Itamar Kahn
Columbia University, NY·Neuroscience
As people age, the brain's large-scale networks become less distinct from one another. Researchers measure this with system segregation, a score of how separate an individual's brain systems are.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Psychology
- Topics
brain networks
functional connectivity
connectome
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Jun 2029
What they work on
- Chart how brain network organization, especially system segregation, changes across the mouse lifespan by repeatedly scanning the same awake mice with resting-state fMRI from 3 to 21 months of age.
- Relate age-related network changes to memory, learning and sensory-motor behavior, and compare these relationships between male and female mice.
- Test whether network hubs causally maintain brain network integrity by making targeted hub lesions at younger and older ages and measuring network and behavioral effects.
More about the research
In humans, falling segregation goes along with worse memory. It also predicts Alzheimer's disease dementia beyond what brain shrinkage and pathology predict. Why networks change with age is unclear, and studying it requires animal models that parallel human brain imaging.
Why it matters
Age-related memory and thinking problems are linked to changes in brain network organization in humans. A mouse model that parallels human imaging could reveal what makes some brains vulnerable or resilient to decline. It could provide a way to test the mechanisms of cognitive decline in healthy aging and in diseases such as Alzheimer's.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Helen Kamens
Pennsylvania State University, PA·Neuroscience
Test whether baseline resting-state functional connectivity, measured by rsfMRI in awake male and female C57BL/6J mice, predicts how much morphine each mouse later drinks voluntarily.
Muriah D Wheelock
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Neuroscience
Compare the spatial and temporal patterns of brain development from birth to age three with patterns of aging and Alzheimer degeneration, using harmonized MRI datasets (eLABE, Baby Connectome Project, ADNI, SORTOUT-AB, HABS-HD) to test the 'first in last out' hypothesis.
Neil Harris
University of California-Los Angeles, CA·Neuroscience
Test how acute metabolic depression after TBI changes brain functional connectivity and reorganization over time in rats, using resting-state functional MRI with connectome analysis plus behavioral testing.
The school
Columbia University: 89 labs on PI Pages, $1.4B a year on research, 625 research doctorates a year.
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