About the Center for Cognitive Neurology | NYU Langone Health

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Center for Cognitive Neurology About the Center for Cognitive Neurology

About the Center for Cognitive Neurology

The Center for Cognitive Neurology, part of NYU Langone’s Department of Neurology, is a multidisciplinary center devoted to research, clinical care, and clinical advances in the treatment of neurological diseases affecting cognition, such as memory, language, attention, auditory, visual, and thinking difficulties. Through our research programs and at our clinical care centers, we focus on the prevention and treatment of Alzheimer’s disease, Lewy body dementia, prion diseases, vascular dementia, traumatic brain injury, frontotemporal dementia, and hydrocephalus.

We are committed to promoting brain health through early diagnosis and comprehensive treatment of emergent memory and neurocognitive problems. We work closely with other medical disciplines to address the prevention of aging-related diseases.

The Center for Cognitive Neurology draws upon the strengths of the Silberstein Alzheimer’s Institute, which serves as our clinical research hub, and NYU Langone’s Pearl I. Barlow Center for Memory Evaluation and Treatment, a New York State–funded Center of Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease, where we care for patients.

Our Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center is one of only 30 Alzheimer’s disease research centers in the United States supported by the National Institute on Aging. The center offers study participants and their families the highest-quality diagnostic evaluations and care during the research experience. The center’s programs and services extend to other research facilities and healthcare professionals through shared knowledge and collaboration.

The Center for Cognitive Neurology also partners with NYU Langone’s Neuroscience Institute to develop a better understanding of the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative disorders and development of novel therapies.

Our History

More than four decades have passed since investigators at NYU School of Medicine began studying the enigma of Alzheimer’s disease. Since the 1970s, NYU School of Medicine has played a pioneering role in deciphering the pathological origins of this devastating disease, refining its clinical diagnosis, and developing novel treatments and therapies. The Silberstein Alzheimer’s Institute was inaugurated in the 1980s when NYU School of Medicine brought together a group of accomplished researchers through funding provided by the Silberstein Foundation.

The Silberstein Alzheimer’s Institute took a leadership position in the field, with discoveries focusing on understanding the basic mechanisms of the disease as well as treatments and interventions that have the potential to reduce the rate of cognitive decline. Our researchers explored experimental therapies that targeted the symptoms as well as the pathology of the condition. In 2007, the institute announced the opening of the Pearl I. Barlow Center for Memory Evaluation and Treatment, which offers an integrated approach to the care of memory impairment and age-related brain disorders.

In 2008, the Pearl I. Barlow Center for Memory Evaluation and Treatment was named one of six New York State Centers of Excellence for Alzheimer’s Disease. Three years later, to reflect our expansion, evolution, and advancement in the field, we changed our name to the Center for Cognitive Neurology.

Our new identity accurately represents our far-reaching research capabilities and our forward-thinking clinical programs. Once focused only on Alzheimer’s disease research and discovery, today we are leaders in the field of brain aging and operate as a comprehensive, fully integrated medical facility. Our staff are devoted to research and clinical advances to improve the treatment and search for a cure for all neurodegenerative diseases affecting cognition. We have extensive expertise in healthy brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and memory disorders, Parkinson’s disease and movement disorders, atypical dementias, and geriatric psychiatry.

Our research enterprise continues to expand as we improve our understanding of the causes of Alzheimer’s and related neurodegenerative diseases, and as we continue to expand our research teams with the recruitment of outstanding scientists who will educate and inspire future generations of investigators and clinicians.

At our core is our commitment to the future: groundbreaking science that opens additional possibilities and effective therapies to find a cure.