UK Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology

Faculty Research

BRIAN T. GOLD, Ph.D.
Ph.D., York University (1999)
Postdoctoral training at University of Western Ontario and Washington University
Associate Professor of Anatomy and Neurobiology
Lab webpage

Research Interests:  Cognitive Neuroscience

My research seeks to understand the neural bases of core cognitive processes in young adults and how this organization changes as a result of aging and mild dementia. We have been pursuing 4 main lines of research: (1) the neural bases of language processes that allow us to recognize visual words; (2) cognitive control processes/structures that allow us to flexibly alternate between multiple tasks (3) how the cognitive/neural organization of these processes changes differently with normal aging and mild Alzheimer’s disease.

A multimodal imaging approach is employed, making use of fMRI, and structural imaging methods (volumetric and DTI). Combining data from these different imaging modalities allows us to better characterize subtle neurobiological vulnerabilities in the living brain that may differentiate healthy from unhealthy aging.

Some Recent Publications

Gold BT, Powell DK, Andersen AH, Smith CD (2010). Alterations in multiple measures of white matter integrity in normal women at high risk for Alzheimer's disease. Neuroimage 52:1487-1494.

Gold BT, Jiang Y, Jicha GA, & Smith CD (2010). Functional response in ventral temporal cortex differentiates mild cognitive impairment from normal aging. Human Brain Mapping 31: 1249-1259.

Smith CD, Chebrolu H, Andersen AH, Powell DA, Lovell MA, Xiong S, & Gold BT (2010). White matter diffusion alterations in normal women at risk of Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiology of Aging 31: 1122-1131.

Martin SB, Smith CD, Collins HR, Schmitt FA, & Gold BT (2010). Evidence that volume of anterior medial temporal lobe is reduced in seniors destined for mild cognitive impairment. Neurobiology of Aging 31: 1099-1106.

Gold BT, Powell DK, Xuan L, Jicha GA, & Smith CD (2010). Age-related slowing of task switching is associated with decreased integrity of frontoparietal white matter. Neurobiology of Aging 31: 512-522.

Gold BT, Andersen AH, Jicha GA, & Smith CD (2009). Aging influences the neural correlates of lexical decision but not automatic semantic priming. Cerebral Cortex 19: 2671-2679.

Gold BT & Rastle K (2007). Neural correlates of morphological decomposition during visual word recognition. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience 19: 1983-1993.

Gold BT, Powell, DK, Xuan L, Jiang Y, & Hardy, PA. (2007). Speed of lexical decision correlates with diffusion anisotropy in left parietal and frontal white matter:  evidence from diffusion tensor imaging.  Neuropsychologia 45: 2439-2446.

Gold BT, Balota DA, Jones SJ, Powell DK, Smith CD, & Andersen AH (2006). Dissociation of automatic and strategic lexical-semantics: Functional magnetic resonance imaging evidence for differing roles of multiple frontotemporal regions. The Journal of Neuroscience 26: 6523-6532.

e-mail: Brian.Gold@uky.edu
phone: (859) 323-4813
fax: (859) 323-5946