The Laboratory of Cognitive Neurobiology focuses its research efforts on the neurobiological bases of learning and memory in non-human primates. We have particular interest in the structural, physiological, and neurotransmitter correlates of cognitive decline in aging and age-related disease (e.g. hypertension and stroke), the separate and interactive roles of the prefrontal cortices and hippocampal complex in executive function and declarative memory, and the structural and functional changes in the brain as a consequence of prenatal malnutrition. Collaborative studies are conducted on the role of melatonin in sleep and circadian rhythms in the aged monkey; on studies of the brain in human subjects with MCI and Alzheimer's disease using structural and related MRI techniques; and on the integrity of the blood-brain barrier in aging, hypertension, and substance abuse.

Our research is supported by several NIH grants, including a Program Project on the Neural Bases of Cognition in Aging, a MERIT award grant on Hypertension and Middle Age, and an RO1 on the interaction between prefrontal cortex and the hippocampal formation.

Our laboratory is housed on the seventh floor of the Center for Biomedical Research and consists of four faculty (Mark Moss, Douglas Rosene, Ron Killiany and Tara Moore), three research fellows, and eight graduate students. We have an active laboratory that covers a wide-range of research techniques ranging from in situ hybridization, receptor autoradiography, immunocytochemistry, structural and functional MRI, and automated primate behavioral testing.