Rate My Professor Cathryn McKenzie

McKenzie's research centers on cognitive ageing and dementia, with a focus on the relationships between brain health and cognition, and protective mechanisms including cognitive reserve and resilience. These factors are developed over a lifetime through activities that promote physical health, wellbeing, and mental stimulation, such as physical activity, social engagement, and acquiring new skills, thereby reducing the impact of brain pathology on cognitive function. She received the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference Travel Award in 2022. Her publications include "Self-reported mid- to late-life physical and recreational activities: Associations with late-life cognition" (Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2024), co-authored with B. E. Gavett et al.; "Tau and amyloid biomarkers modify the degree to which cognitive reserve and brain reserve predict cognitive decline" (Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 2023), from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative; "Residual reserve index modifies the effect of amyloid pathology on fluorodeoxyglucose metabolism: Implications for efficiency and capacity in cognitive reserve" (Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 2022); "Residual reserve index modifies the effect of amyloid pathology on FDG metabolism" (Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2022, conference paper); and "Cognitive reserve predicts future executive function decline in older adults with Alzheimer’s Disease pathology but not age-associated pathology" (2020). Additional research explores sleep disturbance's relation to cognition moderated by reserve (2019). McKenzie's integrated academic and clinical contributions advance knowledge in neuropsychology of ageing.