The Vision & Cognition Laboratory is directed by Alice Cronin-Golomb, Ph.D.

The principal focus of her research is determining the factors that influence visual cognition in normal aging and age-related neurological disease.

Dr. Cronin-Golomb, her students, and research associates investigate perception and cognition in normal aging and a variety of neurological populations, with a special emphasis on Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

What have we learned so far?

Research from our laboratory has been presented at national and international professional conferences, and published in numerous peer-reviewed scientific journals.  Dr. Cronin-Golomb is a contributing author and co-editor of the book, Vision In Alzheimer's Disease.

You may read about some of our Alzheimer's disease research in featured articles on CBS News.com, and the online BU Bridge newspaper.  Also, see the BU Bridge to read about some of our research with synestheisia.

Who participates in our studies?

Primarily, individuals who have been diagnosed with one of the disorders or conditions listed in the section below (for example, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, etc.).  We also seek healthy people aged 45 and older who do not have major neurological or other major health problems.  These 'control' participants serve as an important reference, allowing us to know if test performance in our target population is, or is not, a normal aspect of growing older.  Click here for more information on participating in a study. 
 
 
What do we study?


Some of our lab members and their primary research areas are listed below.  Please see individual lab members' web pages for more information on their studies.

Alzheimer's disease, Probable Alzheimer's disease: 

Lab members test different shades of grey paint for use in a naturalistic visual search task.

Relation of vision to cognition: Dr. Cronin-Golomb, Sandy Neargarder, Tracy Dunne, Tom Laudate, Karen Sullivan, Daniel Seichepine, Bruce Reese.  Visual object recognition: Sandy Neargarder, Karen Sullivan, Daniel Seichepine, Bruce Reese. Activities of Daily Living and applied visual interventions: Tracy Dunne, Karen Sullivan, Tom Laudate.

Parkinson's disease:  Relation of vision to cognition: Dr. Cronin-Golomb, Daniel Seichepine, Tom Laudate.  Visuospatial functioning: Dr. Cronin-Golomb, Karina Stavitsky, Justin Centi, Ivy Miller, Mirella Diaz-Santos.  Parkinson's and sleep: Karina Stavitsky.  Hemi-differences in visuospatial behavior: Alison Lee.  Parkinson's and emotion: Uraina Clark.  Parkinson's and autonomic function: Justin Centi.