Lab Director

  • Jason Jason Steffener

    Associate Professor

    A neuroscientist focused on understanding how some older adults have maintained cognitive performance into late life and why some others are not as fortunate. He combines imaging of brain function and structure, cognitive tasks adapted for each individual and measures of individual differences in how everyone lives and has lived their lives. His approaches use distributed computational power applied to statistical and mathematical models of how advancing age, the brain's structure, the brain's blood flow and how the brain functions to understand cognitive performance.

Graduate Students

  • Dylan Dylan Franklin

    PhD Student

    Dylan is particularly interested in the cognitive changes of aging. Specifically, his PhD is focused on understanding the impact positive and negative emotional affect may have on the working memory abilities of younger and older adults, and how this association may be mediated by cognitive reserve. The neural mechanisms of working memory and cognitive reserve will be assessed using structural and functional brain imaging techniques at the Royal Ottawa Mental Health Centre.

Undergraduate Students

  • Maryse Maryse Gad

    Undergraduate Student
    Maryse is conducting her honor's thesis project in the lab and will focus on understanding the age related effects on verbal working memory.

  • Meghan Meghan Lau

    Undergraduate Student
    Meghan is conducting her honor's thesis project in the lab and will focus on understanding the age related effects on spatial working memory.

  • Yara Yara Yakoub

    Undergraduate Student
    Yara is conducting her honor's thesis project in the lab and will focus on understanding the neural functioning in adults with self-reported cognitive decline.

Alumni