Elaine Souder, PhD, RN
Associate Professor

My research focuses on Alzheimer’s Disease. I’m particularly interested in issues that affect daily functioning, because daily functioning is where it’s at regardless of the severity of memory problem. It's the ability to function on a daily basis that influences whether people need supervision and whether they can remain in their home settings.

I’m currently funded by the National Institute of Mental Health to look at the relationship of daily functioning, particularly in the areas requiring visuo-spatial skills, and neuropsychological test data. Visuo-spatial is concerned with the perception of where things are located in space. Individuals with visuo-spatial impairment have difficulty with dressing, difficulty finding their way, and often have trouble moving around objects.

I’ve become aware that, in addition to the impairment in visuo-spatial functioning commonly seen in Alzheimer’s Disease, many Alzheimer patients experience visual deficits, e.g. impairments in contrast sensitivity, color discrimination, and depth perception. Currently, I’m beginning pilot work to measure visual status, both in a more traditional sense, with an ophthalmology exam, but additionally doing some specialized vision testing to see how that affects the performance of selected daily activities. The importance of this is that while we can’t change the biology of what’s happening in the brain at this time, we may find that it is useful to modify the environment to compensate for the visual deficits.

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