Brian Levine

Baycrest · Rotman Research Institute

Background and objective: The relationship between repeated concussions and neurodegenerative disease has received significant attention, particularly research in postmortem samples. Our objective was to characterise retired professional ice hockey players' cognitive and psychosocial functioning in relation to concussion exposure and apolipoprotei...

Individuals differ in how they mentally imagine past events. When reminiscing about a past experience, some individuals remember the event accompanied by rich visual images, while others will remember it with few of these images. In spite of the implications that these differences in the use of imagery have to the understanding of human memory, few...

People vary in how they remember the past: some recall richly detailed episodes; others more readily access the semantic features of events. The neural correlates of such trait-like differences in episodic and semantic remembering are unknown. We found that self-reported individual differences in how one recalls the past were related to predictable...

We investigated the neural correlates of remote traumatic reexperiencing in survivors of a life-threatening incident: the near crash of Air Transat (AT) Flight 236. Survivors’ brain activity was monitored during video-cued recollection of the AT disaster, September 11, 2001 (9/11), and a comparatively nonemotional (neutral) event. Passengers showed...

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with a range of neuropsychological deficits, including attention, memory, and executive functioning attributable to diffuse axonal injury with accompanying focal frontal and temporal damage. Although the memory deficit of TBI has been well characterized with laboratory tests, comparatively little research...

Autobiographical memory entails reconstructing the visual features of past events. Eye movements are associated with vivid autobiographical recollection, but this research has yet to capitalize on the high temporal resolution of eye-tracking data. We aligned eye movement data with participants’ simultaneous free recall of a verified real-life event...

The Oxford Handbook of Human Memory covers the science of human memory, its application to clinical disorders, and its broader implications for learning and memory in real-world contexts. Written by field leaders, the handbook integrates behavioral, neural, and computational evidence with current theories of how humans learn and remember. Following...

Science, technology, engineering and mathematical (STEM) occupations are crucial for economic growth and individual financial stability, yet there is a STEM labour shortage, particularly among women. We examined how individual differences in visual imagery relate to characteristics of STEM occupations — specifically those requiring computational ab...

Imagery is integral to autobiographical memory (AM). Past work has highlighted that the benefits of high trait imagery on episodic AM include faster, more detailed, and more vivid retrieval. However, these advantages may come with drawbacks: following stressful/traumatic events, strong imagery could promote the intrusions characteristic of PTSD. We...

Autobiographical memory entails reconstructing the visual features of past events. Eye movements are associated with vivid autobiographical recollection, but this research has yet to capitalize on the high temporal resolution of eye–tracking data. We aligned eye movement data with participants′ simultaneous free recall of a verified real–life event...

Background Neuroinflammation (NI) has been implicated in both the pathogenesis of and neuroprotection against neurodegenerative diseases (NDs)(Psenicka et al., 2021). Plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and Neurofilament light (NFL) are measures of astrogliosis and neurodegeneration, respectively. Amyloid beta (Aβ)42/40 ratio (Aβ42 conce...

Background Falls are the most common injury faced by older adults and those with neurodegenerative diseases. Falls can result in concussion/mild traumatic brain injury(mTBI). Concussions in older adults or those with neurodegenerative disease can have a significant impact on behavior as post‐concussion symptoms include neuropsychiatric issues. We h...

Background Neuroinflammation (NI) has been implicated in both the pathogenesis of and neuroprotection against neurodegenerative diseases (NDs)(Psenicka et al., 2021). Plasma glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP), and Neurofilament light (NFL) are measures of astrogliosis and neurodegeneration, respectively. Amyloid beta (Aß)42/40 ratio (Aß42 conce...

The cover image is based on the Advanced Review What about “space” is important for episodic memory? by Carina L. Fan et al., https://doi.org/10.1002/wcs.1645 . Image Credit: Sadie Levine. image

Oculomotor tasks generate a potential wealth of behavioural biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases. Overlap between oculomotor and disease-impaired circuitry reveals the location and severity of disease processes via saccade parameters measured from eye movement tasks such as prosaccade and antisaccade. Existing studies typically examine few sac...

Early cognitive neuroscientific research revealed that the hippocampus is crucial for spatial navigation in rodents, and for autobiographical episodic memory in humans. Researchers quickly linked these streams to propose that the human hippocampus supports memory through its role in representing space, and research on the link between spatial cogni...

