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Einstein Lab

Cognitive Neuroscience, Gender and Health

Dept. of Psychology, University of Toronto
Dalla Lana School of Public Health, University of Toronto

Einstein lab staff

Lab members

Staff

Kaz Laird – Lab Manager – einsteinlabmanager@psych.utoronto.ca
Kaz graduated from the University of Toronto with an Honours B.Sc. in Psychology and Spanish and has continued to be involved with the psychology department since then. He is responsible for the day-to-day operation of the lab, manages the database for the Estrogens & Cognition project, and also coordinates the Women, Sex, Gender, and Dementia program led by Dr. Einstein as part of the Canadian Consortium on Neurodegeneration and Aging (CCNA). When Kaz isn’t in the lab, he enjoys learning web design, as well as watching and playing football (soccer).

Laurice Karkaby – Research Engineer – karkaby@psych.utoronto.ca
Laurice received her Honours B.Sc. at the University of Toronto, with a Specialist in Psychology and major in Sociology. She manages the research activities of the lab’s international collaboration Cognition After Bilateral Salpingo Oophorectomy (CABSOE) in Linköping, Sweden, where she is currently based. Her research interests are in the quality of life and experiences of women with oophorectomy. Outside of the office, Laurice travels as a scuba dive instructor in the summer where she leads marine conservation activities and educates schools on reef ecology and protecting our oceans.

Postdoctoral Fellows

Nicole Gervais, Ph.D. – nicole.gervais@utoronto.ca
Nicole Gervais

Nicole is the recipient of a research fellowship co-funded by the Alzheimer’s Association and Brain Canada Foundation to study early markers of Alzheimer’s disease in middle-aged women with a bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, and spontaneous menopause. She focuses on four themes related to Alzheimer’s disease: 1) memory, 2) brain structure, 3) sleep, and 4) inflammation. She uses structural MRI to estimate volumes of the hippocampus, entorhinal, perirhinal, and parahippocampal cortices and relate any changes to differences on memory tests. Nicole measures objective sleep parameters using polysomnography to investigate sleep disturbance. Her training was in behavioural neuroscience, working with rats during her Ph.D. (Concordia University, 2014) and aging common marmosets during her first postdoc (University of Massachusetts – Amherst, 2014-2016). Her primary research interests are to understand how aging, sleep, and hormones influence memory and its neural substrates across species. These interests include: 1) how structures in the medial temporal lobe (MTL) sub serve memory, 2) how sleep and cognition are altered by aging, 3) how chronic inflammation contributes to cognitive aging, and 4) the impact of biological sex and hormones on aging, with a focus on memory.

