CONTACT INFORMATION
University of Illinois at Chicago
Department of Psychiatry
1601 W Taylor Street , (M/C 912)
Chicago, IL 60612
Office Phone: (312) 996-5779
E-mail:
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KEY PUBLICATIONS
Lamar, M., Resnick, S.M., & Zonderman, A.B. (2003). Longitudinal changes in verbal memory in older adults: Distinguishing the effects of age from repeat testing. Neurology, 60, 82-86.
Lamar, M. & Resnick, S.M. (2004). Aging and prefrontal functions: Dissociating orbitofrontal and dorsolateral abilities. Neurobiology of Aging, 25, 553-558.
Lamar, M., Yousem, D.M., & Resnick, S.M. (2004). Age differences in orbitofrontal activation: An fMRI investigation of delayed match and non-match to sample. NeuroImage, 21, 1368-1376.
Lamar, M., Price, C., Libon, D.J., Schmidt, K.S., Penney, D.L., Kaplan, E. & Heilman, K.M. (2007). Alterations in working memory as a function of leukoaraiosis in dementia. Neuropsychologia, 45, 245-254.
Lamar, M., Catani, M., Price, C.C., Heilman, K.M. & Libon, D.J. (2008). The impact of region specific leukoaraiosis on working memory deficits. Neuropsychologia, 46(10), 2597-2601.
Lamar, M., Cutter, W.J., Rubia, K., Brammer, M., Daly, E., Cleare, A.J. & Murphy, D. (2009). 5-HT, prefrontal function and aging: fMRI of inhibition and acute tryptophan depletion. Neurobiology of Aging, 30(7), 1135-1146.
Lamar, M., Goldstein, F., Libon, D.J., Ashley, A.V., Lah, J.J. & Levey, A.I. (2010). The impact of vascular comorbidity on abstract reasoning and concept formation in Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 16(1), 77-83.
Lamar, M., Price, C.C., Giovannetti, T., Swenson, R. & Libon, D.J. (2010). The dysexecutive syndrome associated with subcortical white matter disease and dementia. Behavioral Neurology, 22, 53-62.
Lamar, M., Charlton, R.A., Morris, R.G. & Markus, H.S. (2010). The impact of subcortical white matter disease and executive functioning on depressive symptomatology in normal aging. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 18, 634-642.
Lamar, M., Foy, C.M.L., Beacher, F., Daly, E., Poppe, M., Archer, N., Prasher, V., Adams, C., Margello-Lana, M., Brown, S., Murphy, K., Morris, R., Simmons, A., Murphy, D.G.M. & Lovestone, S. (2011). Down syndrome with and without dementia: An in vivo proton Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy study with implications for Alzheimer’s disease. NeuroImage, 57, 63-68.
Lamar, M., Dannhauser, T.M., Walker, Z., Rodda, J.E., Cutinha, D.J. & Shergill, S.S. (2011). Subjective memory complaints with and without objective memory impairment: The impact of leukoaraiosis on cognitive phenotypes. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 17, 1104-1112.
Lamar, M., Charlton, R., Zhang, A. & Kumar, A. (2012) Differential associations between types of verbal memory and prefrontal brain structure in late life depression. Neuropsychologia, 50, 1823-1829.
Lamar, M., Cutter, W., Tang, C., Rubia, K., Brammer, M., Daly, E., & Murphy, D. (in press) Acute tryptophan depletion promotes an anterior-posterior fMRI activation shift in older adults during set switching. Human Brain Mapping.
Melissa Lamar, PhD
Associate Professor of Psychology in Psychiatry
Dr. Lamar has a long-standing interest in the neurobiological mechanisms underlying cognitive and affective dysfunction in normal and pathological aging. She uses structural and functional neuroimaging technologies learned during her time at the Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, National Institute on Aging (NIA) and the Institute of Psychiatry (IOP), King’s College London. Dr. Lamar focuses on experimental paradigms from both non-human primate lesion studies and human neuroimaging studies to strengthen the neuroanatomical accuracy of her work. Combining these tools with the Boston Process Approach to Cognitive Neuropsychology, Dr. Lamar is able to detect subtle alterations in behavior and pin point their roots in brain. In addition to her research activities, Dr. Lamar serves as a licensed member of staff within the Department of Psychiatry’s Neuropsychology Service and the Neuropsychiatry Clinic.
Current Research Interests:Dr. Lamar’s research at UIC centers around the impact of vascular risk factors on brain structure and function in aging.
Ongoing Research Projects:
VITAL: understanding Vascular Integrity To promote Aging and Longevity
Given that cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death and disability in the US, determining ways to identify ‘at risk’ brain tissue before it is damaged will increase the window of opportunity for preventative measures to slow or stop the progression of cognitive decline and dementia in the aging population.
FUNDING PROVIDED BY: NIA K01 AG040192-1A1
MultiCenter Repository for Digitization of the Clock Drawing Test
With Lahey Clinic and MIT, we are using a simple graphomotor test combined with cutting-edge data acquisition and scoring to investigate motor performance across the lifespan, enabling new insights into motor programing and the underlying neuroanatomy involved in these processes.
Androgen Depletion Therapy in Aging
In conjunction with the University of Birmingham in the UK, this study allows for a better understanding of the impact of prostate cancer treatment on brain structure and function.
FUNDING PROVIDED BY: The Greater Chicago Academic Initiative Fund
To volunteer or learn more about our work, please call 312-996-2677.
Interested students may also visit http://tigger.uic.edu/htbin/codewrap/bin/orgs/ura/cgi-bin/search.php?searchterm=lamar&searchtype=&college_search=
