About Us

The Alzheimer's Disease and Cognitive Disorders lab at Utah State University is led by clinical neuropsychologist and professor, Dr. JoAnn Tschanz. Housed within the Psychology Department at USU, the lab has strong collaborations across campus in other departments, the state, the US and other countries. Thank you for your interest in our work.

View of the Wellsville Mountains from Logan, UT. Photo by Chelsea Sanders.

From the beginning

Where we are now

Dr. Tschanz started at USU as the clinical director and a co-investigator of the Cache County Study on Memory in Aging (CCSMA), a population-based, prospective study of older adults in Cache County, Utah. She subsequently led the Cache County Dementia Progression Study (DPS), a longitudinal study of the course, risk factors, and outcomes related to all causes of dementia and issues related to dementia caregiving. Many graduate and undergraduate students played a role in these studies, conducting assessments and interviews of older adult research participants, conducting quality assurance, data entry, statistical analyses, and disseminating results.

Many students in the lab continue to investigate risk factors for Alzheimer's disease and related disorders in the original CCSMA and DPS, with recent investigations in genetics [Brain Derived Neurotrophic Factors (BDNF)], sex differences in AD, nutritional factors and the expression of dementia after onset, sleep disturbance, and informal costs of dementia care. New projects have examined technology-related intervention methods for the prevention of AD (Gray Matters) or technologies to aid memory deficits (Technology and Adoption Usage Tools for Everyday Technologies). A new NIA-funded project examines selected offspring of the original Cache County Study cohort to identify genes associated with risk and resilience of AD.