Stacy Andersen, PhD
Assistant Professor
Boston University School of Medicine
Dept of Medicine
Geriatrics

PhD, Boston University School of Medicine




Stacy Andersen, PhD has conducted research with the New England Centenarian Study since 2000. Her earlier work involved the investigation of the delay or escape of age-related illnesses and disability in centenarians and their family members. Historically, gerontologists and the lay public assumed that living longer was associated with an increased duration of age-related illnesses. Then, in 1980, Jim Fries proposed his compression of morbidity hypothesis, suggesting that as people live to the limit of human life span, they necessarily postpone or delay age-related diseases towards the end of life. She first investigated this hypothesis in relation to cancer, normally associated with high mortality risk. In this study she documented a 17-year delay in the onset of cancer diagnoses compared with a national cancer database. Much more recently, she published evidence that those truly near the limit of human life span, supercentenarians (age 110+ years), postpone not only morbidity but also functional and cognitive decline. The supercentenarians spend an average of the last 5 years of their lives with one or more age-related diseases whereas younger centenarians spend approximately 9 years with morbidity. These studies demonstrate that extremely long-lived individuals are models for disease-free aging that can help us learn more about health spans and successful aging.

More recently Dr. Andersen has been investigating cognitive function in family members of long-lived individuals in the Long Life Family Study. Analyses of cognitive function in this cohort reveal that family members from the offspring generation perform better on some tests of neuropsychological function than their spouses who do not have familial longevity. In addition, there is familial clustering of exceptional episodic memory performance such that individuals with high-performing family members were more likely to demonstrate better episodic memory than those without high-performing family members. Assessment of more specific deficits in cognitive function consistent with Alzheimer’s disease revealed lower risk of impairment among individuals with familial longevity compared with their spouses. Dr. Andersen’s dissertation research involved an expanded neuropsychological assessment protocol in this cohort. She documented that in spite of average fewer years of education and lower proxies of cognitive reserve, participants with familial longevity performed at the same levels as the referent group. She concluded that individuals with familial longevity may have non-education related advantages that may be conducive to preserved cognitive function. She is now investigating a variety of potential modifiers of cognitive function in this cohort.


Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia
06/15/2020 - 05/31/2023 (PI)
NIH/National Institute on Aging
5K01AG057798-04


Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia
07/15/2018 - 02/29/2020 (PI)
NIH-NIA
5K01AG057798-02

Long Life Family Study: Columbia University
09/07/2018 - 05/31/2019 (PI)
Trustees of Columbia University NIH-NIA


Title


Yr Title Project-Sub Proj Pubs
2021 Resilience/Resistance to Alzheimer's Disease in Centenarians and Offspring (RADCO) 1U19AG073172-01
2021 Phenotyping and Biospecimen Core 1U19AG073172-01-6962
2021 Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia 5K01AG057798-04
2020 Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia 7K01AG057798-03
2019 Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia 5K01AG057798-02
2018 Digital Markers of Cognition Across the Spectrum of Preclinical Cognitive Impairment to Dementia 1K01AG057798-01A1

Publications listed below are automatically derived from MEDLINE/PubMed and other sources, which might result in incorrect or missing publications. Faculty can login to make corrections and additions.

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  1. Libon DJ, Swenson R, Lamar M, Price CC, Baliga G, Pascual-Leone A, Au R, Cosentino S, Andersen SL. The Boston Process Approach and Digital Neuropsychological Assessment: Past Research and Future Directions. J Alzheimers Dis. 2022 Apr 22.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35466941
     
  2. Glynn NW, Gmelin T, Renner SW, Qiao YS, Boudreau RM, Feitosa MF, Wojczynski MK, Cosentino S, Andersen SL, Christensen K, Newman AB. Perceived Physical Fatigability Predicts All-Cause Mortality in Older Adults. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2022 Apr 01; 77(4):837-841. PMID: 34908118; PMCID: PMC8974332; DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glab374;
     
  3. Du M, Andersen SL, Cosentino S, Boudreau RM, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Digitally generated Trail Making Test data: Analysis using hidden Markov modeling. Alzheimers Dement (Amst). 2022; 14(1):e12292.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35280964; PMCID: PMC8902814; DOI: 10.1002/dad2.12292;
     
  4. Fox-Fuller JT, Rizer S, Andersen SL, Sunderaraman P. Survey Findings About the Experiences, Challenges, and Practical Advice/Solutions Regarding Teleneuropsychological Assessment in Adults. Arch Clin Neuropsychol. 2022 Feb 23; 37(2):274-291. PMID: 34564721; PMCID: PMC8513402; DOI: 10.1093/arclin/acab076;
     
  5. Gunn S, Wainberg M, Song Z, Andersen S, Boudreau R, Feitosa MF, Tan Q, Montasser ME, O'Connell JR, Stitziel N, Price N, Perls T, Schork NJ, Sebastiani P. Distribution of 54 polygenic risk scores for common diseases in long lived individuals and their offspring. Geroscience. 2022 Feb 04.View Related Profiles. PMID: 35119614
     
  6. Qiao YS, Gmelin T, Renner SW, Boudreau RM, Martin S, Wojczynski MK, Christensen K, Andersen SL, Cosentino S, Santanasto AJ, Glynn NW. Evaluation of the Bidirectional Relations of Perceived Physical Fatigability and Physical Activity on Slower Gait Speed. J Gerontol A Biol Sci Med Sci. 2021 09 13; 76(10):e237-e244. PMID: 33170216; PMCID: PMC8436994; DOI: 10.1093/gerona/glaa281;
     
  7. Gurinovich A, Song Z, Zhang W, Federico A, Monti S, Andersen SL, Jennings LL, Glass DJ, Barzilai N, Millman S, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Correction to: Effect of longevity genetic variants on the molecular aging rate. Geroscience. 2021 Aug; 43(4):2101.View Related Profiles. PMID: 34143375; PMCID: PMC8492867; DOI: 10.1007/s11357-021-00400-7;
     
  8. Andersen SL, Du M, Cosentino S, Schupf N, Rosso AL, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Slower Decline in Processing Speed Is Associated with Familial Longevity. Gerontology. 2022; 68(1):17-29.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33946077
     
  9. Gurinovich A, Song Z, Zhang W, Federico A, Monti S, Andersen SL, Jennings LL, Glass DJ, Barzilai N, Millman S, Perls TT, Sebastiani P. Effect of longevity genetic variants on the molecular aging rate. Geroscience. 2021 06; 43(3):1237-1251.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33948810; PMCID: PMC8190315; DOI: 10.1007/s11357-021-00376-4;
     
  10. Sebastiani P, Federico A, Morris M, Gurinovich A, Tanaka T, Chandler KB, Andersen SL, Denis G, Costello CE, Ferrucci L, Jennings L, Glass DJ, Monti S, Perls TT. Protein signatures of centenarians and their offspring suggest centenarians age slower than other humans. Aging Cell. 2021 02; 20(2):e13290.View Related Profiles. PMID: 33512769; PMCID: PMC7884029; DOI: 10.1111/acel.13290;
     
Showing 10 of 63 results. Show More

This graph shows the total number of publications by year, by first, middle/unknown, or last author.

Bar chart showing 62 publications over 19 distinct years, with a maximum of 10 publications in 2021

YearPublications
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20205
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In addition to these self-described keywords below, a list of MeSH based concepts is available here.

Cognition
Dementia
Centenarian
Longevity
Aging
Neuropsychological Assessment

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