Maria Natasha Rajah, PhD

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Contact

 maria.rajah@mcgill.ca

 

6875 Boulevard LaSalle
Montréal, QC
H4H 1R3

 Bureau:GH-2114, Brain Imaging Centre

Professeure titulaire, Département de psychiatrie, Université McGill
Membre associée, Département de psychologie, Université McGill
Chaire de recherche, Sexe et genre, Institut des neurosciences, de la santé mentale et des toxicomanies, IRSC

Nom du laboratoire: Neuroscience cognitive de la mémoire, du vieillissement et de la prévention de la démence

 

Mon laboratoire mène des recherches sur le sexe et le genre dans les neurosciences cognitives de la mémoire, du vieillissement et de la prévention de la démence. Les objectifs de notre programme de recherche sont d’identifier les facteurs biologiques, environnementaux et sociétaux qui soutiennent le maintien de la mémoire normative et de la fonction cérébrale chez les femmes et les hommes de divers horizons tout au long de la vie adulte, et de déterminer quels facteurs conduisent à plus de femmes que d’hommes à développer Maladie d’Alzheimer (MA) sporadique d’apparition tardive. Pour atteindre ces objectifs, nous utilisons l’expérimentation comportementale en combinaison avec l’imagerie par résonance magnétique (IRM) multimodale, les mesures démographiques, neuropsychologiques, psychosociales, physiologiques, hormonales et génétiques chez les adultes jeunes, d’âge moyen et plus âgés, avec et sans facteurs de risque connus pour AD (c’est-à-dire ayant des antécédents familiaux d’AD (+FH) ou un allèle de l’apolipoprotéine E e4 (+APOEe4)), et appliquer des méthodes statistiques multivariées et d’apprentissage automatique à ces données pour :

  1. Développer des modèles de réseaux neuronaux à grande échelle plus représentatifs et généralisables de la mémoire et du vieillissement cérébral chez les femmes et les hommes de divers milieux socioculturels et ethniques.
  2. Identifier les facteurs biologiques, démographiques, psychosociaux et systémiques qui soutiennent ou entravent la santé et la résilience de ces réseaux cérébraux liés à la mémoire et à la cognition tout au long de la vie adulte, en mettant l’accent sur la quarantaine.
  3. Faire progresser les théories actuelles sur la réserve cognitive, la résilience cérébrale et la compensation dans le vieillissement neurocognitif sain et pathologique qui tiennent compte du sexe, du genre et de la diversité de notre population vieillissante.

L’objectif à long terme de notre programme de recherche est de soutenir la création de nouvelles approches et politiques thérapeutiques qui aident à optimiser la santé cérébrale et la fonction de la mémoire chez les femmes et les hommes, dès la quarantaine ; et ainsi, prévenir ou retarder l’apparition du déclin de la mémoire lié à l’âge et à la MA et promouvoir une meilleure qualité de vie pour les adultes plus âgés.

Dr. M. Natasha Rajah received her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from the University of Toronto in 2003 and did her post-doctoral training at U.C. Berkeley, 2003-2005. She joined the Douglas Institute in 2005 as Assistant Professor at the Department of Psychiatry. She has been awarded several awards and honours including: the CIHR New Investigator Salary Award (2007-2012), FRQ-S Junior 2 Research Scholar Award in (2012-2016), Haile T. Debas Prize (2019), and CIHR Chair in Sex & Gender Research in Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction (2020-2024). She served as the inaugural Director of the Douglas Brain Imaging Centre (BIC)  from July 2011-December 2020. She currently serves as Chair of Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) at the Douglas Research Centre; Co-Chair of EDI and The Chair of Memberships at the Canadian Consortium for Neurodegeneration and Aging (CCNA); Board of Directors of the Canadian Association of Neuroscience (CAN), and Board of Advisors for the Women in Cognitive Science Society Canada (WiCSC).  She is a Senior Editor at Brain Research, Associate Editor at Psychological Science and Editor-in-Chief at Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition.

  1. Sex and Gender Chair in Neuroscience, Mental Health & Addiction, Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR), April 2020-2024
  2. Haile T. Debas Prize for Promoting Equitable Diversity, Faculty of Medicine, McGill University, May 2019
  3. Mentorship Award, Women in Cognitive Science Canada, May 2019
  4. Elected Member, Memory Disorders Research Society (MDRS) http://clm.utexas.edu/mdrs/, April 2019
  5. Fonds de Recherche du Québec – Santé (FRQ-S), Junior 2 Salary Award, 2013-2015
  6. John R. & Clara M. Fraser Memorial Award, 2012-2013
  7. Selected for “Top 50 under 50” by Quebec Science Magazine, 2012
  8. Canadian Institute of Health Research (CIHR), New Investigator Salary Award, 2007-2012
  9. Fonds de la Recherche en Santé Québec (FRSQ), Junior 1 Salary Award, 2007-2010
  10. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship (PDF), 2002-2004
  11. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship (PGS B), 2000-2002
  12. Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council Postgraduate Scholarship (PGS A), 1998-2000
  13. Travel Award, Organization for Human Brain Mapping, 2000

