Rate My Professor Brenda Hanna-Pladdy

Brenda Hanna-Pladdy, PhD, served as Associate Professor in the Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore. A clinical neuropsychologist, she specialized in neuroimaging and cognitive research related to Parkinson's disease. Her work focused on functional MRI biomarkers to predict cognitive progression, dopaminergic influences on spatial cognition, and paradoxical effects of dopamine medication on cognitive performance in Parkinson's patients. Hanna-Pladdy was principal investigator on NIH grant R01-NS098249, titled 'Functional MRI Biomarkers Predicting Cognitive Progression in PD,' funded by the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. She contributed to understanding disease progression experiences in Parkinson's through collaborative studies at the University of Maryland.

Hanna-Pladdy's key publications include 'Dopaminergic Basis of Spatial Deficits in Early Parkinson's Disease' (Cerebral Cortex Communications, 2021), examining dopamine transporter imaging and spatial cognition; 'Paradoxical Effect of Dopamine Medication on Cognition in Parkinson's Disease: Relationship to Side of Motor Onset' (Movement Disorders Clinical Practice, 2015), highlighting differential cognitive impacts based on motor symptom onset side; 'Audiovisual Lexical Retrieval Deficits Following Left Hemisphere Damage: Implications for Limb Apraxia' (Brain Sciences, 2018); and earlier influential works such as 'The Relation Between Instrumental Musical Activity and Cognitive Aging' (Neuropsychology, 2011, cited over 500 times), demonstrating lifelong musical engagement's protective effects on cognition, and 'Recent and Past Musical Activity Predicts Cognitive Aging Variability' (Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 2012). Her research has advanced knowledge on cognitive impairments in neurodegenerative disorders, emphasizing multimodal neuroimaging and behavioral assessments. At the University of Maryland School of Medicine, she recruited post-doctoral researchers for clinic-based studies on Parkinson's neuroimaging and cognition.