About

Neal J Cohen is a professor in the Psychology department and a faculty member in the Neuroscience Program at the Illinois College of Liberal Arts & Sciences. His research focuses on the interdisciplinary study of human learning and memory within cognitive neuroscience, with particular emphasis on identifying and characterizing the brain's multiple memory systems. He concentrates on the hippocampal (or medial temporal lobe) memory system, studying memory impairments seen in patients with amnesia. His empirical work combines cognitive neuropsychological, eye movement, fMRI, and ERP studies of memory performance in both normal and neuropsychological populations, alongside computational modeling of memory. The overarching goal of his research is to better understand the componential organization of memory and to map the functional architecture of memory onto its neurobiological substrates. Neal J Cohen holds a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego and is also an Emeritus Professor of Psychology.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Artificial Intelligence
• Medicine
• Neuroscience
• Pathology
• Physics
• Biomedical engineering
• Psychology
• Nursing
• Cognitive psychology
• Anatomy
• Biology
• Virology
• Radiology
• Environmental health
• Telecommunications
• Cognitive science

Selected publications

• Effects of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Treatment on Risk for Atrial Fibrillation: An Updated Meta-Analysis of 34 Trials including 114,326 Individuals

  medRxiv · 2025-12-15 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Background: Recent meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have raised concerns that treatment with omega-3 fatty acids may increase risk of atrial fibrillation (AF). However, these meta-analyses included at most eight trials. The aim of this current meta-analysis was to expand the search by including other eligible omega-3 RCTs with AF incidence data, incorporating both published and unpublished data. Methods: Eligible studies were RCTs investigating daily doses of ≥500 mg/d of docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and/or eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA). Additional inclusion criteria included ≥12 months treatment with EPA/DHA, participants ≥ 50 years of age, and where possible, the absence of known AF/atrial flutter at baseline. The primary outcome was occurrence of new-onset AF. Our primary hypothesis was that risk for AF would simultaneously depend on both omega-3 dose (above or below 1500 mg/d) and background cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk status, and that their combined impact on AF risk would be synergistic. Results: A total of 34 RCTs (36 datasets; n=114,326) were included in this meta-analysis. Only studies including patients at high-risk for CVD who were treated with high-doses of EPA/DHA (>1500 mg/day) showed a statistically significant increase in AF risk with a pooled odds ratio (OR) of 1.48 (95% CI, 1.21-1.81) and an absolute risk difference of 0.8% (0.40-1.1%). None of the other three groups showed statistically significant levels of AF risk (ORs 1.07 (high risk, low dose), 1.06 (low risk, low dose) and 0.95 (low risk, high dose). Conclusion: This meta-analysis suggests that treatment with EPA/DHA is most likely to increase risk for AF in patients at high-risk for CVD who are treated with high doses of EPA/DHA. The risk for AF should be balanced against the benefits of EPA/DHA in making treatment decisions.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Disrupted flexible use of context-dependent relational memory in adults following moderate-severe traumatic brain injury

  Neuropsychologia · 2025-04-30

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Putamen Stiffness Declines with Age and Is Associated with Implicit Sequence Learning Outcomes

  Brain Sciences · 2025-08-29

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Sequence learning, the ability to pick up on regularities in our environment to facilitate behavior, is critically dependent on striatal structures in the brain, with the putamen emerging as a critical hub for implicit sequence learning. As the putamen is known to shrink with age, and age-related declines in sequence learning abilities are common, it has been hypothesized that the structural integrity of the putamen is likely related to sequence learning outcomes. However, the structural literature is sparse. One reason may be that traditional structural imaging measures, like volume, are not sufficiently sensitive to measure changes that are related to performance outcomes. We propose that magnetic resonance elastography (MRE), an emerging neuroimaging tool that provides quantitative measures of microstructural integrity, may fill this gap. METHODS: In this study, both sequence learning abilities and the structural integrity of the putamen were assessed in 61 cognitively healthy middle-aged and older adults (range: 45-78 years old). Sequence learning was measured via performance on the Serial Reaction Time Task. Putamen integrity was assessed in two ways: first, via standard structural volume assessments, and second, via MRE measures of tissue integrity. RESULTS: Age significantly correlated with both putamen volume and stiffness but not sequence learning scores. While sequence learning scores did not correlate with volume, MRE-derived measures of putamen stiffness were significantly correlated with learning outcomes such that individuals with stiffer putamen showed higher learning scores. A series of control analyses were performed to highlight the specificity and sensitivity of this putamen stiffness-sequence learning relationship. CONCLUSIONS: Together these data indicate that microstructural changes that occur in the putamen as we age may contribute to changes in sequence learning outcomes.

