Nishaat Mukadam, MA

Research Interests

I am interested in the field of neuropsychology particularly in understanding cognitive functioning in healthy aging and in neurodegenerative conditions. My main aim is to improve the lives and functioning of people with cognitive dysfunction and I have three areas of interest related to this aim:

1. Identifying early cognitive symptoms of neurodegeneration and investigating cognitive predictors of neurodegeneration using neuropsychological assessments and functional neuroimaging.
2. Developing functional neuropsychological rehabilitation techniques for people with cognitive dysfunctions and implementing these techniques in clinical practice
3. Developing stringent neuropsychological tests and adapting these as well as the currently available tests for use with diverse populations

 

Relevant Experience

After pursuing a master’s degree in Clinical Psychology from Mumbai University in India, I worked as a clinician and researcher at the Parkinson’s Disease and Movement Disorder Society (PDMDS). As a clinician, I worked on developing and conducting individual and group cognitive rehabilitation for people with Parkinson’s disease. I was part of a team that worked on developing a capacity-building, community-based, multidisciplinary educational and rehabilitation model for Parkinson’s care. I adapted the Scales for Outcomes of Parkinson’s Disease-Cognition (SCOPA-Cog) into Indian English and Hindi. Further, I led a treatment-based study comparing exergaming to physiotherapy videos in improving cognitive and motor symptoms of Parkinson’s. Along with my work at the PDMDS, I also trained under a neuropsychologist in India, after which I began conducting neuropsychological evaluations and providing neuropsychological rehabilitation. I worked with different populations including people with dementia, AD, MCI, stroke, and traumatic brain injury.

I pursued a second master’s degree from Brandeis University in 2017 and completed a thesis on the influence of narrative content on self-reference memory in healthy older adult and aMCI populations. I also interned at the Boston VA Medical Center under the guidance of Dr. Andrew Budson, attending weekly case study discussions, shadowing clinicians, and collecting EEG and neuropsychological test data.

After graduating from Brandeis University, I joined Dr. Swathi Kiran’s Aphasia Research Lab at Boston University as the lab manager. I was part of multiple research projects in the lab investigating the influence of bilingualism in aphasia, the effects of cognitive reserve on language and cognitive outcomes post stroke, and the functional reorganization of the language and domain general networks post stroke.

 

Current Research

Under the guidance of Dr. Cronin-Golomb, I am working on projects aimed at investigating various aspects of cognition in people with Parkinson’s disease. One of the projects I am currently working on involves examining the effects of COVID-19 on the subjective cognitive and social functioning of people with PD.  For this project, I am analyzing longitudinal data from two online surveys conducted by the lab – one from before COVID-19 (BOSS-PD) and the other from during COVID-19 (PD-COVID).

I am also interested in understanding the neural correlates of various cognitive abilities in healthy older adults and people with PD. To do that we use two non-invasive and portable neuroimaging techniques – electroencephalography (EEG), which measures electrical signal, and functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which measures hemodynamic changes using infrared light. Currently in collaboration with Dr. David Boas and Dr. Meryem Yücel from the Biomedical Engineering department, Dr. Terry Ellis and Dr. Swathi Kiran from Sargent College, and Dr. David Sommers from Psychological and Brain Sciences we are working on a cross-lab multidisciplinary project – “Neuroscience of the Everyday World”. For this project, we are using a combination of fNIRS and EEG to understand the neural functioning of people with Parkinson’s and healthy older adults while they engage in dual-task walking and obstacle avoidance tasks. Eventually we will investigate neural functioning while individuals engage in real-world tasks that involve walking, talking and perceiving. I am particularly interested in studying subjective executive functioning and cognitive reserve in healthy older adults and people with Parkinson’s disease and to assess whether these correlate with neural functioning using EEG and fNIRS. We are also collaborating with this team on a project aimed at investigating the effects of hair metrics on the quality of fNIRS hemodynamic signal.

 

Hobbies and Interests

I enjoy traveling, exploring new places and cultures, especially the food. I also love biking and swimming.

