Hector Y. Adames, Psy.D
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Adames completed his graduate training in clinical psychology at Wright State University and his clinical internship at the Boston University School of Medicine. Currently he is completing an APA-accredited postdoctoral residency in clinical neuropsychology at the Bedford VA-Medical Center. He spends three days a week performing neuropsychological evaluations, and two days per week on various research projects investigating the role of mental imagery in healthy older adults and in patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Dr. Adames’ interests include cognitive aging, memory, and the improvement of diagnostic accuracy of neuropsychological tests when assessing cognitive impairments among monolingual Spanish speakers. He is also interested in the intersectionality of neuropsychology, cultural competency, and professional training. He will continue working in the CTCN until August of 2010.
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Brandon Ally, Ph.D.
Director of Neuropsychology Research

Dr. Ally is an Assistant Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. By training, he is a clinical neuropsychologist with specialization in cognitive disorders of aging. Dr. Ally's research focusing on healthy and diseased memory is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging. Specifically, Dr. Ally's research interests involve memory for pictures and words in healthy older adults and in patients with Alzheimer's disease, and understanding the role of the parietal lobes in episodic memory. In addition to his duties at the CTCN, Dr. Ally works as a supervisor to clinical neuropsychology interns and postdoctoral fellows at the Bedford VAMC, as well as directs the inpatient neuropsychology service.
Dr. Ally's website
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Lee Ashendorf, Ph.D
Investigator

Dr. Ashendorf is a clinical neuropsychologist who specializes in cognition and aging. He also serves as the lead neuropsychologist for the Bedford VAMC's Polytrauma clinic. His research focuses on psychometric and process aspects of neuropsychological assessment, particularly with older adults. He additionally works as a clinical supervisor for neuropsychology interns and postdoctoral fellows at the Bedford VAMC.
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Alireza Atri, M.D., Ph.D.
Associate Director of the CTCN

Dr. Atri is a cognitive neurologist with appointments at Massachusetts General Hospital, Brigham and Women's Hospital, and Harvard Medical School. Dr. Atri's outpatient clinical activities include caring for patients and families at the MGH Memory Disorders Unit. His inpatient responsibilities include serving as ward/consult attending at MGH, and as director of two special dementia units at the Bedford VA GRECC. Dr. Atri's research focuses on integrating the tools of functional neuroimaging, cognitive neuroscience, clinical pharmacology and computational modeling to gain insights into the networks that subserve memory and learning, and to develop biomarkers and predictive models to improve the diagnosis, care and treatment of patients with cognitive impairments, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.
Dr. Atri's website
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Andrew Budson, M.D.
Director of the CTCN

Dr. Budson is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. By training, he is a cognitive and behavioral neurologist with specialization in memory disorders and dementia. He has a long history of research in the cognitive disorders of aging. Dr. Budson's research is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging (NIH). Dr. Budson's specific research interests include understanding how memory breaks down in Alzheimer's disease, false memory, and the role of different cortical lesions in episodic memory function. In addition to his duties as Director of the CTCN, Dr. Budson is the Director for the Bedford Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center (GRECC).
Dr. Budson's website
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Eileen Crehan, B.A.
Research Assistant

Eileen received her B.A. in Mathematics and Psychology from Wellesley College, and joined the CTCN in December of 2008 as a clinical research assistant. She plans to pursue a Ph.D. in Clinical Neuropsychology next fall.
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Paul Costanza, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Costanza is completing a combined postdoctoral fellowship at the Bedford VA/CTCN where his duties include performing neuropsychological assessments and conducting research on healthy and diseased memory processes. Paul is currently investigating the effects of recollection and familiarity during recognition tasks and true/false memories in the DRM paradigm. Paul's clinical rotation includes completing neuropsychological evaluations for the Polytrauma Clinic, Memory Diagnostic Clinic, and Geriatric inpatient population.
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Rebecca Deason, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Deason just completed a PhD in cognitive and biological psychology at the University of Minnesota. As a postdoctoral fellow in the center, Becky will be expanding her prior research on perceptual priming and antipriming to gain further insight into implicit memory, as well as its interactions with other types of memory, in healthy older adults and in patients with Alzheimer's disease.
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Judy DeCarteret
Administrative Assistant

