Simon Wilton Davis
Assistant Professor in Neurology
Overview
My research centers around the use of structural and functional imaging measures to study the shifts in network architecture in the aging brain. I am specifically interested in changes in how changes in structural and functional connectivity associated with aging impact the semantic retrieval of word or fact knowledge. Currently this involves asking why older adults have particular difficulty in certain kinds of semantic retrieval, despite the fact that vocabularies and knowledge stores typically improve with age.
A second line of research involves asking questions about how this semantic system is organized in young adults, understanding which helps form a basis for asking questions about older adults. To what degree are these semantic retrieval processes lateralized? What cognitive factors affect this laterality? How are brain structures like the corpus callosum involved in mediating distributed activation patterns associated with semantic retrieval?
Selected Grants
Effects of Healthy Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment on Memory Representations awarded by National Institutes of Health (Co Investigator). 2021 to 2024
Evaluating State-Based Network Dynamics in a Transdiagnostic Sample of Patients with Anhedonia awarded by National Institutes of Health (Co-Sponsor). 2020 to 2023
Using network-guided TMS to ameliorate memory deficits in early Alzheimer's disease awarded by National Institutes of Health (Principal Investigator). 2020 to 2022
Bilateral Brain Dynamics Supporting Cognition in Normal Aging and Dementia awarded by National Institutes of Health (Principal Investigator). 2017 to 2022
A High-Performance 3T MRI for Brain Imaging awarded by National Institutes of Health (Minor User). 2021 to 2022
Impact of Timing, Targeting, and Brain State on rTMS of Human and Non-Human Primates awarded by National Institutes of Health (Co Investigator). 2017 to 2022
Using fMRI-guided TMS to increase central executive function in older adults awarded by National Institutes of Health (Investigator). 2015 to 2021
Role of white-matter connectivity on age-related reorganization of brain networks awarded by National Institutes of Health (Graduate Student). 2008 to 2011
Stanley, M. L., et al. “Toward a more integrative cognitive neuroscience of episodic memory.” Connectomics: Applications to Neuroimaging, 2018, pp. 199–218. Scopus, doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-813838-0.00011-X. Full Text
Becker, Maxi, et al. “Between automatic and control processes: How relationships between problem elements interact to facilitate or impede insight.” Mem Cognit, Mar. 2022. Pubmed, doi:10.3758/s13421-022-01277-3. Full Text
Beynel, Lysianne, et al. “Network-based rTMS to modulate working memory: The difficult choice of effective parameters for online interventions.” Brain Behav, vol. 11, no. 11, Nov. 2021, p. e2361. Pubmed, doi:10.1002/brb3.2361. Full Text
Hall, Shana A., et al. “Human immunodeficiency virus-related decreases in corpus callosal integrity and corresponding increases in functional connectivity.” Hum Brain Mapp, vol. 42, no. 15, Oct. 2021, pp. 4958–72. Pubmed, doi:10.1002/hbm.25592. Full Text
Deng, Lifu, et al. “Age-related dedifferentiation and hyperdifferentiation of perceptual and mnemonic representations.” Neurobiol Aging, vol. 106, Oct. 2021, pp. 55–67. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2021.05.021. Full Text
Pisoni, Angela, et al. “Neural signatures of saliency-mapping in anhedonia: A narrative review.” Psychiatry Res, vol. 304, Oct. 2021, p. 114123. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.psychres.2021.114123. Full Text
Becker, Maxi, et al. Between automatic and control processes: How relationships between problem elements interact to facilitate or impede insight. Aug. 2021. Epmc, doi:10.31234/osf.io/vadgf. Full Text
Cooper, Rose A., et al. “Mapping the organization and dynamics of the posterior medial network during movie watching.” Neuroimage, vol. 236, Aug. 2021, p. 118075. Pubmed, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118075. Full Text
Bukhari-Parlakturk, Noreen, et al. Data Driven Exploration of Network Connectivity in task-fMRI of Focal Hand Dystonia. May 2021. Epmc, doi:10.1101/2021.05.14.21257239. Full Text
Hovhannisyan, Mariam, et al. “The visual and semantic features that predict object memory: Concept property norms for 1,000 object images.” Mem Cognit, vol. 49, no. 4, May 2021, pp. 712–31. Pubmed, doi:10.3758/s13421-020-01130-5. Full Text
Hovhannisyan, Mariam, et al. “Correction to: The visual and semantic features that predict object memory: Concept property norms for 1,000 object images.” Mem Cognit, vol. 49, no. 4, May 2021, p. 732. Pubmed, doi:10.3758/s13421-021-01145-6. Full Text
Pages
Luber, B., et al. “Using diffusion tensor imaging to effectively target TMS to deep brain structures.” Neuroimage, vol. 249, 2022. Scopus, doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2021.118863. Full Text
Polascik, Bryce, et al. “COGNITIVE CONSEQUENCES OF COVID-19 IN OLDER ADULTS WITH COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENT.” American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, vol. 29, no. 4, 2021, pp. S75–76.
Bukhari-Parlakturk, N., et al. “Writer's Cramp Dystonia during increasingly complex motor task: analysis of behavior and task fMRI.” Movement Disorders, vol. 35, 2020, pp. S58–S58.
Beynel, Lysianne, et al. “Online Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation Enhances Working Memory Performance in Younger and Older Adults.” Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 43, NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2018, pp. S78–S78.
Davis, Simon, et al. “F113. Hippocampal Connectivity Insulates High-Risk Adolescents From the Relationship Between Stress and Depressive Symptoms.” Biological Psychiatry, vol. 83, no. 9, Elsevier BV, 2018, pp. S281–S281. Crossref, doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.02.726. Full Text
Deng, Zhi-De, et al. “T176. Controllability of Structural Brain Networks in Depressed Patients Receiving Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.” Biological Psychiatry, vol. 83, no. 9, Elsevier BV, 2018, pp. S196–S196. Crossref, doi:10.1016/j.biopsych.2018.02.513. Full Text
Beynel, Lysianne, et al. “fMRI- and Computationally-Guided rTMS Enhances Performance in Working Memory Manipulation.” Neuropsychopharmacology, vol. 42, NATURE PUBLISHING GROUP, 2017, pp. S114–15.
Davis, Simon W., et al. “BUILDING A BETTER MODEL OF WHITE MATTER CHANGES IN AGING: THE MYELODEGENERATIVE HYPOTHESIS AND LANGUAGE PROCESSING.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 2013, pp. 222–222.
Brooks, Jeffrey, et al. “NEURAL CORRELATES OF THE OWN-AGE BIAS IN YOUNGER AND OLDER ADULTS.” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT PRESS, 2013, pp. 35–35.
Hall, Shana, et al. “AN FMRI INVESTIGATION OF THE NEURAL BASIS OF INVOLUNTARY MEMORY: HOW DO THEY DIFFER FROM ESTABLISHED VOLUNTARY MEMORY NETWORKS?” Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, MIT PRESS, 2013, pp. 110–110.