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.
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
Team Lead Research Assistant
Andrew Kim
Research interests: Neuroplasticity and reactive synaptogenesis in healthy aging, therapeutic possibilities for neuromodulation for neurodegenerative disorders
Current projects: Onboarding and training new research assistants for our ongoing studies, assisting in data analysis, and preparing for future projects in the lab
Personal hobbies: Cooking, rock climbing, latte art, board games
Team Lead Research Assistant
Ana Sanchez-Morales
Research interests: Decision-making, social cognition, brain-behaviour relationships, severe mental illnesses, criminal behaviour
Current project: (1) Helping in data collection for decision-making across lifespan; (2) Building a literature review database with exploration vs exploitation and neuropsychological data for the current study
Personal hobbies: Swimming, reading, traveling, escape rooms, listening to music, making new friends!
Research Assistant
Vera Kurmaeva
Research interests: Cognitive and neural development across the lifespan, brain-cognition relationships, visual perception, neuropsychology of psychosis
Current project: Investigating age-related changes in exploration and exploitation behaviours through neuropsychological assessments and neuroimaging techniques
Personal hobbies: Exploring the city, going on hikes, DJ-ing at home, perfumery, cocktail mixology, crochet, and watching movies
Research Assistant
Vanessa Pulera
Research interests: Developmental psychology, neuroplasticity, learning, clinical psychology, clinical neuropsychology, reasoning and decision making, brain and behaviour
Current project: I am currently helping collect data through administering neuropsychological tasks and assessments that will be used to compare explorative and exploitative decision making in older and younger adults.
Personal hobbies: Reading, listening to music, swimming, photography
Research Assistant - U3 Neuroscience
Chau Nguyen
Research interests: Behavioural and cognitive neuroscience, neuropsychological disorders, executive function, ADHD, memory, language
Current project: Supporting the Motivated Decision-Making study and the E&E study (data screening and collection, task administration, data analysis); supporting ad-hoc marketing tasks
Personal hobbies: Reading, watching movies (psychological thrillers), playing with my cats, visiting museums, reading deep-dives into random topics
Research Assistant - U3 Honours Psychology
Jay Streiffer
Research interests: Neuropsychological evaluation, validity metrics and cross-cultural invariance, neurodevelopmental disorders, attention, memory, neuroimaging techniques
Current project: Administering a series of cognitive tests to samples of young people, aiming to uncover important differences in executive functioning processes across the lifespan; focusing on how information processing changes with age
Personal hobbies: Playing my guitar, listening to music. reading sci-fi, gaming, and hanging out with my dogs!
Research Assistant - U3 Psychology
Mahshad Khakkar
Research interests: Neurodegenerative disorders, normal memory decline, neuropsychology, memory, and healthy aging
Current project: 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 - U4 Psychology
Sophia Bryan-Carbonell
Research interests: Adult clinical psychology, particularly mind-body processes and assessment-informed treatment
Current project: Investigating the effects of motivation on explore-exploit decision-making in young and older adults.
Personal hobbies: Hiking, gardening, reading outside, and spending time with my loved ones
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
RAs & Undergraduate Students
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Alireza Khalajzadeh
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Arshia Soleimankhan
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Nathaniel Edgar
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Sara Pillitteri
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Matthew D'Amario
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Noor Albaity