Biography: Nathan obtained his BA in Biological Anthropology and Psychology at the University of Santa Cruz.
He later worked as a research assistant at the VA hospital in San Francisco investigating the diagnostic markers and disease progression of various forms of neurodegenerative disease using MRI and NMR spectroscopy. During this time, Nathan also collaborated with the Marine Mammal Center in Marin to help implement MRI techniques for studying Sea Lions suffering from brain damage due to water pollution in the San Francisco bay. He also worked for the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary tracking Harbor Seal behavior and population demographics along the West coast. During that summer, Nathan spent three months at the La Suerte Biological Field Station in Costa Rica where he conducted an independent field study investigating the vocal patterns of free-range Capuchin Monkeys (Cebus capucinus).
In 2006 Nathan was awarded the Brain Research Scholarship to purse a PhD degree at University College London. During his time at the Institute of Neurology and at the Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience in Queen Square, Nathan worked closely with epilepsy patients suffering from bilateral hippocampal sclerosis (BHS). Specifically, his team investigated deficits of short-term working memory due to hippocampal damage (BHS) using Magnetoencephalography recordings of induced cortical oscillatory activity. These studies led to a systematic exploration of the anatomical and functional interactions between long-term and short-term forms of memory.
Research Description: Nathan’s research currently focuses on the characterization of individual’s perceptual abilities and how these processes interact with higher cognitive functions, such as working memory and interference suppression. Using methods such as electroencephalography (EEG) and functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Nathan aims to elucidate the neural correlates of these processes and determine how the cortical networks supporting such abilities are modified over the course of normal ageing.
Publications:
Germine, L., Cashdollar, N., Duzel, E., Duchaine, B. (2010) Selective developmental object agnosia without prosopagnosia.Cerebral Cortex.
Cashdollar, N., Lavie, N., Duzel, E. (2010) Reply to Lee and Baxter: Perceptual deficits cannot explain impaired configural-relational maintenance in bilateral hippocampal injury.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.
Fuentemilla, L., Penny, W. D., Cashdollar, N., Bunzeck, N., Duzel, E. (2010) Theta phase-coupling of working memory content.Current Biology.[ pdf ]
Cashdollar, N., Malecki, U., Rugg-Gunn, F. J., Duncan, J. S., Lavie, N., Duzel, E. (2009) Hippocampal dependent and independent theta networks in human working memory. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. [ pdf ]
Mueller, S. G., Stables, L., Du, A. T., Schuff, N., Truran, D., Cashdollar, N., Weiner, M. W. (2007). Measurement of hippocampal subfields and age-related changes with high resolution MRI at 4T. Neurobiology of Aging 28(5), 719-726.
Mueller, S. G., Laxer, K. D., Cashdollar, N., Buckley, S., Paul, C., Weiner, M. W. (2006). Voxel-based optimized morphometry (VBM) of gray and white matter in temporal lobe epilepsy (TLE) with and without mesial temporal sclerosis. Epilepsia 47(5), 900-907.
Mueller, S. G., Laxer, K. D., Cashdollar, N., Lopez, R. C., Weiner, M. W. (2006). Spectroscopic evidence of hippocampal abnormalities in neocortical epilepsy. Eur.J.Neurol 13(3), 256-260.
Kaiser, L.G., Schuff, N., Cashdollar, N., Weiner, M. W. (2005). Age-related glutamate and glutamine concentration changes in normal human brain: 1H MR spectroscopy study at 4 T. Neurobiol.Aging 26(5), 665-672.
Kaiser, L. G., Schuff, N., Cashdollar, N., Weiner, M. W. (2005). Scyllo-inositol in normal aging human brain: 1H magnetic resonance spectroscopy study at 4 Tesla. NMR Biomed 18(1), 51-55.
Mueller, S. G., Laxer, K. D., Barakos, J. A., Cashdollar, N., Flenniken, D. L., Vermathen, P., Matson,G.B., Weiner, M. W. (2005). Metabolic characteristics of cortical malformations causing epilepsy. Journal of Neurology 252(9), 1082-1092.
Mueller, S. G., Laxer, D., Barakos, J. A., Cashdollar, N., Flenniken, D. L., Vermathen, P., Matson, G. B., Weiner, M. W. (2004). Identification of the epileptogenic lobe in neocortical epilepsy with proton MR spectroscopic imaging. Epilepsia 45(12), 1580-1589.
Mueller, S. G., Laxer, K. D., Cashdollar, N., Flenniken, D. L., Matson, G. B., Weiner, M. W. (2004). Identification of abnormal neuronal metabolism outside the seizure focus in temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia 45(4), 355-366.
