Alice Cronin-Golomb, PhD

Positions of Interest

Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences (http://www.bu.edu/psych/)

Director of Graduate Studies

Faculty member:

Clinical Program  and

Program in Brain, Behavior, and Cognition

Director, Vision & Cognition Laboratory

Director (with Dr. Michael Lyons), Center for Clinical Biopsychology

Faculty member of interdisciplinary programs:

Center for Systems Neuroscience

Neurophotonics Center

Center for Brain Recovery

Rafik B. Hariri Institute for Computing and Computational Science & Engineering

Center for Innovation in Social Science

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Research Interests

My lab’s focus is on the neural correlates of perception, cognition, and other psychological functions in aging and age-related neurodegenerative disease.  We use behavioral methods, including visual psychophysics, neuropsychological assessment, sensory/cognitive neuroscience, and also neuroimaging.  A current emphasis is on the non-motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease (PD) (perception, cognition, mood) and their interaction with motor symptoms, with an emphasis on motor subtypes (e.g., body side of PD onset, type of symptom at onset).  We do basic research and we work to develop interventions to enhance quality of life.   I also have a long-standing interest in perception and cognition in Alzheimer’s disease (AD).  Our lab’s research is/has been supported, with our gratitude, by the National Institute of Health, the American Parkinson’s Disease Association, the Boston University Digital Health Initiative, the Boston University Institute for Health System Innovation and Policy, and the Boston University Alzheimer Disease Center.  We also acknowledge the Boston University Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Office, Affinity Research Collaborative (ARC).

Current Projects

Projects that require the expertise of many lab members are the use of portable functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) to examine brain activity during cognition and walking in healthy individuals and in persons with PD; the development of smartphone ecological momentary assessment and other types of remote assessment and therapy for PD, AD, and other populations; and the administration and analysis of online survey data on factors affecting quality of life in PD, including as related to the experience of COVID-19.  Specific student-led projects are described under their links on this website. We have current/recent additional projects in collaboration with researchers across BU and at other institutions including the VA Boston Healthcare System, the Massachusetts General Hospital, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, all in Boston, and the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Campus Biotech in Geneva, Switzerland.

Teaching

My current regular courses are undergraduate Neuropsychology, which is cross-listed in Psychology and in Neuroscience (PS/NE338), the graduate Principles of Neuropsychology (PS829), and courses associated with undergraduate Senior Honors Thesis and with undergraduate and graduate Directed Studies.

Publications:

See the list under lab publications

Hobbies and Interests

Baseball in general and the Red Sox in particular, including my own participation in the Red Sox Women’s Fantasy Camp, followed by hockey and the Bruins; travel, with a special fondness for Italy and Cape Cod and for visiting old friends wherever they may be; homebrewed beer; tea; good food of all kinds; going to conferences with fun and brilliant people; live theater and music and the arts in general; reading; knitting strange things; and lots of science.

Want to see what’s in my office? 

Social Media

Facebook:  The Vision and Cognition Laboratory

Twitter: @ACroninGolomb