Dr. M. Natasha Rajah
Biography:
Professor M. Natasha Rajah is a Full Professor in the Department of Psychology, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) and Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Sex, Gender and Diversity in Brain Health, Memory and Aging. She is also an Adjunct Faculty at the Department of Psychiatry, McGill University, Adjunct Scientist at the Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest, and CIHR Sex and Gender Research Chair in Neuroscience, Mental Health and Addiction.
Prior to joining the Psychology Department in Fall 2023, Natasha was a Full Professor with tenure in the Department of Psychiatry, and Associate Member of the Department of Psychology at McGill University (2005-2023). Dr. Rajah also held senior administrative roles at McGill University, including as Director of the Douglas Brain Imaging Centre (2011-2021) and Assistant Dean (Academic Affairs), Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) (2022-2023). She received her PhD in Experimental Psychology at University of Toronto (St. George Campus) and did her postdoctoral training at The Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute, University of California (Berkeley).
In her Brain Health Equity in Aging and Memory (BHEAM) Lab at TMU, she conducts cognitive and clinical neuroscience research on memory, aging, and dementia prevention. She uses structural and functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in combination with behavioral, neuropsychological, blood-based endocrine and protein analysis, and genetic methods to advance knowledge about: 1) The cognitive neuroscience of episodic memory 2) How biological sex and sociocultural gender affect cognitive brain aging and AD risk – with a focus on midlife and the effect of menopause 3) How social determinants of health and lifestyle factors affect cognitive brain aging in diverse samples. The goal of her research program is to identify the biological, environmental, and social factors that support the maintenance of normative memory across the adult lifespan, and, to determine what factors negatively affect cognitive and brain aging and place individuals at greater risk of developing AD. To learn more about her research please visit her lab website (link above).
Natasha is a member of the CIHR Institute of Aging Advisory Board; Board of Directors, Canadian Association of Neuroscience (CAN), and is Co-Lead of Team 9 (Developing Novel Biomarkers) and the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accessibility Committees for the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration in Aging (CCNA). She is Editor-in-Chief of Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition and Associate Editor, Psychological Science.
Selected Publications
Corriveau-Lecavalier, N., Decarie-Labbe, L., Mellah, S., Belleville, S., Rajah, M. N., & Consortium for the Early Identification of Alzheimer's Disease – Quebec (CIMA-Q) (2022). Sex differences in patterns of associative memory-related activation in individuals at risk of Alzheimer's disease. Neurobiology of Aging, 119, 89-101. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2022.07.007
Snytte, J., Fenerci, C., Rajagopal, S., Beaudoin, C., Hooper, K., Sheldon, S., Olsen, R. K., & Rajah, M. N. (2022). Volume of the posterior hippocampus mediates age-related differences in spatial context memory and is correlated with increased activity in lateral frontal, parietal and occipital regions in healthy aging. Neuroimage, 254, 119164. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuroimage.2022.119164
Subramaniapillai, S., Rajagopal, S., Ankudowich, E., Pasvanis, S., Misic, B., & Rajah, M. N. (2022). Age- and episodic memory-related differences in task-based functional connectivity in women and men. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 34(8), 1500-1520. https://doi.org/10.1162/jocn_a_01868
Rabipour, S., Rajagopal, S., Yu, E., Pasvanis, S., Lafaille-Magnan, M. E., Breitner, J., PREVENT-AD Research Group, & Rajah, M. N. (2020). APOE4 status is related to differences in memory-related brain function in asymptomatic older adults with family history of alzheimer's disease: Baseline analysis of the PREVENT-AD task functional MRI dataset. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 76(1), 97-119. https://doi.org/10.3233/JAD-191292
Cabeza, R., Albert, M., Belleville, S., Craik, F. I. M., Duarte, A., Grady, C. L., Lindenberger, U., Nyberg, L., Park, D. C., Reuter-Lorenz, P. A., Rugg, M. D., Steffener, J., & Rajah, M. N. (2018). Maintenance, reserve and compensation: The cognitive neuroscience of healthy ageing. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 19(11), 701-710. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41583-018-0068-2
Rajah, M. N., & D'Esposito, M. (2005). Region-specific changes in prefrontal function with age: A review of PET and fMRI studies on working and episodic memory. Brain, 128(9), 1964-1983. https://doi.org/10.1093/brain/awh608