Équipe actuelle

Chercheur·e·s postdoctoraux·ales

  • Dr. Annalise LaPlume, Ph.D. 2021- présent
  • Dr. Rikki Lissaman, Ph.D.  2022 – présent

Étudiant·e·s gradué·e·s

  • Abdel Halim Elshiekh, Ph.D. Student, IPN Program
  • Jamie Snytte, Ph.D. Clinical Student, Psychology Program
  • Alicia Duval, Ph.D. Clinical Student, Psychology Program
  • Arielle Crestol, M.Sc. Student, IPN Program
  • Sophia LoParco, M.Sc. Student, IPN Program
  • Gabriella Vélez Largo, M.Sc. Student, IPN Program

Étudiant·e·s de premier cycle

  • Bronwen Lathrop, Departments of Cognitive Science & Psychology
  • Lucie Russell, Departments of Cognitive Science & Psychology
  • Meaghan Smith, Departments of Cognitive Science & Psychology

Assistant·e·s de recherche

  • Stamatoula Pasvanis, Full-time (2014 – current)
  • SriCharana Rajagopal, Full-time (2020 – current)
  • Houman Azizi, Research Assistant, Full-time (2021 – current)
  • Oceane Bellon, Research Assistant, Part-time (2021 – current)
  • Alexandra Condescu, Research Assistant, Part-time (2022 – current)

 

Alumni

Ancien·ne·s assistant·e·s de recherche

  • Lina Khayyat
  • Rosalie Young
  • Maria del Pilar Fajardo
  • Angela Potes
  • Luc Valiquette, M.A. (now a Conseil multidisciplinaire at Louis-H. Lafontaine)
  • Rafael Languay (now a Pharmacy student at Université de Montreal)
  • Claire Han (now an IPN graduate student with Jorge Armony)
  • Lauren Crawford (now applying for medical school)
  • Sidney Pinto (now an HR manager)

Ancien·ne·s étudiant·e·s

  • Sivaniya Subramaniapilla, Ph.D. Student, IPN (now a Posdoctoral Researcher at MILA with Dr. Bzdok)
  • Crystal Yang, Undergraduate Honour Student (now completing her B.Sc. at McGill University)
  • Sheida Rabipour, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Researcher (now a Consultant at McKinsey & Company)
  • Elizabeth Ankudowich, Ph.D. Student, IPN (now Grants Officer, NIH)
  • Lyssa Manning, M.Sc. Student, IPN (now RA with Dr. R. Sperling, Harvard University)
  • Rachel Hum, Undergraduate Volunteer (now in Chiropractor’s College)
  • Kiera Hooper, Undergraduate Honour Student (now completing her B.Sc. at McGill University)
  • Lesley Wu, Undergraduate Honours Student (now applying to graduate school)
  • Daniel Davies, Undergraduate Honours Student (now in Medical School, U. of Toronto)
  • David Maillet, Ph.D. (now a Post-doc at Rotman Research Institute)
  • Karina Borja, M.Sc. (now Ph.D. student at Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience)
  • Dave Crane, M.Sc. (now a MRI scientist, Sunnybrook Hospital)
  • Renee Gordon, Post-doc (now Medical Writer, New Zealand)
  • Michelle Kromas, Undergraduate Student (now a medical student)
  • Diana Kwon, M.Sc., (now a Scientific Writer, Chicago, USA)
  • Alexander Swierkot, M.Sc. (now in Medical school, McGill University)
  • Lindsay Wallace, M.Sc. (now Ph.D. student at Dalhousie University)
  • Jackie Lam, Undergraduate Student (applying to graduate school)
  • Hannah Restle, Undergraduate Student (applying for graduate school)
  • Idil Kilinc, Undergraduate Student (applying for clinical psychology programs)

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Publications clés

 

