Research Programs

Cognitive Neurology


We have outstanding clinical expertise in the diagnosis of common as well as unusual forms of progressive cognitive difficulty, along with cutting edge therapeutic options.  Nationally-recognized care and translational research options are available at The Penn Memory Center, focusing on memory deficits, and The Frontotemporal Degeneration Center, focusing on younger-onset progressive cognitive and language impairments.  We offer investigational medications and diagnostic procedures such as advanced neuroimaging and genetic screens.  In addition, we provide the latest medication-free treatments such as non-invasive brain stimulation for cognitive impairment due to head injury, chronic stroke, and dementia, and behavioral therapies for speech and cognition.

Centers and Programs

Labs

  • Aguirre Lab
    This is the Translational Vision Science Laboratory of Geoffrey K Aguirre. We study the cortical basis of visual function, both in normative representation and as altered by disease. A particular focus of work is how the structure of the eye gives rise to the properties of the visual pathway of the brain, and how this system is altered in ophthalmologic and neurologic disease.

  • Chatterjee Lab
    Our lab is a part of the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience within the University of Pennsylvania Neurology Department. We are interested in interactions between cognition, language, and the brain. Our studies cover a diverse range of cognitive processes, including: Figurative and spatial language, Event representation, Aesthetics, Neuroethics. Much of our research focuses on differences in processing of patients with brain injury, compared with healthy adults.
  • Hamilton/Coslett Lab
    The Laboratory for Cognition and Neural Stimulation is a cognitive neurology laboratory within the Neurology Department at the University of Pennsylvania. Our lab primarily used noninvasive brain stimulation techniques, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) to achieve two central aims: To investigate the neural bases of human cognition,  and the exploration of brain plasticity and its modulation. Our research addresses a variety of topics in cognitive neuroscience, including perceptual-motor interactions, multisensory integration, language, time perception, and decision-making in patients who have experienced brain injury (e.g. stroke) and healthy young adults.

  • Rao Lab