David Wolk Assistant Professor, Neurology University of Pittsburgh Phone: (412) 692-4607 Email: wolkda2@upmc.edu

M.D., Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine Research Interests We are principally interested in episodic memory processes and the impact of aging and Alzheimer’s disease on memory function. We have used the dual-process account of recognition memory to frame this work. By this account, recognition memory is subserved by recollection and familiarity, which appear to have separable anatomic and physiologic underpinnings. Recollection is the detailed retrieval of a prior memory experience while familiarity is a vague sense of prior encounter lacking contextual details. Research with a number of modalities, including Event-Related Potentials (ERPs), has supported this dissociation. Our prior work is consistent with the notion that patients with Alzheimer’s disease rely on familiarity-based memory in their recognition memory judgments. Given this reliance, we have tried to gain a better understanding of the neuropsychological and electrophysiological basis of this form of memory with the use of behavioral and ERP studies in both normal and impaired populations. Our current work builds off of this research by relating electrophysiological and behavioral measures of recollection and familiarity to anatomy with structural MRI in aging subjects and patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer’s disease. Such structure-function relationships will provide further insight into the neuroanatomic underpinnings of these processes, which have been proposed to be subserved by different medial temporal and neocortical structures. One of the major challenges in the detection of very early Alzheimer’s disease is differentiating the memory failures associated with the normal aging process from that reflecting AD pathology. It is hoped that study and measurement of these memory processes could be used as early detectors for AD pathology in patients with pre-clinical disease (those with Mild Cognitive Impairment). Such early detection may lead to more effective intervention with emerging treatment modalities. Recent Publications Wolk DA, Schacter DL, Lygizos M, Mandu-Sen N, Holcomb PJ, Daffner KR, Budson AE. ERP correlates of Remember/Know decisions: Association with the late posterior negativity. Biological Psychology, In press. Budson AE, Wolk DA, Chong H, Waring JD. Episodic memory in Alzheimer’s disease: Separating response bias from discrimination. Neuropsychologia. 2006;44(12):2222-32. Daffner KR, Ryan KK, Williams DM, Budson AE, Rentz DM, Wolk DA, Holcomb PJ. Increased responsiveness to novelty is associated with successful cognitive aging. Journal of Cognive Neuroscience. 2006 Oct;18(10):1759-73. Wolk DA, Schacter DL, Lygizos M, Mandu-Sen N, Holcomb PJ, Daffner KR, Budson AE. ERP correlates of recognition memory: Effects of retention interval and false alarms. Brain Research. 2006 Jun 22;1096(1):148-62. Wolk DA, Schacter DL, Berman AR, Holcomb PJ, Daffner KR, Budson AE. Patients with mild Alzheimer’s disease attribute conceptual fluency to prior experience. Neuropsychologia. 2005;43(11):162-172. Wolk DA, Coslett HB, Glosser G. The role of sensory-motor information in object recognition: evidence from a patient with a category-specific impairment. Brain and Language. 2005; 94:131-146. Wolk DA, Schacter DL, Berman AR, Holcomb PJ, Daffner KR, Budson AE. An electrophysiological investigation of the relationship between conceptual fluency and familiarity. Neuroscience Letters. 2004; 369(2):150-155. Wolk DA, Coslett HB. Hemispheric mediation of spatial attention: Pseudoneglect following callosal stroke. Annals of Neurology. 2004; 56(3):434-436.