Sherif Karama
6875 Boulevard Lasalle
Montréal, QC
H4H 1R3
Assistant Professor
MD PhD FRCP(C)
Genetic and environmental effects on brain development across the lifespan and corollary impacts on cognition
Research in the lab focuses on gaining a better understanding of the respective impacts that genes, environment, and their interaction have on brain development and the corollary consequences that these impacts can have on cognitive ability differences.
Examples of currently pursued work:
*Examinations of associations between brain structure and cognitive ability
*Examinations of associations between cigarette smoking and brain cortical thickness
*Examinations of association between corticosteroid levels and brain structure
*Examinations of the interplay between genes and early child environment on brain development
Over the years, we developed multiple local and international collaborations that allowed us to conduct research on large datasets. For instance, in collaboration with Edinburgh University, we work on the Lothian Birth Cohort of 1936 for which cognitive ability at age 11 and exhaustive genetic, behavioral, physiological, morphometric, and brain imaging data at ages 73 and 77 are available for more than 600 subjects. In collaboration with Dr. Michael Meaney, we have recently set up a new wave of data acquisition on the Maternal Adversity, Vulnerability and Neurodevelopment (MAVAN) cohort using multimodal brain imaging (i.e. structural, diffusion-weighted, and resting state fMRI).
2009 Karama S., Ad-Dab’bagh Y., Haier R., Deary I., Evans A. and The Brain Development Cooperative Group. Positive association between cognitive ability and cortical thickness in a representative US sample of healthy 6 to 18 year-olds. INTELLIGENCE, vol 37 (2), 145-155.
2011 Karama S., Colom R., Johnson W., Deary I.J., Haier R., Waber D.P., Lepage C., Ganjavi H., Jung R., Evans A.C., the Brain Development Cooperative Group. Cortical thickness correlates of specific cognitive performance accounted for by the general factor of intelligence in healthy children aged 6 to 18. NEUROIMAGE, 55(4):1443-1453.
2011 Ducharme S. , Hudziak J. J. , Botteron, K. N., Ganjavi H., Lepage C., Collins L., Albaugh M. D., Evans A. C., Karama S.*, the Brain Development Cooperative Group. Right Anterior Cingulate Cortical Thickness and Bilateral Striatal Volume Correlate with CBCL Aggressive Behavior Scores in Healthy Children. BIOLOGICAL PSYCHIATRY, 70(3):283-290
2011 Ganjavi H., Lewis J., Bellec P., MacDonald P., Waber D., Evans A.C., Karama S.*, the Brain Development Cooperative Group. Negative Association Between Corpus Callosum Midsagittal Area and IQ in a Representative Sample of Healthy Children and Adolescents. PLoS ONE, 6(5):e19698
2012 Colom R., Quiroga À, Solana A.B., Burgaleta M., Román F. R., , Privado J., Escorial S., Martínez K., Álvarez-Linera J., Alfayate E., García F., Lepage C., Hernández-Tamames J.A., Karama S. Structural changes after videogame practice related to a brain network associated with intelligence. Intelligence, 40(5):479-489.
2013 Nguyen T.-V., McCracken J., Ducharme S., Botteron K.N., Mahabir M., Israël M., Evans A.C., Karama S.*, Brain Development Cooperative Group. Testosterone-related cortical maturation across childhood and adolescence. Cerebral Cortex, 23(6): 1424-1432.
2013 Karama S. and Evans A.C. Neural correlates of ADHD in adulthood. Biological Psychiatry, 74(8):558-9
2013 Nguyen T.-V., McCracken J. T., Ducharme S., Cropp B.F., Botteron K.N.,
Evans A.C, Karama S.*Interactive Effects of DHEA and Testosterone on Cortical Thickness during Early Brain Development. Journal of Neuroscience. 33(26):10840-8.
2014 Ameis S.H., Ducharme S., Albaugh M.D., Hudziak J.J., Botteron K.N., Lepage C., Zhao L., Khundrakpam B., Collins D.L., Lerch J.P., and Wheeler A., Schachar R., Evans A.C., Karama S.* Cortical Thickness, Cortico-Amygdalar Networks, and Externalizing Behaviors in Healthy Children. Biological Psychiatry, 75(1):65-72.
