Foldi, Nancy, Ph.D.

Professor

Education: Ph.D. Clark University (Clinical Psychology)

Email: nancy.foldi@qc.cuny.edu
Office: NSB A348
Telephone: 718-997-3253

Lab: NSB E 305/7/9/11
Telephone: 718-997-3256

Ph.D. Courses:
PSYC 70341 Externship in Clinical Neuropsychology
PSYC 76101 Neuropsychological Assessment
PSYC 79130 Seminar: Aging and Dementia
PSYC 81700 Survey of Clinical Neuropsychology

Undergraduate Courses:
Psych 221 Psychopathology

Selected Publications:
Foldi, N.S., Schaefer, L.A., White, R.E.C., Johnson, R. Jr., Berger, J.T., Carney, M.T., Macina, L.O. In press. Effects of graded levels of physical similarity and density in visual selective attention in Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropsychology.

Foldi, N.S., Helm-Estabrooks, N., Redfield, J. & Nickel, D.G. (2003). Perseveration in normal aging: a comparison of perseveration rates on design fluency and verbal generative tasks. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 10 (4), 268-280.

Foldi, N.S., Brickman, A.M., Schaefer, L.A., Knutelska, M.E. (2003). Distinct serial position profiles and neuropsychological measures differentiate late life depression from normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Psychiatry Research, 120(1), 71-84. (Corrigendum, Psychiatry Research, volume 120(3), pp 295).

Zgaljardic, D.J., Borod, J.C., Foldi, N.S. & Mattis, P. (2003). A review of the cognitive and behavioral sequelae of Parkinson’s disease: Perspectives from multiple systems. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology.16 (4), 193-210.

Research Summary:
Our aim is to understand changes in brain-behavior relationships occurring in late life, with particular interest in the effect of aging on attentional mechanisms. Selective attention, divided and covert attention are processes that selectively filter out visual noise, focus on salient stimuli in the environment or direct allocation of our limited attentional resources. In late life as well as in disease these higher load cognitive mechanisms are at risk. The result are deficits that disrupt many cognitive memory and linguistic abilities, and that affect many critical daily activities. To address changes in mechanisms we are using several models. One, is conducting studies in normal aging contrasting young, old and very old (over 90 year old) healthy persons. Alzheimer’s disease provides another model; here the disease impairs processes that would otherwise guide and benefit that top-down processing, providing a way to investigate the effect of inefficient strategies. Similarly, in geriatric depression and vascular disease, the effects of limited capacity are evident. Lastly, we are conducting studies on the effects of drug treatment currently used in Alzheimer’s dementia: the attentional dysfunctions in Alzheimer’s disease, other dementias, and depression are being investigated to address the response to acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in.

Ph.D. Students:
Lillian Kaplan
Jenny Ly
Olga Nikelshpur
Philip Watson
Kathleen Van Dyk

Masters Students:

Undergraduate Students:
Georgina Damjanac
Bibi Razack