Ms. DeCarteret has an associate of arts degree in general studies from Northern Essex Community College. In 2003, she completed a two-year paralegal program also at Northern Essex Community College. She is currently working towards her bachelor’s degree at Boston University’s Metropolitan College. Ms. DeCarteret has been employed by the Boston University ADCC since its inception in 1996.
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Jessica Dodd, B.A.
Research Assistant

Jessica recently received her B.A. in Psychology from Haverford College, and has joined the CTCN team as a clinical research assistant. Her future plans include going to medical school.
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Sean Flannery, B.S.
Volunteer Research Assistant

Sean graduated from the University of Georgia in December of 2008 with a B.S. in Psychology, minoring in Sociology and Film Studies. He is volunteering at the CTCN to gain experience related to neuropsychology with the hopes of further research work and eventually higher-level education.
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Carl Gold, M.A.
Medical Student/ Research Assistant

Carl is a CTCN alumnus, currently a student at Robert Wood Johnson Medical School, and has re-joined the CTCN for the summer of 2008.
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Julie Horwitz, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

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Erin Hussey, Ed.M.
Research Assistant

Erin received a B.A. in Psychology from Saint Anselm College in 2006.  In 2007, she received an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education in the Mind, Brain, and Education program.  Her main research interests are in the fields of Developmental Psychology and Cognitive Neuroscience.  She plans to pursue further graduate study in order to complete a doctoral degree. 
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Meghan Mitchell, Ph.D.
Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Mitchell completed her Ph.D. in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Georgia and her predoctoral internship in clinical neuropsychology at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center. She will be joining the MIND BrAIN Lab at Bedford VAMC as a postdoctoral fellow in research and clinical neuropsychology in August of 2009. Meghan's research interests include early detection of cognitive and functional decline in older adults, using both neuropsychological and biological markers.
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Prabhakar Mithal, B.S.
Graduate Student

Prabhakar is currently a graduate student in the Masters of Medical Sciences program at Boston University School of Medicine. He is currently working on his master's thesis in the CTCN.
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Maureen O'Connor, Psy.D, ABCN.
Director of Cognitive Rehabilitation

Dr. O'Connor is an Instructor in Neurology at Boston University School of Medicine. She is a clinical neuropsychologist by training, with interests in cognitive aging, traumatic brain injury, and general neuropsychology. Dr. O'Connor's research is currently supported by the Alzheimer's Association. She has specific interests related to caregiver interventions and return to work outcome measures for patients with TBI. In addition to her research at the CTCN, Dr. O'Connor is the Director of Neuropsychology at the Bedford VAMC.
Dr. O'Connor's website
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Mike Rosenbloom, M.D.
Clinical Fellow

Dr. Rosenbloom completed his undergraduate education at Johns Hopkins University where he majored in neuroscience and first developed an appreciation of brain-behavioral interactions. He attended medical school at the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and subsequently his neurology residency at Mass General/Brigham and Women's Hospital. His initial interest in frontotemporal dementia and social cognition brought him to San Francisco where he spent one year studying with Dr. Bruce Miller at the UCSF Memory and Aging Center. His current research interests include FDG-PET and PIB imaging in focal presentations of Alzheimer's Disease, cholinergic systems and hallucinations in dementia with Lewy Bodies, and first clinical symptoms in patients with frontotemporal spectrum disorders.
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Nick Simmons-Stern
Student Research Assistant

Nick, a recent high school grad, is a summer research assistant in the CTCN and will be attending Yale University in the fall of 2008.
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John Smolinsky, Ph.D.
Investigator

Dr. Smolinsky is a clinical neuropsychologist on staff at the Bedford VA Hospital. He earned his doctorate from Suffolk University and completed an APA-approved internship and postdoctoral residency at the Bedford VA. John currently divides his time between performing a variety of clinical functions hospital wide and conducting research on memory and visual imagery in the CTCN. His interests include visual memory and aging and frontal lobe dysfunction.
Dr. Smolinsky's webpage
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Aishwarya Sreenivasan, M.S.
Research Assistant

Aish is working as a Research assistant at the CTCN and also at MGH. she holds a masters degree in Biomedical engineering from University of Wisconsin Madison. Her main interest are in modelling of physiological data and functional connectivity analysis of brain's default network. She plans to pursue further graduate study to complete a doctoral degree.
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