Gene E Alexander

Photo of Gene E Alexander

Gene E Alexander

Professor, Psychology
Professor, Psychiatry
Professor, Evelyn F Mcknight Brain Institute
Professor, Neuroscience - GIDP
Professor, Physiological Sciences - GIDP
Professor, BIO5 Institute
Primary Department
Psychology
Department Affiliations
BIO5 Institute
Contact
(520) 626-1704
gene.alexander@arizona.edu

Work Summary

My research focuses on advancing our understanding of how and why aging impacts the brain and associated cognitive abilities. I use neuroimaging scans of brain function and structure together with measures of cognition and health status to identify those factors that influence brain aging and the risk for Alzheimer's disease. My work also includes identifying how health and lifestyle interventions can help to delay or prevent the effects of brain aging and Alzheimer's disease.

Research Interest

Dr. Alexander is Professor in the Departments of Psychology and Psychiatry, the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute, and the Neuroscience and Physiological Sciences Graduate Interdisciplinary Programs of the University of Arizona. He is Director of the Brain Imaging, Behavior and Aging Lab, a member of the Internal Scientific Advisory Committee for the Arizona Alzheimer’s Consortium, and a member of the Scientific Advisory Board for the Arizona Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Institute. He received his post-doctoral training in neuroimaging and neuropsychology at Columbia University Medical Center and the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Prior to coming to Arizona, Dr. Alexander was Chief of the Neuropsychology Unit in the Laboratory of Neurosciences in the Intramural Research Program at the National Institute on Aging. Dr. Alexander has over 20 years experience as a neuroimaging and neuropsychology researcher in the study of aging and age-related neurodegenerative disease. He is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science and the American Psychological Association (Division 40) Society for Clinical Neuropsychology. His research has been supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Evelyn F. McKnight Brain Research Foundation, the State of Arizona, and the Alzheimer’s Association. He uses structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and positron emission tomography (PET) combined with measures of cognition and behavior to investigate the effects of multiple health and lifestyle factors on the brain changes associated with aging and the risk for Alzheimer’s disease. Keywords: "Aging/Age-Related Disease", "Brain Imaging", "Cognitive Neurosicence", "Alzheimer's Disease"

Publications

Furey, M. L., Pietrini, P., Alexander, G. E., Schapiro, M. B., & Horwitz, B. (2000). Cholinergic enhancement improves performance on working memory by modulating the functional activity in distinct brain regions: A positron emission tomography regional cerebral blood flow study in healthy humans. Brain Research Bulletin, 51(3), 213-218.

PMID: 10718513;Abstract:

Previously, we have shown that physostigmine, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, improved performance on a working memory for faces task, as reflected by reduced reaction time (RT), and reduced task-specific regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) in right prefrontal cortex and, further, that these reductions in RT and right frontal rCBF were significantly correlated. Here we investigated the relation between the effects of physostigmine on task performance and task-specific functional brain response throughout the cortex by examining correlations between physostigmine-related changes in rCBF in all brain areas and changes in RT. In subjects who received an infusion of physostigmine, reduced RT correlated (p 0.001) positively with reduced rCBF in right frontal cortex, left temporal cortex, anterior cingulate, and left hippocampus; and correlated with increased rCBF in medial occipital visual cortex. In subjects who received a placebo infusion of saline, no significant correlations between changes in RT and cortical rCBF were observed. The results show that cholinergically induced improvements in working memory performance are related to alterations in neural activity in multiple cortical regions, including increased neural activity in regions associated with early perceptual processing and decreased neural activity in regions associated with attention, memory encoding, and memory maintenance. Copyright (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Inc.

Raichlen, D. A., Klimentidis, Y., Hsu, C., & Alexander, G. E. (2017). Fractal complexity of daily physical activity patterns differs with age over the lifespan and predicts mortality in older adults. ..
BIO5 Collaborators
Gene E Alexander, Yann C Klimentidis
Nguyen, L. A., Bharadwaj, P. K., Haws, K. a., Fitzhugh, M. C., Hishaw, G. A., Trouard, T. P., & Alexander, G. E. (2017). Multimodal indices of white matter mediate the effects of aging on cognition. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society.
Smith, J. F., Braun, A. R., Alexander, G. E., Chen, K., & Horwitz, B. (2013). Separating lexical-semantic access from other mnemonic processes in picture-name verification. Front Psychol, 4, 706.
Alexander, G. E., Reiman, E. M., Webster, J. A., Myers, A. J., Hardy, J., Dunckley, T., Zismann, V. L., Joshipura, K. D., Pearson, J. V., Hu-Lince, D., Huentelman, M. J., Craig, D. W., Coon, K. D., Liang, W. S., Herbert, R. H., Beach, T., Rohrer, K. C., Zhao, A. S., Leung, D., & Bryden, L. (2007). GAB2 alleles modify Alzheimer's risk in APOE epsilon4 carriers.. Neuron.

;Your Role: Contributed to analysis, aspects of study design, and revision of manuscript.;Full Citation: Reiman, E.M., Webster, J.A., Myers, A.J., Hardy, J., Dunckley, T., Zismann, V.L., Joshipura, K.D., Pearson, J.V., Hu-Lince, D., Huentelman, M.J., Craig, D.W., Coon, K.D., Liang, W.S., Herbert, R.H., Beach, T., Rohrer, K.C., Zhao, A.S., Leung, D., Bryden, L., Marlowe, L., Kaleem, M., Mastroeni, D., Grover, A., Heward, C.B., Ravid, R., Rogers, J., Hutton, M.L., Melquist, S., Petersen, R.C., Alexander, G.E., Caselli, R.J., Kukull, W., Papassotiropoulos, A., Stephan, D.A. (2007). GAB2 alleles modify Alzheimer's risk in APOE epsilon4 carriers. Neuron, 54, 713-20.;Collaborative with faculty member at UA: Yes;

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