CBBC Faculty Profile

Rochelle E. Tractenberg, Ph.D., MPH Assistant Professor, Departments of Biomathematics & Biostatistics and Psychiatry

Campus Address:
7 East Main Hospital, Room M7202

Mailing Address:
Department of Biomathematics & Biostatistics, 7 East Main, M7202, Georgetown University Hospital, 3800 Reservoir Road NW, Washington, DC 20008

Tel: 202-444-8748
Fax: 202-444-4114
E-mail: ret7@georgetown.edu

Research Interests:
My main interests in terms of cognitive neuroscience are a) understanding how symptoms of Alzheimer’s disease (e.g., behavioural disturbance, cognitive decline, sleep disturbance) can be accurately ‘measured’ and what, in the brain, these symptoms actually reflect; and b) understanding how inaccuracies in these measurements affect statistical modeling and by extension, our conceptualization of the symptoms themselves.

Research Summary:
I have three main research trajectories: 1. measurement in neuropsychology (e.g., what we think we’re measuring and how to find out if we are right) and how assumptions affect statistical modeling of neuropsychological phenomena such as ‘cognitive decline’ and ‘behavioural disturbance’; 2. developing a model of sleep disturbance and depression in elderly persons with and without Alzheimer’s disease; and 3. cognitive elements of “health literacy”. My research is mainly methodological: I am interested in how and why we measure certain aspects of the cognitive and behavioural domains and the sources of error in these measurements. Eventually, I want to bring this knowledge to a study of the neurophysiologic origins of our measurements. Similarly, by performing item-level analyses of the associations between symptoms of sleep and mood disturbance, with my colleagues I hope to develop a framework for a better understanding of their relationships and their underlying neurophysiology. The health literacy work is also methodological and focuses on determining possible routes for improvement. In this work, with my colleague from the School of Nursing, we will be identifying reading-related skills that have a clear relationship to “health literacy” using a model of skilled reading that was developed to explain how skilled reading is acquired. In this way, specific skills can be targeted by interventions intended to improve health literacy as well as our faith in people’s ability to consent to participate in research.

Populations Studied:
Neuropsychology, assessment, measurement error, elderly, skilled reading, Alzheimer’s disease, experimental design, and general methodology; Along with Darline Howard (Psychology) and Paul Aisen (Neurology), I study normal elderly (aging in a cognitively normal way) and persons with Alzheimer’s disease. I will be starting a new reading and health literacy oriented research programme with Patricia Cloonan (School of Nursing) July 2004. Here we are studying younger adults (ages 30+) as well as normal elderly; in this study the participants may have other illnesses but not cognitive disorders. With my colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University I am studying elderly persons with and without sleep disturbance; among these elderly persons are cohorts of Alzheimer’s patients and Parkinson’s disease patients. Finally, I am embarking on a research programme into student learning in the post-secondary educational setting, where graduate students in the School of Medicine will be my study population.

Methods Used:
My research emphasizes behavioural studies, and includes secondary analyses of clinical trials and survey (large-sample) data.

Teaching:
I co-instruct the graduate level introductory biostatistics course in the School of Medicine; we are developing a second-semester course that may be offered as early as Spring 2005. I also teach an introductory biostatistics course at the FDA’s Staff College and am developing a course in the critical evaluation of published scientific literature for the Staff College that would also become part of several Clinical Fellowship programmes within the School of Medicine.