Occupations are typically characterized in nominal form, a format that limits options for hypothesis testing and data analysis. We drew upon ratings of knowledge, skills, and abilities for 966 occupations listed in the US Department of Labor’s Occupational Classification Network (O*NET) database to create an accessible, standardized multidimensiona...

Background: The pathophysiology of Parkinson's disease (PD) negatively affects brain network connectivity, and in the presence of brain white matter hyperintensities (WMH) cognitive and motor impairments seem to be aggravated. However, the role of WMH in predicting accelerating symptom worsening remains controversial. Objective: To investigate w...

Objective: Neuropsychiatric symptoms (NPS) are prevalent in neurodegenerative disorders, however, their frequency and impact on function across different disorders is not well understood. We compared the frequency and severity of NPS across Alzheimer's disease (AD) (either with mild cognitive impairment or dementia), Cerebrovascular disease (CVD),...

Alterations in tissue microstructure in normal-appearing white matter (NAWM), specifically measured by diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) fractional anisotropy (FA), have been associated with cognitive outcomes following stroke. The purpose of this study was to comprehensively compare conventional DTI measures of tissue microstructure in NAWM to divers...

Background: Reversible lifestyle behaviors (modifiable risk factors) can reduce dementia risk by 40%, but their prevalence and association with cognition throughout the adult lifespan is less well understood. Methods: The associations between the number of modifiable risk factors for dementia (low education, hypertension, hearing loss, traumatic...

Objectives To examine the feasibility (e.g., completion rate), acceptability (e.g., satisfaction), and participant-reported impact (e.g., memory concerns, behavior change, goal attainment) of a self-guided, e-learning adaptation of a validated, facilitator-guided, in-person memory intervention for older adults. Methods Participants were 139 health...

Background: Eye movements reveal neurodegenerative disease processes due to overlap between oculomotor circuitry and disease-affected areas. Characterizing oculomotor behaviour in context of cognitive function may enhance disease diagnosis and monitoring. We therefore aimed to quantify cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative disease using saccade...

Objectives: Caregiving burdens are a substantial concern in the clinical care of persons with neurodegenerative disorders. In the Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative, we used the Zarit's Burden Interview (ZBI) to examine: (1) the types of burdens captured by the ZBI in a cross-disorder sample of neurodegenerative conditions (2) w...

Change in empathy is an increasingly recognised symptom of neurodegenerative diseases and contributes to caregiver burden and patient distress. Empathy impairment has been associated with brain atrophy but its relationship to white matter hyperintensities (WMH) is unknown. We aimed to investigate the relationships amongst WMH, brain atrophy, and em...

Introduction: Understanding synergies between neurodegenerative and cerebrovascular pathologies that modify dementia presentation represents an important knowledge gap. Methods: This multi-site, longitudinal, observational cohort study recruited participants across prevalent neurodegenerative diseases and cerebrovascular disease and assessed par...

Autobiographical memory—memory for our personal past—is a multifaceted mnemonic activity that evolves throughout the lifespan and interacts with numerous other cognitive functions. Retrieving personal past events engages processes of cue specification, search, and elaboration of details within the specified event. The retrieved content varies from...

Understanding the attributes associated with particular occupations is relevant to research questions across many disciplines. As occupation is a categorical variable with a large number of titles that exist within a complex hierarchical structure, it is notoriously difficult to analyze. We drew upon the U.S. Department of Labor’s Occupational Clas...

Following traumatic brain injury (TBI), cognitive impairments manifest through interactions between microscopic and macroscopic changes. On the microscale, a neurometabolic cascade alters neurotransmission, while on the macroscale diffuse axonal injury impacts the integrity of long-range connections. Large-scale brain network modeling allows us to...

Age-related memory changes pose considerable concerns for aging adults, and can adversely affect their daily living and cause worry even when changes experienced are not clinically significant. The Memory and Aging Program® is a validated psychoeducation and memory strategy-training program that teaches the public about memory changes during aging...

Clinician-led memory interventions have been shown to increase knowledge, reduce anxiety, promote memory-strategy use, and increase brain-healthy lifestyle behaviours in older adults with normal age-related memory changes. A self-guided, e-learning version of the Baycrest Memory and Aging Program® was recently developed to increase accessibility to...

