Andrew Bender

### Research Interests
Lifespan developmental trajectories for brain health and cognitive functioning are highly variable. While some individuals maintain neural integrity and cognitive abilities well into older age, others show pronounced declines. My research investigates the modifying roles of social, vascular, inflammatory, and genetic factors on longitudinal change in brain structure and function across the lifespan. In addition, much of this work uses magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to relate age-related changes in cerebral gray and white matter and subcortical structures to changes in memory performance, with an emphasis on understanding specific factors that confer protection against or risk for declines. An additional methodological component includes validation and optimization of neuroimaging processing methods for diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) analysis of white matter pathways, high-resolution imaging of hippocampal subfields, and regional brain volumetry.