NANCY FOLDI

Title	Professor
Area	Neuropsychology of Aging and Dementia & Clinical Psychology
Ph.D.	Clark University, Worcester, Massachusetts
Office	A-348 Science Building
E-mail	nancy.foldi@qc.cuny.edu
Office Phone	718-997-3253

Professional Activities:

Editorial Board:
   American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease and Other Dementias

Grant Review Panels:
    Alzheimer’s Association
    Alzheimer’s and Related Diseases Research Award Fund
    Commonwealth Professional Staff Congress – CUNY
    Equities Research studies Program: Queens College

Funding:
   Alzheimer's Association

Director of Neuropsychology and of the Memory and Cognitive Disorders Center at Winthrop-University Hospital in the Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine at Winthrop-University Hospital, Mineola, Long Island, NY affiliated with Stony Brook School of Medicine.

Research Description:

Our laboratory is interested in the effects of aging on brain-behavior relationships, with special interest in late-life changes of the attentional mechanisms. Attentional processes such as selective attention, divided attention, covert orienting, and the attentional blink all serve to manage and direct allocation of our limited attentional resources. Late life and particularly dementing diseases place these tasks at risk, which can further disrupt downstream cognitive abilities of memory and language.

Our research focuses on understanding the effects of cognitive stress or temporal load, which is how attention manages to rapidly allocate incoming information. We use attention models that investigate processing in healthy young, old and very old persons, as well as Alzheimer’s disease and Human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Attention also influences learning, as evidenced by our work showing disruption of the serial position effect in dementia. As attention is mediated by acetylcholine, it is severely affected in Alzheimer’s disease. We are investigating changes in response to cholinesterase inhibitors in patients newly diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease and how the attentional disruption of affects top-down processes and activity of daily living.

Selected Publications:

    Foldi, N.S., White, R.E.C, Schaefer, L.A., (2005). Effects of donepezil on signal detection in visual selective attention in Alzheimer’s disease. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 20(5), 485-488.

   Foldi, N.S., Schaefer, L.A., White, R.E.C., Johnson, R. Jr., Berger, J.T., Carney, M.T., Macina, L.O. (2005). Effects of graded levels of physical similarity and density in visual selective attention in Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropsychology, 19(1), 5–17.

    Zgaljardic, D.J., Foldi, N.S., Borod, J.C. (2004). Cognitive and behavioral dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease: Neurochemical and clinicopathological contributions. Journal of Neural Transmission, 111, 1287-1301.

    Foldi, N.S., Helm-Estabrooks, N., Redfield, J. & Nickel, D.G. (2003). Perseveration in normal aging: a comparison of perseveration rates on design fluency and verbal generative tasks. Aging, Neuropsychology and Cognition, 10(4), 268-280.

    Foldi, N.S., Brickman, A.M., Schaefer, L.A., Knutelska, M.E. (2003). Distinct serial position profiles and neuropsychological measures differentiate late life depression from normal aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Psychiatry Research, 120(1), 71-84. (Corrigendum, Psychiatry Research, volume 120(3), pp 295).

    Foldi, N.S., LoBosco, J. & Schaefer, L. (2002). The effect of attentional dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease: theoretical and practical implications. Seminars in Speech and Language, 23, 139 – 150.

Ph.D. Students:
    Lillian Kaplan
    Olga Nikelshpur
    Jenny Ly
    Philip Watson
    Kathleen VanDyk

Undergraduate Students:
    Georgina Damjanac
    Bibi Rapscak

Recent Media:

New York Times and CUNY

Dr. Foldi has been chosen as one of the CUNY elite scholars together with NY Times science writer Denise Grady.

Dealing with Alzheimer's The New York Times (New York Times Knowledge Network) and CUNY (CUNY School of Professional Studies) invite you to participate in a unique series of online seminars led by elite scholars, researchers, artists and authors, who will explore with you a range of informative and thought provoking topics from the historical to the contemporary, the theoretical to the practical. These seminars feature interactive webcasts, video sessions, and facilitated discussions that enable you to ask questions of our expert panelists as well as share stories and interact with a community of individuals who share your interests... all from the comfort of your own home.

Two noted Alzheimer’s authorities, Dr. Nancy S. Foldi of Queens College and Dr. Carmen Morano from the Hunter College School of Social Work will review issues related to Alzheimer’s disease and other similar dementias, which are often masked or misdiagnosed.

Queens Chronicle

Dr. Foldi interview with journalist Jillian Abbot  about her work with local seniors throughout our Queens community.

Q Magazine

Interview with Nancy Foldi and Mony DeLeon.

CUNY RADIO

Interview of Dr. Foldi with CUNY journalist.