Skip to content

 

Fellows Directory

Karalyn Patterson

Karalyn Patterson

Professor Karalyn Patterson FBA FMedSci FRS

Fellow


Elected: 2014

Biography

From its inception, Karalyn Patterson has shaped the field of cognitive neuropsychology — the study of how the brain’s structure and function relates to mental processes concerning the generation and use of knowledge. Specifically, Karalyn has used the effects of brain disease and injury to improve our understanding of language and memory.

Her approaches are varied and rigorous, combining computer modelling and structural and functional brain imaging with observations of behaviour in normal and brain-damaged adults, as well as those affected by certain brain diseases. This has allowed Karalyn to directly link particular structures in the brain with specific cognitive issues.

Karalyn’s research has important consequences for our understanding of brain conditions that affect memory — for example, Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia. She has also revealed the impact of the same brain disorder on the speakers of two diverse languages, English and Japanese.

Interest and expertise

Subject groups

  • Anatomy, physiology and neurosciences
    • Behavioural neuroscience

Keywords

Language, Memory

Was this page useful?
Thank you for your feedback
Thank you for your feedback. Please help us improve this page by taking our short survey.