Aging Research Center (ARC) E-mail: yvonne.brehmer@ki.se |
Yvonne Brehmer is a cognitive developmental psychologist with strong interests in the dynamics and plasticity of cognitive development and aging. Her work is very much related to: the trainability of memory functions across the lifespan; techniques to reveal behavioral plasticity and modifiability of cognitive processes; and to combining behavioral lifespan differences with corresponding changes in neural correlates.
In December 2006, Yvonne completed her dissertation on Episodic Memory Plasticity Across the Lifespan at the Max Planck Institute for Human Development (MPI) in Berlin, Germany, under the supervision of Ulman Lindenberger. During her time at the MPI, Yvonne was a doctoral fellow of the International Max Planck Research School “The Life Course: Evolutionary and Ontogenetic Dynamics” (LIFE).
At the end of 2006, Yvonne became a postdoctoral research fellow at the Aging Research Center, working with Lars Bäckman. She is currently working on a project investigating the effectiveness of adaptive working memory training on younger and older adults’ general memory performance. She is mainly analyzing functional imaging data from adults assessed before and after memory training via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) in order to relate behavioral experience-induced changes to neural correlates.
Selected publications
Brehmer, Y., Westerberg, H. & Bäckman, L. (2012). Working memory training in younger and older adults: Training gains, transfer, and maintenance. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 6, 63, 1-7.
Brehmer, Y., Rieckmann, A., Bellander, M., Westerberg, H., Fischer, H. & Bäckman, L. (2011). Neural correlates of training-related working memory gains in old age. NeuroImage, 58, 1110-1120.
Bellander, M., Brehmer, Y., Westerberg, H., Karlsson, S., Furth, D., Bergman, O., Eriksson, E., & Bäckman, L. (2011). Preliminary evidence that allelic variation in the LMX1A gene influences training-related working memory improvement. Neuropsychologia 49, 1938–1942.
Shing, Y.L., Werkle-Bergner, M., Brehmer, Y., Müller, V., Li, S.-C., & Lindenberger, U. (2010). Episodic memory across the lifespan: The contribution of strategic and associative components. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 34, 1080-1091.
Brehmer, Y., Westerberg, H., Bellander, M., Fürth, D., Karlsson, S., & Bäckman, L. (2009). Working Memory Plasticity Modulated by Dopamine Transporter Genotype. Neuroscience Letters, 467, 117-120 .
Brehmer, Y., Li, S.-C., Straube, B., Stoll, G., von Oertzen, T., Mueller, V., & Lindenberger, U. (2008). Comparing Memory Skill Maintenance Across the Lifespan: Preservation in Adults, Increases in Children. Psychology & Aging, 23, 227-238.
Mueller, V., Brehmer, Y., v.Oertzen, T., Li, S.-C., & Lindenberger, U. (2008). Electrophysiological correlates of selective attention: A lifespan comparison. BMC Neuroscience, 9:18.
Brehmer, Y., Li, S.-C., Mueller, V., v.Oertzen, T., Lindenberger, U. (2007). Memory plasticity across the life span: Uncovering children’s latent potential. Developmental Psychology, 43, 465-478.
Li, S. C., Brehmer, Y., Shing, Y. L., Werkle-Bergner, M., & Lindenberger, U. (2006). Neuromodulation of associative and organizational plasticity across the life span: Empirical evidence and neurocomputational modeling. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 30, 775-790