Memory and Cognitive Disorders

The two overarching goals of the Memory and Cognitive Disorders Division are to: 1) improve the assessment, diagnosis, and treatment of dementia, including Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia with Lewy bodies, Vascular dementia, Frontotemporal dementia, among others, and 2) better characterize disorders of individual higher cognitive functions, such as memory, language, and executive deficits, their clinical inter-relationships, and their genetic and neuroimaging correlates. This reciprocally informative and integrative approach to dementia and higher cognitive functions reflects the division’s multidisciplinary perspective. Division members work closely with each other and members of the Movement Disorder, Stroke/Vascular, and Sleep divisions of neurology. Within the School of Medicine, working alliances range from basic research programs in Neuroscience and Human Genetics to clinical care and research networking with Geriatric Psychiatry and Geriatric Medicine’s Program on Aging. Other collaborative research and training activities of the division involve faculty in the Schools of Public Health and Social Work, the UNC Aphasia Center, and the Cecil Sheps Center for Health Services Research. The scope of the division’s clinical, research, and educational activities extends beyond the greater Triangle region to the rest of North Carolina, and portions of Virginia and South Carolina. Having attained national and international recognition in their own right, members of the Memory and Cognitive Disorders Division are committed to making this program a leader in innovative research, training, and clinical care.

Alexander Troster, PhD 
Associate Professor, Neurology

Kirk Wilhelmsen, MD, PhD
Associate Professor, Neurology, Genetics

Charlene Riedel-Leo, MSW
Clinical Coordinator