Pauline Maki
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Neuroscience
Nearly every woman who reaches midlife goes through menopause, yet little is known about how this transition affects the brain and memory in the short and long term. The question matters because about two-thirds of Alzheimer's disease patients in the U.S.
- Fields
Neuroscience
Medicine & Clinical Research
Psychology
- Topics
menopause
women's health
cognitive aging
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Mar 2027
What they work on
- Map longitudinal changes in brain structure, function, connectivity and memory across menopause stages in 220 women aged 40–59, staging menopause by bleeding criteria and anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH), and relating changes to estradiol.
- Test how menopause symptoms affect brain and cognition, using self-reports, ambulatory skin conductance monitors to measure hot flashes objectively, and actigraphy wrist sensors to measure sleep.
- Identify vulnerability and resilience factors that shape cognition and brain health during the menopause transition, working with other Aging Adult Brain Connectome projects and cores.
- Examine how plasma Alzheimer's disease biomarkers change with menopause stage and symptoms, and how Alzheimer's genetic risk factors shape midlife brain and cognitive trajectories.
More about the research
are women. This project tracks women's brains, thinking and hormones across the menopause transition to learn how it contributes to sex differences in cognitive aging and dementia.
Why it matters
Women make up about two-thirds of U.S. Alzheimer's disease patients, and memory often dips during perimenopause. By linking brain imaging, hormones, hot flashes and sleep across menopause, this work could identify modifiable targets for preventing cognitive decline and dementia in women, and clarify how menopause contributes to sex differences in Alzheimer's risk.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Brandilyn Peters
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, NY·Public Health & Epidemiology
Determine how 12 weeks of transdermal estradiol, with or without progesterone, changes the gut microbiome of women with HIV in the randomized HoT trial, using shotgun metagenomic sequencing of stool samples.
Michael Harms
Washington University in St Louis, MO·Neuroscience
Implement matched 3-tesla MRI scanning across four sites at two time points about two years apart in typically aging adults aged 36 to 100+, recruited to reflect the US population by sex, race, ethnicity and household income.
Amanda Kallen
University of Vermont, VT·Genetics
Chart the ovarian aging process in genetically diverse Collaborative Cross mouse strains with low Anti-Müllerian hormone and reduced fertility by measuring ovarian reserve, hormones, follicle development and molecular aging markers.
The school
Washington University in St Louis: 97 labs on PI Pages, $1.2B a year on research, 365 research doctorates a year.
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