Karina Stavitsky



Third-Year Clinical Student

My primary research interests are sleep disturbances in Parkinson’s disease and how these relate to cognition and quality of life. I am especially interested in examining whether there may be differences in sleep and cognition as a function of side of motor symptom onset in patients with Parkinson’s disease.

Educational History:

After graduating with a B.S. in Neuroscience from University of Massachusetts Amherst in May 2002, I moved to New York City where I spent two years working at the Bronx VA on a neuroimaging study of aging Veterans with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. This job sparked my interest in neuropsychology of aging and I went to work at the G.H. Sergievsky Center at Columbia University Medical Center where I worked on a longitudinal study of individual differences in the rate of decline in Alzheimer’s disease as well as the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative.

Biographical Information and Interests:

I was born in St. Petersburg, Russia and moved to the US when I was 8 years old. Outside of research my main interests are outdoorsy activities (skiing, hiking etc.) and I love to travel. I am also an avid reader and my two all-time favorite books are The History of Love and One Hundred Years of Solitude.

Publications:

Stavitsky, K., McNamara, P., Durso, R., Harris, E., Auerbach, S. & Cronin-Golomb, A. Hallucinations, dreaming and frequent dozing in Parkinson's disease: Impact of right-hemisphere neural networks. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, Sep;21(3):143-9  [view abstract]

Zhu, C.W., Scarmeas, N., Stavitsky, K., Albert, M., Brandt, J., Blacker, D., Sano, M., & Stern, Y. (2008) Comparison of costs of care between patients with Alzheimer's disease and dementia with Lewy bodies. Alzheimer's & Dementia: The Journal of the Alzheimer's Association, Jul;4(4):280-4.  [view abstract]

Stavitsky, K., Brickman, A.M., Scarmeas, N., Torgan, R.L., Tang, M., Albert, M., Brandt, J., Balcker, D. & Stern, Y. (2006) Progression of cognitive and functional ability in Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Alzheimer’s Disease. Archives of Neurology, 63, 1450-1456.  [view abstract]

Tischler L., Brand S., Stavitsky K., Labinsky E., Newmark R., Grossman R., Buchsbaum MS., Yehuda R. (2006). The relationship between hippocampal volume and declarative memory in a population of combat veterans with and without PTSD. Ann NY Acad Sci. 1071 (1), 405-409.  [view abstract]

Yehuda, R., Golier, J.A., Tischler, L., Stavitsky, K. & Harvey, P. (2005) Learning and memory in aging combat veterans. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 27(4), 504-15.  [view abstract]

Yehuda, R., Stavitsky, K., Tischler, L., Golier, J.A. & Harvey, P. (2005, May) Learning and memory in aging trauma survivors with PTSD. In J Vasterling (ed): Neuropsychology of PTSD: Guilford Press.

Yehuda, R., Golier, J.A., Harvey, P.D., Stavitsky, K., Kaufman, S. & Grossman, R.A. (2005) Relationship between cortisol and age-related memory impairments in Holocaust survivors with PTSD. Psychoneuroendocrinology, 30(7), 678-87.  [view abstract]

Presentations:

Stavitsky, K., Griffin, E., McNamara, P., Cronin-Golomb, A. Objective measures of sleep quality and cognitive performance in Parkinson’s disease. Submitted to the 37th Annual Meeting International Neuropsychological Society, Atlanta, GA.

Centi, J., Stavitsky, K., Joshi, P., Blease, S., Bogdanova, Y., Cronin-Golomb, A. Relation of orthostatic hypotension to cognition in Parkinson’s disease. Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA, April 2008

Laudate, T., Beiser, A., Au, R., Stavitsky, K., Seichepine, D., Du, Y., Seshadri, S., Wolf, P.A., DeCarli, C. Descriptive Brain Morphology in Ethnic Minority: Findings from the Framingham Heart Study. 36th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Waikoloa, Hawaii, February 2008.

Seichepine, D. R., Beiser, A. Au, R., Himali, J. Laudate, T. M., Stavitsky, K., Seshadri, S., De Carli, C., Wolf, P. A. Relation of Stroke Risk to Brain Morphology in an Ethnic Minority Sample: The Framingham Omni Study. 36th Annual Meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Waikoloa, Hawaii, February 2008.

Stavitsky, K., McNamara, P., Durso, R., Harris, E., Auerbach, S., Cronin-Golomb, A. Side of Motor Symptom Onset and Frequency of Reported Sleep Disturbances in Parkinson’s Disease. Poster presented at the 37th annual meeting of Society for Neuroscience, San Diego, CA, November 2007

Stavitsky, K., Du, Y., Seichepine, D., Laudate, T., Beiser, A., Au, R., Sehadri, S., Decarli, C.S., & Wolf, P.A. White Matter Hyperintensity and Cognitive Functioning in the Ethnic Minority Cohort of the Framingham Heart Study. Abstract submitted for poster session presentation at the annual meeting of the International Society for Vascular, Behavioral and Cognitive Disorders, San Antonio, TX, July 2007

Cosentino, S. Metcalfe, J., Stavitsky, K., Vallury, R., & Stern Y. Metamemory profiles offer insight into disordered awareness for memory loss in Alzheimer’s disease. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Portland, OR, February 2007.

Cosentino, S., Butterfield, B., Stavitsky, K., Tatarina, O., & Stern, Y. Assessing anosognosia in Alzheimer’s disease: New metacognitive methodology. Poster session presented at the annual meeting of the International Neuropsychological Society, Boston, MA, February 2006.

Meyer J.S., Stavitsky K., and Cipes E. FOS induction by MDMA in rat pups differs from adult rats and is attenuated by a D1/D5 dopamine receptor antagonist. Paper (oral) presentation at the annual meeting of Society for Neuroscience, Seattle, WA, November 2004.