bar09638@suffolk.edu

I’m originally from Plymouth, New Hampshire and completed a BA in Psychology and a minor in Music at University of Rochester (NY), where I first became interested in neuropsychology.  After graduating, I worked as a research assistant on a longitudinal study of schizophrenia at Harvard Medical School in order to gain more research experience as well as exposure to neuropsychology.  This solidified my interests in brain behavior relationships and ultimately led to my decision to attend graduate school.

My research has focused on investigating correlates of mental fatigue in Multiple Sclerosis.  For my master’s thesis, I looked at relationships among fatigue and cognitive performance in patients with MS and controls.  Specifically, I was interested in the relationships among subjective fatigue, objective fatigue and cognitive performance.  This research stimulated interest in more direct observation of the in-vivo changes that may be associated with fatigue during cognitive performance.

My dissertation is an extension of this previous work in that I am using fMRI to investigate the role of fatigue and mental effort during cognitive performance.  Dr. Moes and I have collaborated with researchers at the Partners MS Center (BWH) and MGH.  We  hypothesize that greater brain activation in MS patients vs. controls will be associated with both subjective fatigue as well as objective declines in performance over time, suggesting that increased brain compensation is related to mental fatigue.

Currently, I’m completing my internship at Long Island Jewish Medical Center-Zucker Hillside Hospital (Adult Neuropsychology Track).  My long term goals are to move back to the Boston area and primarily conduct clinical work within a medical setting.

Dissertation Title

Mental Fatigue and Increased Cortical Activation in Multiple Sclerosis: an fMRI Study. Projected completion date: Summer 2008. 

Presentations

2005   Barker, L. and Moes, E., Mental Fatigue, Effort and Cognitive Performance in Individuals with Multiple Sclerosis and College Students. Mid-year INSMeeting, July 6-9, Dublin, Ireland. Abstract printed in Journal of the International  Society. (JINS), Vol. 11, Supplement S2.