# Attentional Mechanisms of Cognitive Compensation in Subjective Cognitive Decline and AD Risk

> **NIH NIH K01** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2024 · $111,576

## Abstract

Attentional Mechanisms of Cognitive Compensation in Subjective Cognitive Decline and AD Risk
Candidate: Dr. Kimberly Albert, PhD is an assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral
Sciences at the Vanderbilt University Medical Center with a strong background in cognitive and systems
neuroscience. Her long-term career goals include gaining the necessary training to become an independent
investigator with research focused on identifying brain mechanisms that maintain cognitive function in the early
stages of pathological brain aging and may underlie subjective cognitive decline (SCD).
Career Development: Dr. Albert seeks to translate her mechanistic work to clinical research that mitigates the
cognitive effects of early AD pathology. Dr. Albert requires advanced training in 1) clinical trials development,
implementation, and management.; 2) the clinical presentation, course, and assessment of SCD and Alzheimer’s
Disease; 3) neuroimaging using EEG/ERP to provide the temporal resolution to assess brain activity related to
component cognitive processes. This training will build on Dr. Albert’s prior experience in human cognitive
neuroscience using functional neuroimaging to examine the neurobiology of cognitive aging.
Research Project: These career goals will be facilitated through a research study focused on the role of
cholinergic support of attention as a cognitive compensatory mechanism in SCD. As early AD-related
neuropathology affects medial temporal areas important for memory, there may be a compensatory
enhancement of attention network activity via increased cholinergic function. Although memory performance is
maintained through this compensatory process, subtle cognitive changes may be obscured. Additionally, the
individual may experience this change as increased required effort or occasional memory failures which result
in subjective cognitive decline despite normal cognitive testing. Cholinergic activity may be an integral
component of maintaining memory function in early AD, through enhanced attention.
The proposed study focuses on attention as a compensatory cognitive process and the relationships between
AD-related pathology and cholinergic neurotransmitter mechanisms that may underlie this compensation in SCD.
The ultimate aim of the study is to identify the role of attention network changes in supporting cognitive
performance in SCD using EEG and fMRI as complimentary neuroimaging approaches. Anticholinergic
challenge will be employed to model AD progression and examine the relationships between cognitive concerns,
attention, and AD pathology. The results of this study will improve our understanding of brain changes that
maintain cognitive performance in the early stages of AD pathology and may underlie SCD.
Environment: Mentoring, collaborations, and resources available through the Department of Psychiatry and
Behavioral Sciences, the Center for Cognitive Medicine, and the Vanderbilt Alzheimer’s Disease Research
C...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10920490
- **Project number:** 5K01AG073587-02
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Kimberly Albert
- **Activity code:** K01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $111,576
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-09-15 → 2028-05-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10920490

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10920490, Attentional Mechanisms of Cognitive Compensation in Subjective Cognitive Decline and AD Risk (5K01AG073587-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-27 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10920490. Licensed CC0.

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