Katherine A. Gifford, PsyD

Associate Professor, Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine

Biography

Dr. Katherine Gifford is a clinical neuropsychologist and an Associate Professor in the Department of Anatomy & Neurobiology at Boston University Chobanian & Avedisian School of Medicine. She is a Investigator within the Precision Brain Health Initiative (https://www.bumc.bu.edu/pbhi/) and the Framingham Heart Study- Brain Aging Program. Dr. Gifford’s research focuses on disorders of aging, dementia, and developing tools for early detection of cognitive impairment. Her research incudes a specific emphasis on understanding subjective cognitive decline in older adults, or when people start to notice changes in their own memory and thinking. She is involved in independent and collaborative research projects that improve early identification of unhealthy aging, clinical phenotyping of abnormal brain aging (i.e., Alzheimer's disease and related disorder), and health care education to improve primary care management of dementias.

Before joining the BUSM faculty, she was an Associate Professor (tenured) of Neurology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Co-Director of the Vanderbilt Sports Concussion Center, and Clinical Core Co-Leader of the Vanderbilt Exploratory Alzheimer's Disease Center. She obtained her bachelor’s degree in psychology at Skidmore College in Saratoga Springs, NY and her doctoral degree in clinical psychology from the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne, FL. She completed her pre-doctoral internship in neuropsychology at the Henry Ford Health System in Detroit, MI. Her postdoctoral fellowship in neuropsychology was completed at Boston University and at Vanderbilt University.

Publications

  • Published 5/1/2025

    Gogniat MA, Khan OA, Li J, Park C, Hudson Robb W, Zhang P, Sun Y, Moore EE, Houston ML, Pechman KR, Shashikumar N, Taylor Davis L, Liu D, Landman BA, Cole KR, Bolton CJ, Gifford KA, Hohman TJ, Full K, Jefferson AL. Increased sedentary behavior is associated with neurodegeneration and worse cognition in older adults over a 7-year period despite high levels of physical activity. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 May; 21(5):e70157. PMID: 40357887.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 4/1/2025

    Ding H, Lyu C, Karjadi C, Sunderaraman P, Young CB, Mormino EC, Low S, Devine S, Gifford K, Au R, Lin H. Association of the digital clock drawing test with amyloid and tau PET biomarkers in low age risk adults. Sci Rep. 2025 Apr 01; 15(1):11104. PMID: 40169870.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 3/20/2025

    Phillips JM, Dumitrescu LC, Archer DB, Regelson AN, Mukherjee S, Lee ML, Choi SE, Scollard P, Trittschuh EH, Kukull WA, Biber S, Mez J, Mahoney ER, Clifton M, Libby JB, Walters S, Bush WS, Engelman CD, Lu Q, Fardo DW, Widaman KF, Buckley RF, Mormino EC, Sanders RE, Clark LR, Gifford KA, Vardarajan B, Cuccaro ML, Pericak-Vance MA, Farrer LA, Wang LS, Schellenberg GD, Haines JL, Jefferson AL, Johnson SC, Albert MS, Keene CD, Saykin AJ, Risacher SL, Larson EB, Sperling RA, Mayeux R, Goate AM, Renton AE, Marcora E, Fulton-Howard B, Patel T, Bennett DA, Schneider JA, Barnes LL, Cruchaga C, Hassenstab J, Belloy ME, Andrews SJ, Resnick SM, Bilgel M, An Y, Beason-Held LL, Walker KA, Duggan MR, Klinedinst BS, Crane PK, Hohman TJ. Novel modelling approaches to elucidate the genetic architecture of resilience to Alzheimer's disease. Brain. 2025 Mar 20. PMID: 40111762.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 2/22/2025

    Kuhn E, Klinger HM, Amariglio RE, Wagner M, Jessen F, Düzel E, Heneka MT, Chételat G, Rentz DM, Sperling RA, Ebenau JL, Butterbrod E, Van Der Flier WM, Sikkes SAM, Teunnissen CE, Van Harten AC, Van De Giessen EM, Rami L, Tort A, Sánchez Benavides G, Gifford KA, Van Hulle C, Buckley RF. SCD-plus features and AD biomarkers in cognitively unimpaired samples: A meta-analytic approach for nine cohort studies. Alzheimers Dement. 2025 May; 21(5):e14307. PMID: 39985404.

    Read at: PubMed

  • Published 1/10/2025

    Chen Y, Feng Y, Zhang X, Gifford KA, Elmanzalawi Y, Samuels J, Albaugh VL, English WJ, Flynn CR, Yu D, Zhang R, Ikramuddin S. Bariatric Surgery Is Associated With Reduced Incidence of Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer Disease and Related Dementias: A Retrospective Cohort Study. Ann Surg Open. 2025 Mar; 6(1):e541. PMID: 40134493.

    Read at: PubMed

View All 93 Publications:   View Full Profile in BUMC

Websites

Education

  • Florida Institute of Technology, PsyD
  • Florida Institute of Technology, MS
  • Skidmore College, BA

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