The Kennedy Neuroimaging of Aging and Cognition (KNAC) lab is directed by Dr. Kristen Kennedy at the University of Texas at Dallas’ Center for Vital Longevity in the school of Behavioral and Brain Sciences. Numerous factors influence the aging of the brain and in part determine how well we are able to age cognitively. The KNAC lab is interested in the neural, genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that guide this process. Our research uses structural and functional neuroimaging techniques to investigate how the health of our brain’s structure supports the brain’s function and how these impact our cognitive performance as we age.
The lab’s currently funded research projects involve an R01 from NIH investigating (a) the role of white matter in the reorganization of age-related brain function using structural and functional imaging techniques; (b) over three longitudinal data waves, how changes in brain structure influence changes in brain function; (3) dopaminergic and neuroplastic influences on cognitive and brain changes. We are interested in understanding how the brain changes with age, both adaptively, and detrimentally, and how this knowledge might be used to stave off cognitive decline.
A second grant funded project is an R21 from NIH utilizing large datasets and machine learning and geospatial tools to determine whether environmental spatial complexity is associated with cross-sectional diagnosis of healthy, MCI or AD status, and longitudinally associated with onset of progression of diagnosis status.
Keywords: neural, genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that affect normal aging, brain mapping, white matter, MRI techniques, age-related brain reorganization, spatial cognition, Alzheimer’s Disease.
Lab News and Announcements
Selected Publications
Yuan, M., Kennedy, K. M. (2023). Utility of environmental complexity as a predictor of Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis: A big-data machine learning approach. Journal of Prevention of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2(10), 223-235. http://dx.doi.org/10.14283/jpad.2023.18.
Boylan, M. A., Pongpipat, E. E., Foster, C. M., Webb, C. E., Rodrigue, K. M., Kennedy, K. M. (2020). Greater BOLD Variability is Associated with Poorer Cognitive Function in an Adult Lifespan Sample. Cerebral Cortex, 31(1), 562–574. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhaa243.
Miranda, G. G., Rodrigue, K. M., Kennedy, K. M. (2021). Cortical thickness mediates the relationship between DRD2 C957T polymorphism and executive function across the adult lifespan. Brain Structure and Function, 226 (1), 121–136. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00429-020-02169-5
Webb, C. E., Hoagey, D. A., Foster, C. M., Rodrigue, K. M., Kennedy, K. M. (2020). Contributions of White Matter Connectivity and BOLD Modulation to Cognitive Aging: A Lifespan Structure-Function Association Study. Cerebral Cortex, 30, 3, 1649-1661. https://doi.org/10.1093/cercor/bhz193.
Hoagey, D. A., Rieck, J. R., Rodrigue, K. M., Kennedy, K. M. (2019). Joint contributions of cortical morphometry and white matter microstructure in healthy brain aging: A partial least squares correlation analysis. Human Brain Mapping, (40) 18, 5315-5329. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbm.24774 .