Erica ApplemanErica Appleman
First Year Graduate Student


Hometown: Rochester, NY
Education: B.A. Psychology and Biology, Boston University, 2009
M.A. Psychology, Boston University, 2010

Relevant experience: While at BU for my masters, I assisted with a doctoral research project examining sleep and cognition in Parkinson’s disease. My personal research involved data gathering and analysis examining issues of quality of life, motor subtypes, and cognitive deficits in Parkinson’s.

Professionally, I worked as a Clinical Research Coordinator in the Androgen Clinical Research Unit at Boston Medical Center. I was the Boston site coordinator for The Testosterone Trial - a 12-site national NIH-funded clinical trial examining the effects of testosterone treatment on walking, vitality, sexual function, memory, blood count, and cardiovascular risk in older men.

Hobbies and Interests: I am a former competitive figure skater and was a member of Boston University's synchronized skating team; I currently coach for a skating school in Boston's North End. I also enjoy traveling, reading, running, photography, and exploring the city of Boston.

Research Interests:I am interested in cognitive disorders in aging populations, particularly Parkinson's disease. I hope to investigate cognitive markers for Parkinson’s that may be evident pre-diagnosis, as well as continue to examine for differences in subtypes of the disease.

I have also been involved for several years in coordinating data analysis of a research study examining the effects of changing school start times on sleep patterns of elementary through high school age children in a New England school district for research presentation and publication.

Publications and Book Chapters
       Au, R., Appleman, E.R., & Stavitsky, K. Systematic strategies: Case of school start times. In Wolfson, A. & Montgomery-Downs, H. (Eds.) In The Oxford Handbook of Infant, Child, and Adolescent Sleep: Development and Problems. New York: Oxford University Press. In press.

       Travison, T.G., Basaria, S., Storer, T.W., Jette, A.M, Miciek, R., Farwell, W.R., Choong, K., Lakshman, K., Mazer, N.A., Coviello, A.D., Knapp, P.E., Ulloor, J., Zhang, A., Brooks, B., Ngyen, A.H., Eder, R., LeBrasseur, N., Elmi, A., Appleman, E., Hede-Brierly, L., Bhasin, G., Bhatia, A., Lazzari, A., Davis, S., Ni, P., Collins, L., Bhasin, S. Clinical meaningfulness of the changes in muscle performance and physical function associated with testosterone administration in older men with mobility limitation. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci 2011; 66: 1090-9.

       Appleman, E.R., Stavitsky, K. & Cronin-Golomb, A. (2010). Relation of Subjective Quality of Life to Motor Symptom Profile in Parkinson’s Disease. Parkinson’s Disease 2011; Article ID 472830.

       Basaria, S., Coviello, A., Travison, T., Storer, T., Farwell, W., Jette, A., Eder, R., Tennstedt, S., Ulloor, J., Zhang, A., Choong, K., Lakshman, K., Mazer, N., Miciek, R., Krasnoff, J., Elmi, A., Knapp, P., Brooks, B., Appleman, E., Agarwal, S., Bhasin, G., Hede-Brierly, L., Bhatia, A., Collins, L., Fiore, L., & Bhasin, S. Adverse events associated with testosterone administration in a randomized placebo-controlled trial of older men with mobility limitation. New England Journal of Medicine 2010; 363: 109-122.

Posters and presentations:
       Appleman, E.R., Stavitsky, K. & Au, R. (2012). Impact of school start time changes on sleep patterns in elementary through high school age students. Poster presented at the Sleep, Health, and Safety Conference in Washington, D.C.

       Cann, A. Appleman, E.R., Stavitsky, K. & Au, R. (2012). The effects of health comorbidities on sleep duration in school-aged children. Poster presented at the Sleep, Health, and Safety Conference in Washington, D.C.

       Homsi, M., Appleman, E.R., Stavitsky, K. & Au, R. (2012). The effect of parent opinion on responses to a survey on the change of school start times. Poster presented at the Sleep, Health, and Safety Conference in Washington, D.C.

       Kim S., Appleman, E.R., Stavitsky, K. & Au, R. (2012). The impact of parenting styles on children’s sleep duration. Poster presented at the Sleep, Health, and Safety Conference in Washington, D.C.

       Monge, Z., Appleman, E.R., Stavitsky, K. & Au, R. (2012). The effects of caffeine on sleep duration in young children and adolescents. Poster presented at the Sleep, Health, and Safety Conference in Washington, D.C.

       Appleman, E.R., Stavitsky, K., Phillips, B., & Cronin-Golomb, A. (2010). Quality of Life and Motor Symptom Profile in Individuals with Parkinson’s Disease. Poster presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference in Atlanta, GA, as well as the Massachusetts Neuropsychological Society Symposium in Boston, MA.

       Phillips, B.D., Stavitsky, K., Appleman, E., Cronin-Golomb, A. (2010). Gender differences in the association of mood and cognition in Parkinson's disease. Poster presented at the Cognitive Aging Conference in Atlanta, GA as well as at the Massachusetts Neuropsychological Society Symposium in Boston, MA.