age, 4) work with neuropsychologists and
clinicians to develop methods for improving episodic memory in adults exhibiting
deficits.
Selected References
1. Maillet, D. and M.N. Rajah, Dissociable roles of default-mode regions during episodic encoding. Neuroimage, 2014. 89: p. 244-55.
2. Maillet, D. and M.N. Rajah, Age-related differences in brain activity in the subsequent memory paradigm: a meta-analysis. Neurosci Biobehav Rev, 2014. 45: p. 246-57.
3. Maillet, D. and M.N. Rajah, Age-related changes in frequency of mind-wandering and task-related interferences during memory encoding and their impact on retrieval. Memory, 2013. 21(7): p. 818-31.
4. Rajah, M.N., R. Languay, and C.L. Grady, Age-related changes in right middle frontal gyrus volume correlate with altered episodic retrieval activity. J Neurosci, 2011. 31(49): p. 17941-54.
5. Rajah, M.N., B. Ames, and M. D'Esposito, Prefrontal contributions to domain-general executive control processes during temporal context retrieval. Neuropsychologia, 2008. 46(4): p. 1088-103.
6. Rajah, M.N. and M. D'Esposito, Region-specific changes in prefrontal function with age: a review of PET and fMRI studies on working and episodic memory. Brain, 2005. 128(Pt 9): p. 1964-83.
Updated: January 2015
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