Research

The Maternal Brain Project seeks to understand the neural changes that occur during gestation and the transition to parenthood. In this project, we are studying individuals planning a pregnancy, their non-pregnant partners, and non-pregnant controls longitudinally across this transition, with sessions spanning pre-conception up to 1-year postpartum.

In a series of dense-sampling, multimodal brain imaging studies we are examining the extent to which fluctuations in sex steroid hormones across a complete reproductive cycle -28 days- alter intrinsic functional connectivity of brain networks. Next, using high resolution hippocampal subfield imaging we establish sex hormones’ ability to rapidly and dynamically shape medial temporal lobe morphology across the human menstrual cycle.

Midlife (ages 45-60) is an understudied critical period during which women undergo menopause, ovarian hormone production declines, and structural and functional changes within the brain’s memory circuitry first emerge. We launched the “Healthy Midlife Aging Study” at UCSB’s Brain Imaging Center to investigate cognitive function and associated neurophysiological activity of the brain in men and women during this uncharted decade.

​​​​​​​This project brings together an interdisciplinary team of experts in neuroscience, endocrinology, spatial cognition, and navigation. Combining fully immersive virtual environments and state-of-the-art brain imaging technologies, we are examining the effects of chronological and reproductive aging on spatial navigation ability and the neuronal systems that compute spatial information. 

In mouse models, reduced telomerase activity and telomere loss have widespread consequences on neurodegeneration, including restricted neurogenesis and atrophy of white matter tracts, but there is limited evidence linking TL to age-related grey and white matter deficits in humans.