MEET THE TEAM
Gary Turner, PhD, C.Psych
Principal Investigator
Dr. Turner is an Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology at York University and is a registered Clinical Neuropsychologist in the Province of Ontario. Dr. Turner was a graduate of York University (twice!), having first completed a Bachelor of Arts in Public Administration some years ago (he remembers the Ross Ramp!). He later returned to York to pursue a Bachelor of Arts in Psychology from Atkinson College, where he was the Class Valedictorian in 1999. He went on to complete his MA and PhD in Psychology at the University of Toronto and then pursued post-doctoral studies at the University of California at Berkeley. He returned to Toronto to take up a scientist position the Sunnybrook Centre for Stroke Recovery before joining the faculty at York in 2011.
Dr. Turner's program of research investigates how age-related brain changes impact cognitive and real-world functioning (including financial decision-making) both in normal aging and brain disease. A core objective of this work is to leverage neuroscience discoveries to guide the design of more effective interventions toward sustaining cognitive and brain health, ultimately helping older adults live healthier, longer. His work is funded by the National Science and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Canadian Institutes of Health Research, and the U.S. National Institutes of Health.
R. Nathan Spreng, PhD
Core Collaborator
Dr. Nathan Spreng is a James McGill Professor in the Department of Neurology and Neurosurgery at McGill University, and the director of the Laboratory of Brain and Cognition. His research investigates large-scale brain network dynamics and their role in cognition, with a particular focus on attention, memory, cognitive control, and social cognition, as well as the interaction between their underlying neural networks. His lab is involved in the development and implementation of multivariate and network-based statistical approaches to assess brain structure, connectivity and activity to clarify the network properties underlying cognitive change across the adult lifespan in both health and disease.
GRADUATE STUDENTS
PhD Student, Clinical Neuropsychology
Patrick Hewan, MA
Research interests: Aging, decision-making, functional and structural neuroimaging, brain networks, neuropsychological disease, emotions, neural effects of music
Current project: Using structural and functional MRI to explore how decision-making evolves across the lifespan and in neuropsychological diseases
Personal hobbies: Jazz and classical piano, photography, computer programming, tennis, swimming, reading, drinking coffee
PhD Student, Clinical Neuropsychology
Kayla Williams, MA
Research interests: Internally-directed cognition, affective cognition, decision making, memory, emotional disorders, brain-behaviour relationships
Current project: Using fMRI to investigate the effects of motivation on explore-exploit decision-making in young and older adults
Personal hobbies: Full-time kitty mama, coffee enthusiast, avid puzzler, fun seeker
RESEARCH ASSISTANTS
Lab Coordinator
Ana Sanchez-Morales
Research interests: Brain–behaviour relationships, decision-making, social cognition, psychopathology and neuropsychopathology, and sociocultural influences on behaviour.
Current projects: Coordinate day-to-day laboratory operations across multiple research projects; contribute to study implementation and ethics processes; manage participant recruitment, data collection, and analysis; oversee and train research assistants; maintain research protocols and documentation; and facilitate collaboration across projects.
Personal hobbies: Swimming, reading, traveling, escape room enthusiast, and photography.
Research Assistant
Vanessa Pulera
Research interests: Developmental psychology, neuroplasticity, learning, clinical psychology, personality, reasoning and decision making, brain and behaviour.
Current projects: I am currently working with younger and older adults to collect data through administering neuropsychological tasks and assessments. In addition, I am currently responsible for participant recruitment. I have also helped out with the scoring of neuropsychological assessments and preliminary data analysis.
Personal hobbies: Reading, listening to music, photography, going for walks (especially with my dog).
Research Assistant
Chau Nguyen
Research interests: Behavioural and cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychological disorders, executive function, ADHD, memory, language.
Current projects: E&E study (data screening and collection, task administration, data analysis); supporting ad-hoc marketing tasks (managing and maintaining the lab website, creating various marketing collaterals).
Personal hobbies: Reading, watching movies (psychological thrillers), playing with my cats, visiting museums, reading deep-dives into random topics.
Research Assistant
Mahshad Khakkar
Research interests: Neurodegenerative disorders, normal memory decline, neuropsychology, memory, and healthy aging.
Current projects: I help with studying how drawing, as a novel memory intervention, enhances memory performance in healthy older adults. Currently, I assist with data collection from older adults who have learned to apply the sketchnoting techniques as an elaborative encoding strategy to improve memory for everyday activities. I also support scoring neuropsychological assessments used to study decision-making across the lifespan.
Personal hobbies: Listening to music and audiobooks, socializing, and enjoying tea :)
Research Assistant
Ashley Abas
Research interests: Neurodegenerative diseases, learning and memory, neuroimaging, clinical neuropsychology, sensory processing and perception, molecular and cellular neuroscience.
Current projects: Supporting the Exploration and Exploitation study by recruiting healthy older adults as participants and conducting pre-screening interviews to assess participant eligibility.
Personal hobbies: Reading, watching movies, playing the piano and guitar, listening to music.
Research Assistant
Frederique Watulo
Research interests: Healthy aging, neurointerventions, neurorehabilitation, cognitive health, physical medicine and rehabilitation.
Current projects Explore-and-Exploit (E&E) data collection.
Personal hobbies: I like to stay active in the gym, casual running and currently learning volleyball. I also love to watch movies, cook new recipes and love to thrift!
Research Assistant
Menda Sherpa
Research interests: I am planning to pursue clinical psychology so my research interests extend into biological and cognitive effects on decision making. Additionally I am also interested in abnormal psychology and mental illnesses.
Current projects: I am currently part of the recruitment team in the CNN lab. We reach out to elder care centers and introduce the project and find individuals willing to participate in the studies.
Personal hobbies: I enjoy drawing, boxing, dancing and cooking.
Research Assistant
Isobel (Zoe) Tilley
Research interests: Brain–behaviour relationships; neurodegenerative and neurocognitive disorders; neural plasticity in aging; and neural mechanisms underlying mood disorders and psychoactive substances.
Current projects: Community based older adult recruitment; Explore & Exploit study data collection.
Personal hobbies: Spending time in nature, pottery, reading dystopian novels, eating at new restaurants.
Research Assistant
Kayla Manabat
Research interests: Neurodegenerative disorders, age-related memory decline, public policy in gerontology.
Current projects: I currently assist in the participant recruitment of the Exploration and Exploitation study, as well as executing pre-screening interviews to evaluate participant eligibility.
Personal hobbies: Pottery, concerts, caffeine in the form of iced coffee or matcha, and cat videos!
Research Assistant
Alessandro Spizzirri
Research interests: Clinical psychology, health psychology, neurocognitive disorders, psychological assessment, and decision making.
Current projects: Supporting the Exploration and Exploitation Study by recruiting healthy older adults, conducting pre-screening interviews to determine eligibility, and assisting with data collection.
Personal hobbies: Playing piano, reading, travelling, fitness.
LAB ALUMNI
Graduate Students
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Karin Kantarovich, PhD
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Bri Darboh, PhD, C.Psych
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Sabrina Lemire-Rodgers, PhD, C.Psych
Lab Coordinators & Team Leads
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Matthew D'Amario
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Anyssia Kim
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Noor Albaity
Research Assistants (Undergraduate)
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Alireza Khalajzadeh
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Arshia Soleimankhan
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Sara Pillitteri
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Nathaniel Edgar
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Sophia Bryan-Carbonell
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Jay Streiffer
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Vera Kurmaeva