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My research integrates perspectives from gerontology, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience in order to understand how stress impacts cognitive processing across adulthood and how these stress effects are modulated by sex.
Stressful experiences are exceedingly common in our everyday life and many researchers have found that acute stress can alter brain activation and behavior. Most of the human studies on this topic have investigated stress effects on memory in young adults. Acute stress can also impact brain regions involved in decision making and an emerging literature indicates that both age and sex modulate stress effects on cognition. Presently, it is unclear how age and sex modulate stress effects on decision making. My research aims to fill this gap in the literature on stress and cognition. Specifically, my studies examine how acute stress affects decision making about risk and reward by measuring stress and sex hormones, physiological arousal, behavior and brain activation.
Through this program of study, I hope to help us understand more about the mechanisms involved in making decisions about risk and reward.
Lighthall, NR, Mather, M, & Gorlick, MA. (2009). Acute stress increases sex differences in risk seeking in the Balloon Analogue Risk Task. PLoS ONE. PDF Read online
Mather, M, Gorlick, MA, & Lighthall, NR. (2009). To brake or accelerate when the light turns yellow? Stress reduces older adults' risk taking in a driving game. Psychological Science, 20, 174-176. PDF Driving game available here
Kryla-Lighthall, N, & Mather, M. (2009). The role of cognitive control in older adults' emotional well-being. In Berngtson, V., Gans, D., Putney, N., & Silverstein, M. (Eds.), Handbook of Theories of Aging, 2nd Edition, Springer Publishing, 323-344. PDF
O’Hara, R, Schroder, CM, Kraemer, HC, Kryla, N, Cao, C, Miller, E, Schatzberg, AF, Yesavage, JA, & Murphy, GM. (2005). Nocturnal sleep apnea/hypopnea is associated with lower memory performance in APOE e4 carriers. Neurology, 65, 642-644. PDF
Lighthall, N, Sakaki, M, Vasunilashorn, S, Somayajula, S, Chen, E, Nga, L, & Mather, M. (2009). Sex differences in stress effects on brain activation and behavior during risk taking. Cognitive Neuroscience Society Annual Meeting. San Francisco, CA.
Lighthall, N, & Mather, M. (2008). Physiological response to the cold pressor task in younger and older adults. Gerontological Society of America Annual Meeting. National Harbor, MD.
Kryla-Lighthall, N, Gorlick, M, Granger, DA, & Mather, M. (2008). Stress and emotional memory: Two stress systems with different effects? Association for Psychological Science Annual Convention. Chicago, IL.
Kryla-Lighthall, N, Gorlick, M, & Mather, M. (2007). The ties that bind: The impact of stress on memory binding in aging. Summer Training on Aging Research Topics in Mental Health (START-MH) Fellowship Program. La Jolla, CA.
Schroder, CM, Kryla, N, Barilov, Y, & O’Hara, R. (2006). Interaction of sleep apnea, cortisol and APOE on cognition in older adults. International College of Geriatric Psychoneuropharmocology Annual Meeting. Hiroshima, Japan.
Kryla, N, O’Hara, R, Miller, T, Zernik, D, Kraemer, H, Yesavage, J, Schatzberg, A, Tinklenberg, J, & Murphy, G. (2003). Apolipoprotein E genotype moderates the impact of cortisol and DHEA on cognition in Alzheimer’s disease patients. Summer Training on Aging Research Topics in Mental Health (START-MH) Fellowship Program. La Jolla, California.
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Some Emotion and Cognition Lab members -- past and present
Left to right: Nichole Lighthall, Marisa Knight (University of San Francisco), Kaoru Nashiro, Marissa Gorlick (University of Texas, Austin), Mara Mather, Matthew Sutherland, Lin Nga
