explore and define brain disorders

Susan Bookheimer

Susan Bookheimer's lab uses functional MRI to understand how memory, language and social cognition are represented in the human brain in health and disease. Current projects take a longitudinal approach examining brain developmental from early childhood through late life. Students in the lab generally focus on one of several distinct research domains: aging and Alzheimer’s risk; child and adolescent brain development and social cognition/autism; and mapping language and memory organization surgical candidates (epilepsy, brain tumors, and vascular malformations). Because the lab is participating several very large scale data acquisition studies (Human Connectome Lifespan Projects: Aging and Development; Adolescent Brain and Cognitive Development (ABCD), they have access to very large normative MRI, biomarker and behavioral datasets for mining. uses imaging technologies, particularly functional and structural magnetic resonance images, PET scans, and intraoperative electrocortical stimulation mapping, to explore and define how disorders such as autism, Asperger’s, dyslexia, epilepsy and Alzheimer’s affect brain function and structure.

Recent Publications

Lawrence KE, Hernandez LM, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. Atypical longitudinal development of functional connectivity in adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Autism Res. 2018 Oct 30. doi: 10.1002/aur.1971. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 30375176

Burggren AC, Siddarth P, Mahmood Z, London ED, Harrison TM, Merrill DA, Small GW, Bookheimer SY. Subregional Hippocampal Thickness Abnormalities in Older Adults with a History of Heavy Cannabis Use. Cannabis Cannabinoid Res. 2018 Dec 10;3(1):242-251. doi: 10.1089/can.2018.0035. eCollection 2018.

Bookheimer SY, Salat DH, Terpstra M, Ances BM, Barch DM, Buckner RL, Burgess GC, Curtiss SW, Diaz-Santos M, Elam JS, Fischl B, Greve DN, Hagy HA, Harms MP, Hatch OM, Hedden T, Hodge C, Japardi KC, Kuhn TP, Ly TK, Smith SM, Somerville LH, Uğurbil K, van der Kouwe A, Van Essen D, Woods RP, Yacoub E. The Lifespan Human Connectome Project in Aging: An overview. Neuroimage. 2018 Oct 15;185:335-348. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.10.009. [Epub ahead of print] PMID: 30332613

Harrison TM, McLaren DG, Moody TD, Feusner JD, Bookheimer, SY. Generalized Psychophysiological Interaction (PPI) Analysis of Memory Related Connectivity in Individuals at Genetic Risk for Alzheimer’s Disease J Vis Exp. 2017 Nov 14;(129). doi: 10.3791/55394.

Chivukula Srinivas, Pikul BK, Black KL, Bookheimer SY. Contralateral Functional Reorganization of the Speech Supplementary Motor Area Following Neurosurgical Tumor Resection. Brain and Language. 2018 Aug;183:41-46. doi: 10.1016/j.bandl.2018.05.006. Epub 2018 May 18.

Harrison TM, Bookheimer SY. Neuroimaging genetic risk for Alzheimer's disease in preclinical individuals: From candidate genes to polygenic approaches. Biol Psychiatry Cogn Neurosci Neuroimaging. 2016 Jan 1;1(1):14-23. PubMed PMID: 26858991; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4743051

Hernandez LM, Krasileva K, Green SA, Sherman LE, Ponting C, McCarron R, Lowe JK, Geschwind DH, Bookheimer SY, Dapretto M. Additive effects of oxytocin receptor gene polymorphisms on reward circuitry in youth with autism. Mol Psychiatry. 2017 Aug;22(8):1134-1139. doi: 10.1038/mp.2016.209. PubMed PMID: 27843152.

Połczyńska MM, Japardi K, Bookheimer SY. Lateralizing language function with pre-operative functional magnetic resonance imaging in early proficient bilingual patients. Brain Lang. 2017 Mar 23;170:1-11.