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Jeannette R. Mahoney, PhD

Associate Professor
Albert Einstein College of Medicine
Bronx, New York, United States

Multisensory integration (MSI) is an integral aspect of functioning and mobility in everyday life and ability to function well in the real world requires intact MSI. MSI is not fully understood in aging, and its relation to cognitive and motor function has not been comprehensively evaluated. The main objective of my research is to investigate the behavioral, functional, and structural correlates of MSI in older adults. Our recent work in older adults has linked the magnitude of visual-somatosensory integration to important cognitive (attention) and motor (balance, gait, and falls) outcomes. We have highlighted the adverse effect of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) and dementia on these relationships, but the underlying functional and neuroanatomical networks remain unidentified.

Growing evidence suggests that Alzheimer’s pathology manifests in sensory association areas well before appearing in neural regions involved in memory function. Our most recent NIA funding affords us an opportunity to determine whether visual-somatosensory integration is a novel marker for Alzheimer’s disease. Our central hypothesis is that preclinical Alzheimer’s disease is associated with neural disruptions in subcortical and cortical areas that concurrently modulate multisensory, cognitive, and motor functions, resulting in mobility decline.

As well, we have made significant strides with regards to identifying a novel quantitative multisensory fall-risk screening tool called CatchU® . Falls are a significant burden to the U.S. healthcare system with over $50B spent annually on fatal and non-fatal falls. Nearly 30% of Americans aged 65 years and over (~16M) experience a fall every year. Besides cognitive impairment, older adults with Alzheimer’s disease are at high-risk for mobility declines and falls. The main objective of our novel multisensory fall-risk screener is to assist healthcare professionals in predicting and preventing falls in older adults with preclinical Alzheimer’s disease.

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