Goal Management Training® (GMT) is a standardized cognitive rehabilitation program that enhances individuals’ awareness of executive function impairments and trains them to regularly monitor and manage their goals. In-person GMT is well-validated among numerous subpopulations, including people experiencing age-related cognitive impairment or acquir...

Background Our need for easily administered online assessments sensitive to mild cognitive difficulties is increasing as our population ages. Our team has recently presented data indicating the accuracy of an online, publicly available, self‐administered screening measure, Cogniciti’s Brain Health Assessment (BHA), in the detection of amnestic mild...

Background: Modifiable lifestyle behaviours can reduce dementia risk by 40%, but their prevalence and association with cognition throughout the adult lifespan is less well understood. Methods: Associations between eight modifiable risk factors for dementia (low education, hypertension, hearing loss, traumatic brain injury, alcohol or substance abus...

INTRODUCTION: More women than men develop Alzheimer’s disease, yet women show less age-related episodic memory decline, a contradiction that may be accounted for by modifiable risk factors for dementia. METHODS: Associations between sex, modifiable dementia risk factors, and cognition were measured in a cross-sectional online sample (n = 21,840, ag...

Objective: To assess overlap and uniqueness of established behavioral markers of speed of processing for different aspects of visual information within a cerebrovascular disease cohort, and to examine the link between these speed of processing markers and functional behavior, specifically walking. Methods: A cohort of 161 participants with cerebrov...

Introduction: Mean cognitive performance is worse in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) compared to control groups. However, studies on variability of cognitive performance in aMCI have yielded inconclusive results, with many differences in variability measures and samples from one study to another. Methods: We examined variability in aMC...

Objectives Our aim was to validate the online Brain Health Assessment (BHA) for detection of amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) compared to gold-standard neuropsychological assessment. We compared the diagnostic accuracy of the BHA to the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA). Methods Using a cross-sectional design, community-dwelling older...

Objectives Age-related differences in cognition are typically assessed by comparing groups of older to younger participants, but little is known about the continuous trajectory of cognitive changes across age, or when a shift to older adulthood occurs. We examined the pattern of mean age differences and variability on episodic memory and executive...

Objectives Recent studies suggest that interindividual genetic differences in glial-dependent CSF flow through the brain parenchyma, known as glymphatic flow, may trigger compensatory changes in human sleep physiology. In animal models, brain perivascular spaces are a critical conduit for glymphatic flow. We tested the hypothesis that MRI-visible P...

Some studies have found that bilingualism promotes cognitive reserve. Objective: We aimed to determine whether bilingualism, defined as regularly (i.e. daily) using at least two languages at least since early adulthood, is associated with cognitive advantages in Parkinson's disease (PD) or whether the possible benefits of bilingualism are lost in...

Objectives Many older adults experience memory changes that can have a meaningful impact on their everyday lives, such as restrictions to lifestyle activities and negative emotions. Older adults also report a variety of positive coping responses that help them manage these changes. The purpose of this study was to determine how objective cognitive...

Purpose Dementia due to cerebrovascular disease (CVD) is common. Detecting early cognitive decline in CVD is critical because addressing risk factors may slow or prevent dementia. This study used a multidomain discourse analysis approach to determine the spoken language signature of CVD-related cognitive impairment. Method Spoken language and neur...

Background: The production of autobiographical narratives requires linguistic structures and the ability to access and generate both semantic information and episodic details of personal events. Aims: This study investigated autobiographical narratives produced by individuals with established semantic memory impairments (semantic variant primary pr...

Decades of memory research demonstrate the importance of temporal organization in recall dynamics, using laboratory stimuli (i.e., word lists) at seconds- to minutes-long delays. Little is known, however, about such organization in recall of richer and more remote real-world experiences, in which the focus is usually on memory content without refer...

How accurate is memory? Although people implicitly assume that their memories faithfully represent past events, the prevailing view in research is that memories are error prone and constructive. Yet little is known about the frequency of errors, particularly in memories for naturalistic experiences. Here, younger and older adults underwent complex...

There are marked individual differences in the recollection of personal past events or autobiographical memory (AM). Theory concerning the relationship between mnemonic and visual systems suggests that eye movements promote retrieval of spatiotemporal details from memory, yet assessment of this prediction within naturalistic AM has been limited. We...

