By Cliff McBride, University Communications and Marketing
Growing up, Dana Smith had a close relationship with her great grandmother, who was a poet from Bulgaria. But Smith knew her mostly as a family member who suffered from dementia.
That experience inspired Smith as a USF student to get involved with the Preventing Alzheimer's with Cognitive Training (PACT) study. The PACT study examines whether computerized brain training exercises can reduce the risk of cognitive impairment and dementia such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Smith, a junior studying psychology and a member of the Judy Genshaft Honors College, is now conducting research at the lab, looking into how being a grandparent can positively impact subjective and objective cognition in later life. It has led her to collaborate, and even visit, with researchers at the Yale School of Medicine to inform her thesis project.