Katherine W. Turk, MD

Assistant Professor of Neurology

  • Title Assistant Professor of Neurology
  • Office VA Boston Healthcare System (12C) 150 S. Huntington Street Boston, MA 02130
  • Education Medical School: Tufts University School of Medicine (2011)
    Internship: Internal Medicine, University of Washington (2012)
    Residency: Neurology, University of Washington (2015)
    Fellowship: Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology, VA Boston Healthcare System/Boston University School of Medicine (2017)

Dr. Turk is a board-certified Neurologist specialized in Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology. She earned her medical degree from Tufts University School of Medicine and then completed her Internship and Neurology residency at the University of Washington in Seattle. She completed her fellowship training in Behavioral Neurology at Boston University/VA Boston. She sees patients at the Boston VA Memory Disorders clinic and is also a principal investigator and co-director of the Center for Translational Cognitive Neuroscience lab (CTCN) at VA Boston. She serves as the co-Leader of the Outreach, Recruitment and Engagement core of the Boston University Alzheimer’s disease Research Center. She has received research funding from the Alzheimer’s Association, the Doris Duke Foundation and the US Department of Veterans Affairs. Dr. Turk’s research interests include behavioral interventions for memory loss in clinical populations including veterans with Alzheimer’s disease and Traumatic Brain Injury as well the investigation of event-related potentials as clinical diagnostic biomarkers.

Publications:

Tao Q, Alvin Ang TF, Akhter-Khan SC, Itchapurapu IS, Killiany R, Zhang X, Budson AE, Turk KW, Goldstein L, Mez J, Alosco ML, Qiu WQ; Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. Impact of C-Reactive Protein on Cognition and Alzheimer Disease Biomarkers in Homozygous Apolipoprotein E ɛ4 Carriers. Neurology. 2021 Jul 15:10.1212/WNL.0000000000012512. doi: 10.1212/WNL.0000000000012512. Epub ahead of print. 

Turk KW, Marin A, Schiloski KA, Vives-Rodriguez AL, Uppal P, Suh C, Dwyer B, Palumbo R, Budson AE. Head Injury Exposure in Veterans Presenting to Memory Disorders Clinic: An Observational Study of Clinical Characteristics and Relationship of Event-Related Potentials and Imaging Markers. Front Neurol. 2021 Jun 14;12:626767. doi: 10.3389/fneur.2021.626767. 

Malone C, Turk KW, Palumbo R, Budson AE. The Effectiveness of Item-Specific Encoding and Conservative Responding to Reduce False Memories in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Mild Alzheimer’s Disease Dementia. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2021 Mar;27(3):227-238. doi: 10.1017/S1355617720000715. Epub 2020 Aug 10. 

Turk KW, Palumbo R, Deason RG, Marin A, Elshaar A, Gosselin E, O’Connor MK, Tripodis Y, Budson AE. False Memories: The Other Side of Forgetting. J Int Neuropsychol Soc. 2020 Jul;26(6):545-556. doi: 10.1017/S1355617720000016. Epub 2020 Feb 28. 

Turk KW, Budson AE. Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy. Continuum (Minneap Minn). 2019 Feb;25(1):187-207. doi: 10.1212/CON.0000000000000686. 

Turk KW, Elshaar AA, Deason RG, Heyworth NC, Nagle C, Frustace B, Flannery S, Zumwalt A, Budson AE. Late Positive Component Event-related Potential Amplitude Predicts Long-term Classroom-based Learning. J Cogn Neurosci. 2018 Sep;30(9):1323-1329. doi: 10.1162/jocn_a_01285. Epub 2018 May 23.

Turk, KW, Gosselin E, Palumbo R, Nagle C, Tat M and Budson AE. False Memories: the other side of forgetting. In preparation, August 2018.

Turk KW, Flanagan M, Josephson JR, Keene CD,  Jayadev S and Bird T. Psychosis in Spinocerebellar Ataxias: A case series and study of Tyrosine Hydroxylase in Substantia Nigra. The Cerebellum, 2018 August 17(2): 143-151.

Gallagher LG, Ilango S, Wundes A, Stobbe GA, Turk KW, MD, Franklin GM, Linet MS, Freedman DM, Alexander BH, and Harvey Checkoway H. Lifetime Exposure to Ultraviolet   Radiation and the Risk of Multiple Sclerosis in the U.S. Radiologic Technologists Cohort Study. In Press, Multiple Sclerosis Journal May 2018.

Turk KW and Budson AE. Dementia, In: The Brigham Intensive Review of Internal Medicine. Third Edition. 2016.

Turk, J.B. Leverenz. Cognitive Impairment in Parkinson’s Disease: Biomarkers, neuroimaging, and genetics will play a vital role in helping to understand the origins of Parkinson disease and treating cognitive impairment in patients with the disease. Federal Practitioner. 2014 Jun 31(S5); 20S-23S.

Obermeier B, Lovato L, Mentele R, Brück W, Forne I, Imhof A, Lottspeich F, Turk KW, Willis SN, Wekerle H, Hohlfeld R, Hafler DA, O’Connor KC, Dornmair K. Related B cell clones that populate CSF and CNS of patients with multiple sclerosis produce CSF immunoglobulin. J Neuroimmunol. 2011 Apr;233(1-2):245-8.

Ratai EM, Pilkenton SJ, Greco JB, Lentz MR, Bombardier JP, Turk KW, He J, Joo CG, Lee V,Westmoreland S, Halpern E, Lackner AA,González RG.In vivo proton magnetic resonance Spectroscopy reveals region specific metabolic responses to SIV infection in the macaque brain. BMC Neurosci. 2009 Jun 22;10:63.

Ratai EM, Hancu I, Blezek DJ, Turk KW, Halpern E, González RG. Automatic repositioning of CSI grids  in longitudinal 1H MRS studies: impact on reproducibility of metaboliteconcentration measurements. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. Magn Reson Imaging. 2008 May;27(5):1188-93.

Rapp D, Turk K, Bales G, Cook S.  Botulinum toxin type A inhibits calcitonin gene-related peptide release from isolated rat bladder.  Journal of Urology. 2006 Mar;175(3 Pt 1):1138-42.

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