 

Publications

Mukadam, N., Kinger, S., Neargarder, S., Salazar R., Cronin-Golomb, A. (in preparation). Changes in Subjective Cognitive and Social Functioning in Parkinson’s Disease from Before to During the COVID-19 Era.

Li, R., Mukadam, N., & Kiran, S. (2022). Functional MRI evidence for reorganization of language networks after stroke. Handbook of clinical neurology, 185, 131–150. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-823384-9.00007-4

Mukadam, N., Zhang, W., Liu, X., Budson, A.E., Gutchess, A. (2021). The Influence of Emotional Narrative Content on the Self-Reference Effect in Memory. Aging Brain, 1, 100015. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nbas.2021.100015

Peñaloza, C., Scimeca, M., Gaona, A., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., Gray, T., Shamapant, S., & Kiran, S. (2021). Telerehabilitation for Word Retrieval Deficits in Bilinguals with Aphasia: Effectiveness and Reliability Compared to In-person Language Therapy. Frontiers in Neurology, 12, 598. doi: https://doi.org/10.3389/fneur.2021.589330

Peñaloza, C., Dekhtyar, M., Scimeca, M., Carpenter, E., Mukadam, N., & Kiran, S. (2020). Predicting treatment outcomes for bilinguals with aphasia using computational modelling: Study protocol for the PROCoM randomized controlled trial. BMJ Open, 10(11), e040495. doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2020-040495

Mukadam, N., Leger, K., & Gutchess, A. (2020). Cognitive neuroscience of aging. In Drolet, A. & Yoon, C. (Eds.), The Aging Consumer: Perspectives for Psychology and Marketing, 2nd edition (pp. 3-25). Routledge. doi: https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429343780

Gutchess, A., Mukadam, N., Zhang, W., & Zhang, X. (2021). Influence of aging on memory across cultures. In J. Chiao, S-C., Li, R. Turner, S.Y. Lee-Tauler, & B. Pringle (Eds), Handbook of Cultural Neuroscience and Global Mental Health, (pp. 262-287). Oxford University Press https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190057695.013.13

 

Posters and Presentations

Mukadam, N.*, Kinger, S., Neargarder, S., Cronin-Golomb, A. (2022, April). Changes in Subjective Cognitive and Social Functioning in Parkinson’s Disease: The COVID-19 Era, Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA

Dekhtyar, M.*, Mukadam, N.*, Braun, J. E., Zheng, H., Genovese, A., Kiran, S. (2021, November 18-20). 2188V. C.H.A.T.: Communication through Health, Art and Technology, A Support Group for Individuals with Aphasia [Recorded Virtual Presentation]. Annual Convention of the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), Washington, DC, USA.

Mukadam, N.*, Parisi, K.R., Fields, E.C., Daley, R.T., Budson, A.E., Kensinger, A.E., Gutchess, A. (2020, May). Joint Effects of Self-Referencing and Emotion on Memory in Aging and aMCI, Cognitive Neuroscience Society 2020 Annual Meeting (Virtual), Boston, MA.

Mukadam N.*, Zhang W., Budson A.E., Gutchess A. (2019, January). The Effects of Language Usage on Self-Reference Memory, Dallas Aging and Cognition Conference, Dallas, TX.

Mukadam N.*, Zhang W., Budson A.E., Gutchess A. (2018, May). Influence of Narrative Content on Self-Reference Memory, Cognitive Aging Conference, Atlanta, GA

Irani N., Mukadam N., Kinger S., D’Souza N., Barretto M. (2018, February). Setting Up Community-Based Parkinson’s Rehabilitation Centres in a Developing Country: Across Various Urban, Rural, Tribal Settings. World Congress for Neurorehabilitation Conference, Mumbai, India.

Irani, N., Barretto, M., Mukadam, N., Wandrekar, J., D’Souza, N., Sivaramakrishnan, A. (2016, September). Multidisciplinary Capacity Building Module for Rehabilitation and Care of Parkinson’s in India. World Parkinson’s Congress, Portland, Oregon.