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• The influence of categorical stimuli on relational memory binding

  Learning & Memory · 2024-10-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Binding of arbitrary information into distinct memory representations that can be used to guide behavior is a hallmark of relational memory. What is and is not bound into a memory representation and how those things influence the organization of that representation remain topics of interest. While some information is intentionally and effortfully bound-often the information that is consistent with task goals or expectations about what information may be required later-other information appears to be bound automatically. The present set of experiments sought to investigate whether spatial memory would be systematically influenced by the presence and absence of distinct categories of stimuli on a spatial reconstruction task. In this task, participants must learn multiple item-location bindings and place each item back in its studied location after a short delay. Across three experiments, participants made significantly more within-category errors (i.e., misassigning one item to the location of a different item from the same category) than between-category errors (i.e., misassigning one item to the location of an item from a different category) when categories were perceptually or semantically distinct. These data reveal that category information contributed to the organization of the memory representation and influenced spatial reconstruction performance. Together, these results suggest that categorical information can influence memory organization, and not always to the benefit of overall task performance.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Heterogeneity in 10-year course trajectories of moderate to severe major depressive disorder among veterans

  Epidemiology and Psychiatric Sciences · 2024-01-01

  articleOpen access

  AIMS: Epidemiological studies show that despite the episodic nature, the long-term trajectory of depression can be variable. This study evaluated the heterogeneity of 10-year trajectory of major depressive disorder (MDD) related service utilization and associated clinical characteristics among US Veterans with a first diagnosis after 9/11. METHODS: Using a cohort design, electronic health record data for 293,265 Operation Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom (OEF/OIF) Veterans were extracted to identify those with MDD between 2001 and 2021 with a full preceding year of clinical data and 10 years following the diagnosis. Latent class growth analysis compared clinical characteristics associated with four depression trajectories. Across all Veterans Affairs (VA)hospitals, 25,307 Veterans met our inclusion criteria. Demographic and clinical information from medical records was extracted and used as predictors of depression 10-year trajectories. RESULTS: = 25,307), 27.7% were characterized by brief contact, 41.7% were later re-entry, 17.6% were persistent contact and 12.9% were prolonged initial contact for depression related services. Compared to Veterans with trajectories showing brief contact, those with protracted treatment (persistent or prolonged initial contact) were more likely to be diagnosed with comorbid posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and with MDD that was moderate to severe or recurrent. CONCLUSIONS: Depression is associated with a range of treatment trajectories. The persistent and prolonged initial contact trajectories may have distinct characteristics and uniquely high resource utilization and disability income. We can anticipate that patients with comorbid PTSD may need longer-term care which has implications for brief models of care.

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• Dynamic interactions between memory and viewing behaviors: Insights from dyadic modeling of eye movements.

  Journal of Experimental Psychology Human Perception & Performance · 2023-05-11 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Humans use eye movements to build visual memories. We investigated how the contributions of specific viewing behaviors to memory formation evolve over individual study epochs. We used dyadic modeling to explain performance on a spatial reconstruction task based on interactions among two gaze measures: (a) the entropy of the scanpath and (b) the frequency of item-to-item gaze transitions. To measure these interactions, our hypothesized model included causal pathways by which early-trial viewing behaviors impacted subsequent memory via downstream effects on later viewing. We found that lower scanpath entropy throughout the trial predicted better memory performance. By contrast, the effect of item-to-item transition frequency changed from negative to positive as the trial progressed. The model also revealed multiple pathways by which early-trial viewing dynamically altered late-trial viewing, thereby impacting memory indirectly. Finally, individual differences in scores on an independent measure of memory ability were found to predict viewing effectiveness, and viewing behaviors partially mediated the relation between memory ability and reconstruction accuracy. In a second experiment, the model showed a good fit for an independent dataset. These results highlight the dynamic nature of memory formation and suggest that the order in which eye movements occur can critically determine their effectiveness. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

  PublisherDOI

• Macular Pigment Optical Density and Skin Carotenoids in a Childhood Sample

  Journal of Nutrition · 2023-06-12 · 11 citations

  articleOpen access
  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• OR08-03-23 Macular Pigment Optical Density and Skin Carotenoids in a Midwestern Childhood Sample