Influential research has focused on identifying the common neural and behavioural substrates underlying episodic memory (the re-experiencing of specific details from past experiences) and spatial cognition, with some theories proposing that these are supported by the same mechanisms. However, the similarities and differences between these two forms...

To bridge the gap between naturalistic and laboratory assessments of episodic memory, we designed time- and content-matched real-world and virtualized versions of the same tour event. In younger and older adults, we investigated objective and subjective aspects of recollection for event features using a verbal true/false test common to both event c...

Background: Individuals differ in how they remember the past: some richly re-experience specific details of past episodes, whereas others recall only the gist of past events. Little research has examined how such trait mnemonics, or lifelong individual differences in memory capacities, relate to cognitive aging. We specifically examined trait epis...

Objective: In individuals over the age of 65, concomitant neurodegenerative pathologies contribute to cognitive and/or motor decline and can be aggravated by cerebrovascular disease, but our understanding of how these pathologies synergize to produce the decline represents an important knowledge gap. The Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research I...

Background Vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) post-stroke is frequent but may go undetected, which highlights the need to better screen cognitive functioning following a stroke. Aim: We examined the clinical utility of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA) in detecting cognitive impairment against a gold standard neuropsychological battery. Me...

This study investigates coherence of discourse in the production of autobiographical narratives by individuals with aMCI. Autobiographical interviews were analyzed to determine whether reduced episodic recall was related to deficits in discourse coherence. A coherence rating scale was used to evaluate relatedness of the autobiographical details pro...

Memorializes Donald T. Stuss (1941-2019). Through his early spiritual training in a monastery, Don developed an interest in the highest forms of human consciousness, ethics, and behavior. As a teacher and coach, he became interested in team building and motivation. Don nurtured those interests in his research on the functions of the human frontal l...

The Autobiographical Interview (AI) separates internal (episodic) and external (non-episodic) details from transcribed protocols using an exhaustive and reliable scoring system. While the details comprising the internal composite are centered on elements of episodic memory, external details are more heterogeneous as they are meant to capture a vari...

As large research initiatives designed to generate big data on clinical cohorts become more common, there is an increasing need to establish standard quality assurance (QA; preventing errors) and quality control (QC; identifying and correcting errors) procedures for critical outcome measures. The present article describes the QA and QC approach dev...

The ability to mentally travel to specific events from one’s past, dubbed episodic autobiographical memory (E-AM), contributes to adaptive functioning. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying its typical inter-individual variation remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we capitalize on existing evidence that successful performance on E-AM...

Presents an obituary for Donald T. Stuss (1941–2019). The work of Donald T. Stuss, OC, FRSC, who died in Toronto on September 3, 2019, of complications following pancreatic cancer was world-leading but also notable for his influence on the landscape of Canadian neuroscience. Don worked as a teacher and football coach at high schools in Ontario befo...

The Autobiographical Interview (AI) separates internal (episodic) and external (non-episodic) details from transcribed protocols using an exhaustive and reliable scoring system. While the details comprising the internal composite are centered on elements of episodic memory, external details are more heterogeneous as they are meant to capture a vari...

The ability to mentally travel to specific events from one’s past, dubbed episodic autobiographical memory (E-AM), contributes to adaptive functioning. Nonetheless, the mechanisms underlying its typical inter-individual variation remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we capitalize on existing evidence that successful performance on E-AM...

Decades of memory research demonstrate the importance of temporal organization in recall dynamics, using laboratory stimuli (i.e. word lists) at seconds-to-minutes-long delays. Little is known, however, about such organization in recall of richer and more remote real-world experiences, where the focus is usually on memory content without reference...

BACKGROUND. Individuals differ in how they remember the past: some recall the gist of events, whereas others re-experience specific details. These trait-level differences reflect life-long autobiographical memory capacities, distinct from laboratory test performance, and there has been little research on how trait mnemonics relate to cognitive agin...

How accurate is memory? Although people implicitly assume that their memories faithfully represent past events, the prevailing view in research is that memories are error-prone and constructive. Yet little is known about the frequency of errors, particularly in memories for naturalistic experiences. In the present study, participants underwent comp...

The precise role of visual mechanisms in recollection of personal past events is unknown. The present study addresses this question from the oculomotor perspective. Participants freely recalled past episodes while viewing a blank screen under free and fixed viewing conditions. Memory performance was quantified with the Autobiographical Interview, w...