Graduate students

      • Alana Brown – Doctoral Student – alana.brown@mail.utoronto.ca
        Alana received her Psychology Master’s degree at the University of Toronto and is now a Ph.D. candidate with the Einstein Lab. She graduated with a Bachelor of Science from UofT in 2016, and is fortunate to have worked on a variety of projects in the Einstein Lab for two years prior to joining as a graduate student. She is particularly interested in the impact of hormones on brain structure and function in the context of spatial abilities, navigation strategies, and wayfinding behaviors in humans. Outside of the lab, Alana enjoys science fiction, drawing, photography, cooking spicy food, and exploring the city.
      • Laura Gravelsins – Doctoral Student – laura.gravelsins@mail.utoronto.ca
        Laura received her Honours B.Sc. in 2017 and M.A. in 2018, both at the University of Toronto and she is now a Ph.D. psychology student at the Einstein Lab. She feels fortunate to have been a part of the lab during the 4th year of her undergraduate degree and Masters degree, and strongly values its interdisciplinary, diverse, and feminist research. The complex relationship between genes, hormones, and cognition is fascinating to Laura, and her current research focuses on investigating cognitive performance in oral contraceptive users. Outside of the lab she is a don at Victoria College and enjoys playing ice hockey with friends and family!
      • Danielle Jacobson – Doctoral Student – dani.jacobson@mail.utoronto.ca
        Danielle JacobsonDanielle Jacobson is a Ph.D. candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She is in the Social and Behavioural Health Sciences Stream and is also in the Collaborative Specialization in Women’s Health. Coming from a background in Cognitive Neuroscience, researching sensorimotor learning, she integrates her experience in Psychology with her passion for women’s health. Danielle’s research focus is on the obstetric interaction between women with female genital cutting (FGC) and OB/GYNs in Toronto. In particular, she is interested in better understanding how clinical decisions are made. Danielle aims to conduct social justice oriented research that works toward health equity for immigrant women.
    • Nida Mustafa – Doctoral Student –  nida.mustafa@mail.utoronto.ca
      Nida MustafaNida Mustafa is a Ph.D. student at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She recently completed a Master’s degree in Health Sciences, specializing in women’s mental health. Her research in the past has focused on eating disorders in minority women, and she is greatly interested in immigrant mental health advocacy. Nida’s current work focuses on exploring elderly women’s experiences of pain within Toronto’s South Asian community.
  • Laila Rahman– Doctoral Student – laila.rahman@mail.utoronto.ca
    Laila RahmanLaila Rahman is a Ph.D. candidate in Social and Behavioral Health Sciences in the Dalla Lana School of Public Health at the University of Toronto. She hopes to contribute to achieving health equity and social justice through intellectual activism and research. Before joining the graduate program, she conducted research on maternal health, sexual and reproductive health, and violence against women and girls using quasi-experimental designs. Funded by the Canadian Institute of Health Research and Lupina Senior doctoral fellowships, Laila is currently in dialogue with postcolonial feminism, intersectionality, and Johnson’s violence typology in gender-based violence research in Bangladesh. In complicating the current male physical intimate partner violence (MPIPV) against women discourse, Laila’s project seeks to explore MPIPV-involved women’s and men’s intersecting social locations, their experience of multiple forms of MPIPV including intimate terrorism and situational couple violence, and women’s act of resistance against the MPIPV.
  • Rebekah Reuben – Doctoral Student – rebekah.reuben@mail.utoronto.ca
    Rebekah is a Ph.D. student in Psychology at the University of Toronto. She received an Honors B.Sc. in Psychology from Loyola University New Orleans in 2016, and an M.A. in Psychology from the University of Toronto in 2017. She is broadly interested in understanding sex differences in Alzheimer’s disease, investigating early predictors of cognitive impairment, and determining trajectories of change in cognition and brain structure over time. Rebekah is also fascinated by statistics and research methods, and loves learning about new techniques and improving her coding skills. When she’s not in the lab, Rebekah enjoys reading novels, watching and talking about films, and exploring new places!
  • Courtney Kannampuzha – Masters Student – ckann066@uottawa.ca
    Courtney received her Honors Bachelor of Science degree in 2018 at the University of Ottawa, where she majored in psychology. She is completing her M.A. year in experimental psychology at the University of Toronto under the supervision of Gillian Einstein. Her undergraduate thesis focused on examining the individual and cognitive factors that influence how individuals process emotional stimuli, and ultimately how one’s mood influences encoding and later recall of emotional information. She also conducted research at Toronto Western Hospital examining new innovative methods of treating depression specific to enhancing the longevity of treatment effects, one of those methods involving the use of ketamine. Courtney is excited to join the Einstein Lab to examine the intricate relationship between hormonal levels and cognitive deficits, specifically those pertaining to memory. She spends her time outside of the lab hanging out with friends, drawing, or binge watching Netflix series.
  • Mateja Perovic – Masters Student – m.perovic@mail.utoronto.ca
    Mateja received her Honours BSc from Leiden University in 2017, and is currently an MA student in the Einstein Lab. Broadly, she is interested in the interplay between women’s brain health and their social context. She is currently working on examining structural brain changes in women who underwent bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, as well as a project about the neurological effects of female genital cutting. Mateja has previously done research in social psychology, mainly in the areas of gender stereotypes, collective action and inter-group relations, and is interest in incorporating social psych perspectives in her current research in neuroscience. She is very excited to be a member of the Einstein Lab. Outside of her work in the lab, she spends her time reading, hiking, and petting as many dogs as possible.

Work Study Students

  • Alisa Chun Li
  • Kelsie Cyr
  • Gina Nicoll
  • Shreeyaa Ramana

Research Opportunity Program Students

  • Keleila Handelman-Kerman
  • Sahar Mahmoudian

Research Assistants

  • Aanya Bahl
  • Leyla Castro
  • Josipa Curic
  • Brittany Demircan
  • Jennifer Xiangning Ge
  • Galo Ginochio
  • Kevin Huang
  • Leena Johnson
  • Lina Khayyat
  • Claire Lauzon
  • Edgar Martinez Chavez
  • Clara McNamee
  • Omer Mustafa
  • Simone Rusu
  • Krissnavee Somasegaram
  • Sydney Turack
  • Aadhiya Vasudeva
  • Eric Yin
  • Sophia Zhao
  • Allison Zhou