Biography: Judy's curiosity of human behavior ultimately won over careers in writing, philosophy, and professional poker strategist. She left her Las Vegas roots to attend the University of California, Irvine (UCI) and began a major in Psychology. After completing Dr. Kourosh Saberi's Sensation and Perceptual Processes course, Judy developed a passion for investigating the relationship between cognition and the human brain. She pursued her interests in the brain as a research volunteer in Dr. Ramesh Srinivasan's Human Neuroscience Laboratory where she investigated the neural correlates of consciousness and binocular rivalry using electroencephalography (EEG). As a new graduate, Judy joined the UCI Child Development Center under the direction of Drs. James Swanson and Timothy Wigal. She served as the Project Manager of a multi-site, NIH-funded, longitudinal study on the Multimodal Treatment of ADHD in children. Although Judy enjoyed clinical research, she believed a strong foundation in basic neural functioning was necessary before understanding clinical brain disease. She matriculated into the Cognitive Sciences doctoral program at UCI and studied under the supervision of Dr. Gregory Hickok. She completed graduate work on the organization of sensory-motor networks in musicians and hearing signers using functional MRI (fMRI). After attaining her Ph.D in 2007, she returned to clinical research as a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, San Francisco Memory and Aging Center. She studied under the mentorship of Dr. Julene Johnson and investigated clinical and neuroimaging features of Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), a preclinical stage of dementia. Judy is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at UCSF.
Research Description: Judy was awarded a 5-year K01 Mentored Research grant from the National Institute on Aging. Her research agenda focuses on the investigation of functional and structural alterations in attention and memory networks in MCI and normal aging. Using a combination of cognitive, behavioral and neuroimaging methods, she aims to identify early predictors of cognitive decline and to better characterize the track of cognitive and neural change during disease progression. While Judy strives to maintain a strong research program, she aspires to establish a balanced research, mentoring, and teaching career.
Publications:
Johnson, J.K., Pa, J., Boxer, A.L.,
Kramer, J.H., Freeman, K., & Yaffe, K. (2010). Baseline
Predictors of Clinical Progression Among Patients with Dysexecutive
MCI. Dement Geriatr Cogn Disord.
Pa, J., Possin, K.L., Wilson, S.M.,
Quitania, L.C., Kramer, J.H., Boxer, A.L., Weiner, M.W., &
Johnson, J.K. (2010) Gray Matter Correlates of Set-Shifting among
Neurodegenerative Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Healthy Older
Adults. J Int Neuropsychol Soc.
Chao, L.L., Pa, J., Duarte, A., Schuff,
N., Weiner, M.W., Kramer, J.L., Miller, B.L., Freeman, K.M., &
Johnson, J.K. (2009) Patterns of Cerebral Hypoperfusion in Amnestic and
Dysexecutive MCI. Alz Dis Assoc Disord, 23(3): 245-252.
Possin, K.L., Brambati, S.M., Rosen, H.J., Johnson, J.K., Pa,
J., Weiner, M.W., Miller, B.L., & Kramer, J.H.
(2009) Rule Violation Errors are associated with Right Lateral
Prefrontal Cortex Atrophy in Neurodegenerative Disease. J Int
Neuropsychol Soc, 15(3): 354-364.
Pa, J., Boxer, A.L., Freeman, K., Kramer,
J., Miller, B.L., Chao, L.L., Gazzaley, A., Weiner, M.W., Neuhaus, J.,
& Johnson, J.K. (2009) Clinical-Neuroimaging Characteristics of
Dysexecutive Mild Cognitive Impairment. Ann Neurol, 65(4): 414-423.
Hickok, G., Okada, K., Barr, W., Pa, J.,
Rogalsky, C., Donnelly, K., Barde, L., & Grant, A. (2008).
Bilateral Capacity for Speech Sound Processing in Auditory
Comprehension: Evidence from WADA procedures, Brain and Language,
107(3): 179-184.
Pa, J., Wilson, S.M., Pickell, B.,
Bellugi, U., & Hickok, G. (2008) Neural Organization of
Linguistic Short-term Memory is Sensory Modality-Dependent: Evidence
from Signed and Spoken Language, J Cogn Neurosci, 20(12): 2198-2210.
Pa, J., Hickok, G., (2008) A
Parietal–Temporal Sensory–Motor Integration Area
for the Human Vocal Tract: Evidence from an fMRI study of Skilled
Musicians, Neuropsychologia, 46(1): 362-8.