To bridge the gap between naturalistic and laboratory assessments of episodic memory, we designed time- and content-matched real-world and virtualized versions of the same tour event. In younger and older adults, we investigated objective and subjective aspects of recollection for event features using a verbal true/false test common to both event c...

Language deficits, including word-finding difficulties and impaired single-word comprehension, have been found in patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA). These deficits characterize the linguistic abilities of patients with svPPA on a micro-linguistic level (word and sentence level). On a macro-linguistic level (discours...

Language deficits, including word-finding difficulties and impaired single-word comprehension, have been found in patients with semantic variant primary progressive aphasia (svPPA). These deficits characterize the linguistic abilities of patients with svPPA on a micro-linguistic level (word and sentence level). On a macro-linguistic level (discours...

Objective: To identify CSF biomarkers that are related to decreased white matter (WM) integrity and poor cognitive performance in former professional athletes with a history of multiple concussions. Methods: Concentrations of phosphorylated tau181, total tau (t-tau), and β-amyloid in the CSF were measured in 3 groups: 22 former professional athl...

Some degree of ischemic injury to white matter tracts occurs naturally with age and is visible on magnetic resonance imaging as focal or confluent white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). Its relationship to cognition, however, remains unclear. To explore this, community-dwelling adults between the ages 55-80 years old completed structural imaging, ne...

The comparison of memory performance during free and fixed viewing conditions has been used to demonstrate the involvement of eye movements in memory encoding and retrieval, with stronger effects at encoding than retrieval. Relative to conditions of free viewing, participants generally show reduced memory performance following sustained fixation, s...

Although electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a widely used and effective treatment for refractory depression, the neural underpinnings of its therapeutic effects remain poorly understood. To address this issue, here, we focused on a core cognitive deficit associated with depression, which tends to be reliably ameliorated through ECT, specifically, t...

Some degree of ischemic injury to white matter tracts occurs naturally with age and is visible on magnetic resonance imaging as focal or confluent white matter hyperintensities (WMHs). Its relationship to cognition, however, remains unclear. To explore this, community-dwelling adults between the ages 55-80 years old completed structural imaging, ne...

Traditionally, studies of spatial memory tend to utilise table-top tasks that focus on new spatial learning, however these in-lab procedures may not be reflective of real world spatial memory or navigation. This study investigated the relationship between self-rated navigation abilities and performance on a naturalistic Internet-based assessment of...

Normal aging is typically associated with reduced ability to reconstruct the spatiotemporal context of past events, a core component of episodic memory. However, little is known about our ability to remember the order of events comprising extended real-world experiences and how this ability changes with age. We leveraged the richness and structure...

In this chapter, we summarize the literature on the role of the PFC in memory tasks. For other, more targeted reviews, see Fletcher and Henson (2001), Simons and Spiers (2003), Szczepanski and Knight (2014), and Nyhus and Badre (2015). Here, we focus our summary of the literature on work not already covered in depth in these reviews; we also cast a...

The ability to keep a mental record of specific past events, dubbed episodic memory (EM), is key to lifespan adaptation. Nonetheless, the neural mechanisms underlying its typical inter-individual variability remain poorly understood. To address this issue, we tested whether individual differences in EM could be predicted from levels of functional b...

Normal aging is typically associated with reduced ability to reconstruct the spatiotemporal context of past events, a core component of episodic memory. However, little is known about our ability to remember the order of events comprising extended real-world experiences and how this ability changes with age. We leveraged the richness and structure...

Medulloblastomas, the most common malignant brain tumor in children, are typically treated with radiotherapy. Refinement of this treatment has greatly improved survival rates in this patient population. However, radiotherapy also profoundly affects the developing brain and is associated with reduced hippocampal volume and blunted hippocampal neurog...

The minimum covariance determinant (MCD) algorithm is one of the most common techniques to detect anomalous or outlying observations. The MCD algorithm depends on two features of multivariate data: the determinant of a matrix (i.e., geometric mean of the eigenvalues) and Mahalanobis distances (MD). While the MCD algorithm is commonly used, and has...

Objective: Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is associated with impairments in processing speed as well as higher-level cognitive functions that depend on distributed neural networks, such as regulating and sustaining attention. Although exogenous alerting cues have been shown to support patients in sustaining attentive, goal-directed behavior, the neu...