2014 Karama S., Bastin M.E., Murray C., Royle N.A., Penke L., Muñoz Maniega S.,Gow A.J., Corley J., del C. Valdés Hernández M., Lewis J.D., Rousseau M.-É., Lepage C., Fonov V., Collins D.L., Booth T., Rioux P., Sherif T., Adalat R., Starr J.M., Evans A.C., Wardlaw J.M., Deary I.J. Childhood cognitive ability accounts for associations between cognitive ability and brain cortical thickness in old age. Molecular Psychiatry, 19: 555-559.
*Reached No1 position in Nature-Molecular Psychiatry list of top ten downloads within the previous 30 days
2014 Ducharme S., Albaugh M.D., Hudziak J.J., Botteron K.N., NguyenT.-V., Truong C., Evans A.C., Karama S.*Anxious/depressed symptoms are linked to right ventromedial prefrontal cortical thickness maturation in healthy children and young adults. Cerebral Cortex, 24(11):2941-50
2014 Burgaleta M. Johnson W., Waber D., Colom R., Karama S.* Cognitive ability changes and dynamics of cortical thickness development in healthy children and adolescents. NeuroImage, 84:810-819.
In press Karama S, Ducharme S, Corley J, Starr JM, Wardlaw JM, Bastin ME, Deary IJ.Cigarette Smoking and Thinning of the Brain’s Cortex. Molecular Psychiatry
*Reached No1 position in Nature-Molecular Psychiatry list of top ten downloads within the previous 30 days
1998-1999 Invited scholar, Harvard University
2002 MD, Faculty of Medicine, Université de Montréal
2003-2004 Fellowship, Genetics of Executive Functions, Douglas Mental Health
University Institute, McGill University
2002-2008 Postgraduate Psychiatry Residency, Department of Psychiatry, McGill University
2008-2012 Postdoctoral Fellowship (i.e. post MD), McConnell Brain Imaging Center,
McGill University
2014 PhD, Neuroscience, Université de Montréal, Characterization of the Neural
Substrate Involved in Processing Emotional Dynamic Visual Stimuli: Study by
Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging
Recent awards:
2012-2016 FRSQ – Chercheur Boursier Clinicien
2015 Prix de jeune chercheur– Collège Canadien de Neuropsychopharmacologie
In the news
Recent Publications
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Role of DHEA and cortisol in prefrontal-amygdalar development and working memory. Psychoneuroendocrinology. 2018;98:86-94.
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Widespread associations between trait conscientiousness and thickness of brain cortical regions. Neuroimage. 2018;176:22-28.
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Mediterranean-type diet and brain structural change from 73 to 76 years in a Scottish cohort. Neurology. 2017;88(5):449-455.
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Enhanced structural connectivity within a brain sub-network supporting working memory and engagement processes after cognitive training. Neurobiol Learn Mem. 2017;141:33-43.
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Imaging structural covariance in the development of intelligence. Neuroimage. 2017;144(Pt A):227-240.
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Understanding brain development: a major step. Lancet Neurol. 2017;16(3):178-179.
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Associations between education and brain structure at age 73 years, adjusted for age 11 IQ. Neurology. 2016;87(17):1820-1826.
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Gray matter responsiveness to adaptive working memory training: a surface-based morphometry study. Brain Struct Funct. 2016;221(9):4369-4382.
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Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis of Transient Fetal Compartments during Prenatal Human Brain Development. Front Neuroanat. 2016;10:11.
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Effects of Sex Steroids in the Human Brain. Mol Neurobiol. 2016.
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Trajectories of cortical surface area and cortical volume maturation in normal brain development. Data Brief. 2015;5:929-38.
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Cortical Structural Connectivity Alterations in Primary Insomnia: Insights from MRI-Based Morphometric Correlation Analysis. Biomed Res Int. 2015;2015:817595.
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Structural insights into aberrant cortical morphometry and network organization in psychogenic erectile dysfunction. Hum Brain Mapp. 2015;36(11):4469-82.
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Beyond a bigger brain: Multivariable structural brain imaging and intelligence. Intelligence. 2015;51:47-56.
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Aberrant Topological Patterns of Structural Cortical Networks in Psychogenic Erectile Dysfunction. Front Hum Neurosci. 2015;9:675.
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The maternal adversity, vulnerability and neurodevelopment project: theory and methodology. Can J Psychiatry. 2014;59(9):497-508.