  1. Rabipour, S., Rajagopal, S., Pasvanis, S., and Rajah, M.N. (2021). Generalization of memory-related brain function in asymptomatic older women with a family history of late onset Alzheimer’s Disease: Results from the PREVENT-AD Cohort. Neurobiology of Aging 104, 42–56.. doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.03.009
  2. Corriveau-Lecavalier, N., Rajah, M.N., Mellah, and  S., Belleville, S. (2021). Latent patterns of task-related functional connectivity in relation to regions of hyperactivation in individuals at risk of Alzheimer’s disease. NeuroImage: Clinical 30, 102643.. doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102643
  3. Subramaniapillai, S., Rajagopal, S., Snytte, J., Otto, A.R., Einstein, G., and Rajah, M.N. (2021). Sex differences in brain aging among adults with family history of Alzheimer’s disease and APOE4 genetic risk. NeuroImage: Clinical 30, 102620.. doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2021.102620
  4. Snytte, J., Elshiekh, A., Subramaniapillai, S.,Manning, L., Pasvanis, S.,  Devenyi, G., Olsen, R.K. and  M. N. Rajah (2020). The ratio of posterior-anterior medial temporal lobe volumes predicts source memory performance in healthy young adults. Hippocampus, published online first, 1-19, DOI: 10.1002/hipo.23251.
  5. Elshiekh, A., Subramaniapillai, S, Rajagopal, S., Pasvanis, S., Ankudowich, E. A. and M. N. Rajah (2020). The association between cognitive reserve and performance-related brain activity during episodic encoding and retrieval across the adult lifespan. Cortex, 129, 296-313. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cortex.2020.05.003.
  6. Rabipour, S., Rajagopal, S., Yu, E., Pasvanis, S., Lafaille-Magnan, M.E., Breitner, J., PREVENT-AD Group, and Rajah, M.N. (2020). APOE4 status is related to differences in memory-related brain function in asymptomatic older adults with family history of Alzheimer’s disease: Baseline analysis of the PREVENT-AD task fMRI dataset. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 76 (1), 97-119.
  7. Subramaniapillai, S., Rajagopal, S., Elshiekh, A., Pasvanis, S., Ankudowich, E. A. and Rajah, M. N. (2019). The neural correlates of age-related spatial context memory decline differ in women, compared to men. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 31 (12), 1895-1916.
  8. Ankudowich,E., Pasvanis,S. ,& Rajah,M.N. (2018).Age-related differences in prefrontal-hippocampal connectivity are associated with reduced spatial context memory. Psychology and Aging, 34 (2), 251-261.
  9. Cabeza, R., Albert, M., Belleville, S., Craik, F., Duarte, A., Grady, C. L., Lindenberger, U., Nyberg, L, Park, D., Reuter-Lorenz, P. A., Rugg, M. D., Steffener, J., and M. N. Rajah (2018). Maintenance, reserve, and compensation: the cognitive neuroscience of healthy ageing. Nature Reviews: Neuroscience, 19 (11), 701-710.
  10. Rajah, M. N. , Wallace, L., Manning, L., Patel, R., Yu, E., Swierkot, A., Ankudowich, E., Naumova, D., Pruessner, J., Joober, R., Gauthier, S. & Pasvanis, S., (2017). The impact of AD risk-factors on the neural correlates of spatial context memory at midlife.  Neuroimage: Clinical, 14, 760-777.
  11. Ankudowich, E., Pasvanis, S. & Rajah, M. N. (2017). Changes in the correlation between spatial and temporal source memory performance and BOLD activity across the adult lifespan. Cortex, Special Issue “Cognitive Neuroscience of Source Memory” edited by K. Mitchell & S.E. MacPherson, 91, 234-249.
  12. Ankudowich, E., Pasvanis, S. & Rajah, M. N. (2016) Changes in the modulation of brain activity during context encoding vs. context retrieval across the adult lifespan. Neuroimage, 139, 103-113.
  13. Maillet, D., & Rajah, M. N. (2016). Assessing the neural correlates of task-unrelated thoughts during episodic encoding and their association with subsequent memory in young and older adults. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 28 (6), 826-841.
  14. Kwon, D.*, Maillet, D.*, Pasvanis, S., Ankudowich, E., Grady, C. L. & Rajah, M. N.* (2016). Context memory decline in middle aged adults is related to changes in prefrontal cortex function. Cerebral Cortex, 26(6), 2440-2460. *Authors contributed equivalently to the writing of this manuscript.
  15. Maillet, D. & Rajah, M. N. (2014). Age-related differences in brain activity in the subsequent memory paradigm: A meta-analysis. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 45, 246-57.
  16. Rajah, M. N., Languay, R.  and Grady C.L. (2011). Age-related changes in right middle frontal gyrus volumes and its impact on retrieval-related activity and retrieval accuracy. Journal of Neuroscience, 31(49), 17941-54.
  17. Rajah, M. N., Languay, R., and Valiquette, L. (2010) Age-related changes in prefrontal cortex activity are associated with behavioural deficits in both temporal and spatial context memory retrieval in older adults. Cortex, 46, 535-549.
  18. Rajah, M. N., and D’Esposito, M. (2005). Region specific changes in prefrontal function with age: a review of PET and fMRI aging studies on working memory and episodic memory. Brain, 128:1964-83.