  Current Developments in Nutrition · 2023-07-01

  articleOpen access
  PublisherDOI

• A combined DHA-rich fish oil and cocoa flavanols intervention does not improve cognition or brain structure in older adults with memory complaints: results from the CANN randomized, controlled parallel-design study

  American Journal of Clinical Nutrition · 2023-06-12 · 19 citations

  articleOpen access

  BACKGROUND: There is evidence that both omega-3 long-chain polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) (eicosapentaenoic acid [EPA] and docosahexaenoic acid [DHA]) and cocoa flavanols can improve cognitive performance in both healthy individuals and in those with memory complaints. However, their combined effect is unknown. OBJECTIVES: To investigate the combined effect of EPA/DHA and cocoa flavanols (OM3FLAV) on cognitive performance and brain structures in older adults with memory complaints. METHODS: A randomized placebo-controlled trial of DHA-rich fish oil (providing 1.1 g/d DHA and 0.4 g/d EPA) and a flavanol-rich dark chocolate (providing 500 mg/d flavan-3-ols) was conducted in 259 older adults with either subjective cognitive impairment or mild cognitive impairment. Participants underwent assessment at baseline, 3 mo, and 12 mo. The primary outcome was the number of false-positives on a picture recognition task from the Cognitive Drug Research computerized assessment battery. Secondary outcomes included other cognition and mood outcomes, plasma lipids, brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), and glucose levels. A subset of 110 participants underwent structural neuroimaging at baseline and at 12 mo. RESULTS: 197 participants completed the study. The combined intervention had no significant effect on any cognitive outcomes, with the exception of reaction time variability (P = 0.007), alertness (P < 0.001), and executive function (P < 0.001), with a decline in function observed in the OM3FLAV group (118.6 [SD 25.3] at baseline versus 113.3 [SD 25.4] at 12 mo for executive function) relative to the control, and an associated decrease in cortical volume (P = 0.039). Compared with the control group, OM3FLAV increased plasma HDL, total cholesterol ratio (P < 0.001), and glucose (P = 0.008) and reduced TG concentrations (P < 0.001) by 3 mo, which were sustained to 12 mo, with no effect on BDNF. Changes in plasma EPA and DHA and urinary flavonoid metabolite concentrations confirmed compliance to the intervention. CONCLUSIONS: These results suggest that cosupplementation with ω-3 PUFAs and cocoa flavanols for 12 mo does not improve cognitive outcomes in those with cognitive impairment. This trial was registered at clinicaltrials.gov as NCT02525198.

  PublisherDOI

• Carotenoids improve the development of cerebral cortical networks in formula-fed infant macaques

  Scientific Reports · 2022-09-08 · 12 citations

  articleOpen access

  Nutrition during the first years of life has a significant impact on brain development. This study characterized differences in brain maturation from birth to 6 months of life in infant macaques fed formulas differing in content of lutein, β-carotene, and other carotenoids using Magnetic Resonance Imaging to measure functional connectivity. We observed differences in functional connectivity based on the interaction of diet, age and brain networks. Post hoc analysis revealed significant diet-specific differences between insular-opercular and somatomotor networks at 2 months of age, dorsal attention and somatomotor at 4 months of age, and within somatomotor and between somatomotor-visual and auditory-dorsal attention networks at 6 months of age. Overall, we found a larger divergence in connectivity from the breastfeeding group in infant macaques fed formula containing no supplemental carotenoids in comparison to those fed formula supplemented with carotenoids. These findings suggest that carotenoid formula supplementation influences functional brain development.

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01MH062500

  NIH · $5.8M · 2017

• NIH Grant P50MH094263

  NIH · $17.3M · 2017

• Relational Memory as a Model of Behavioral (Dys)Function in Adults with Traumatic Brain Injury

  NIH · $3.2M · 2020–2025

Frequent coauthors

• Arthur F. Kramer

  82 shared

• Charles H. Hillman

  Northeastern University

  61 shared

• Howard Eichenbaum

  40 shared

• Naiman A. Khan

  35 shared

• Lauren B. Raine

  Northeastern University

  31 shared

• Melissa C. Duff

  Vanderbilt University Medical Center

  30 shared

• Daniel Tranel

  University of Iowa

  29 shared

• Aron K. Barbey

  26 shared