Doctor of Philosophy: 1991-11-27, Department of Psychology, Umeå University (UmU) – “Remembering in Alzheimer’s disease: Utilization of cognitive support”
Licensed psychologist: 1994-07-01
Associate professor: 1997-05-15
Professor: 2008-04-01

Current and previous positions
070101-present: Deputy Head of Department of Neurobiology, Care Sciences and Society (NVS), Karolinska Institutet (KI)
021015-present: University lecturer, Aging Research Center (ARC), NVS, KI
040823-050731: Visiting scientist, Max Planck Institute, Berlin, Germany
010216-021014: University lecturer, ARC, KI/SU
970901-010215: Associate professor, Department of Psychology, Stockholm University (SU)
960301-960923: Assistant professor, Department of Psychology, SU
940301-960228: Post doc, Medical Research Council
900701-910408: Research assistant, Stockholm Gerontology Research Center
840101-930131: Research assistant, graduate student, post doc - Department of Psychology, UmU.

Current research
Previous research has found an increased risk of dementia and Alzheimer’s disease in individuals with a relatively low level of education, work complexity, or level of activity (mental, physical, social). The purpose of our research is to examine whether these associations are direct or moderated by childhood cognitive ability. A new data collection is planned within two longitudinal population-based projects, focusing on aging and dementia – the Kungsholmen project and the SNACK project (Swedish National Study on Aging and Care – Kungsholmen). School marks at grade three, which are strongly associated with intelligence, will be collected from archives on approximately 5200 participants. It will enable us to examine whether (1) childhood cognitive ability affects the risk of dementia; (2) later education, work complexity, and activity (mental, physical, social) strengthen the relationship; (3) childhood cognitive ability, education, work complexity, and activity, separately or together affect the speed of cognitive decline in the normal aging process; (4) childhood cognitive ability, education, and other life events are related to age at time of dementia diagnosis.

Another line of research focuses on sex differences in cognitive functions, specifically episodic memory. Earlier research has demonstrated that women and girls outperform men and boys on face recognition, and that the difference is especially pronounced for female faces. The reasons for these differences are not well understood. In the proposed research, we plan to investigate (1) whether the sex difference in face recognition is present as early as in infancy, (2) whether differences in eye movements can predict differences in face recognition performance, (3) whether differences in personality (i.e interpersonal sensitivity) and quality of friendship are related to face recognition ability, and (4) how the ability to recognize faces is related to other episodic memory and cognitive functions.

PhD supervision
Petra Thilers, KI, “Hormones, cognition and age?” (2009-01).
Jenny Rehnman, SU, “The role of gender in face recognition.” (2007-03).
Julie Yonker, SU, “Hormones and cognition” (2003-11).
Pernilla Hillerås, KI, ”Well-being among the very old" (2000-04).
Johanna Lovén, KI, “Gender differences in cognition”. (2011).

Major research grants - PI
(2008-2010) Cognitive ability, education, work, and activity – What is the relation to dementia? Swedish Research Council.
(2008-2010) School grades and dementia – Is there a relationship? Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Sciences.
(2007-2009) Sex differences in face recognition. Swedish Research Council.
(2004-2006) Sex differences in cognitive functions: The impact of age, education, and cultural setting. Swedish Research Council.
(2002-2004) Sex differences in cognitive functions. The Bank of Sweden Tercentenary Foundation.
(1996-1998) Hormonal effects on cognitive functions. The Swedish Council for Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences.
(1995) Women, men and memory: Sex differences in episodic memory. The Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research.

Publications: 54 articles in peer-reviewed journals, 9 chapters in edited volumes.
Citations: More than 1550 citations, h-index 19, by March 2009.

Other
Member of the Regional Ethics Committee, Stockholm, since 2004.
Expert assessor of research proposals for the National Science Foundation, USA, 2007; the Research Council of Norway, annully since 2004; the Research Council of Norway in their evaluation of clinical, epidemiological, public health, health-related and psychological research Norway, 2004.
Served as the opponent on the doctoral dissertations of Paula Alhola, University of Turku, and Paul Johan Karlsen, University of Oslo.
Served on 15 doctoral dissertation examination committees.