Jenna Merenstein, Ph.D.

Research Interests

A more in-depth description of the lab and our current goals is available on our lab website. We use advanced behavioral and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) techniques to study healthy cognitive aging and Alzheimer’s disease. Most of us can easily bring to mind an older adult that we hold close to our hearts. We can all agree that we want these individuals to live a cognitively healthy life for as long as possible. This will become an increasing reality as future generations of older adults will regularly survive into the ninth and tenth decades of life. An unfortunate side effect of this increase in longevity, however, is the increased prevalence of dementia and cognitive impairment. And it’s not just about dementia. Even healthy adults exhibit some degree of cognitive decline across the lifespan, with decline in attention and memory abilities being the most common complaint.

We aim to address this burgeoning global health concern by studying how age-related decline in these "fluid" cognitive abilities can be attributed to differences in MRI measures of brain structure and function. We study these properties in cognitively healthy older adults to characterize normal brain aging and how this differs from pathological aging-related neurodegenerative disease. An additional goal of our work is to identify moderating factors that may contribute to cognitive and brain aging, such as environmental exposures, the role of genetics, and cardiovascular health. Our vision is that identifying targetable differences in brain structure and function will ultimately help inform future interventions aimed at delaying cognitive decline.

Opportunities for Students

• Graduate students: I will be reviewing applications for 1-2 graduate students this cycle (to start in the lab Fall 2026). If you are thinking of applying, I encourage you to please contact me via email in advance and share your CV so that we can discuss your background/interests and the ongoing directions of the lab.
• Undergraduate students: There will be several opportunities available for undergraduate students to gain research experience and to potentially complete honors projects in the lab (as early as Fall 2025).  Please contact me directly via email if you are interested in working in the lab and I will share a link to our research assistant application. Undergraduate research assistants should plan to commit a minimum of at least two semesters to working in the lab.
• Postdoctoral researchers: At this time, no lab-based funding is available to support postdoctoral training, but I would be open to assisting with individual postdoctoral fellowship mechanisms. Please email me directly with a copy of your CV if this is something that you would be interested in discussing more.
  
  

Education

Postdoctoral training at Duke University (2025)
PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside (2022)
MA in Cognitive Neuroscience from the University of California, Riverside (2019)
BS in Psychology from Colorado State University (2017)

Selected Publications

A complete list of my publications is available on my Google Scholar profile

1. Merenstein, J. L., Zhao, J., & Madden, D. J. (2025). Depthwise cortical iron relates to functional connectivity and fluid cognition in healthy aging. Neurobiology of Aging, 148(1), 27-40.
2. Merenstein, J. L., Zhao, J., Overson, D. K., Truong, T-K., Johnson, K. G., Song, A. W., & Madden, D. J. (2024). Depth- and curvature-based quantitative susceptibility mapping analyses of cortical iron in Alzheimer’s disease. Cerebral Cortex, bhad525.
3. Madden, D. J. & Merenstein, J. L. (2023). Quantitative susceptibility mapping of brain iron in healthy aging and cognition. NeuroImage, 282(1), 120401. 
4. Merenstein, J. L., Zhao, J., Mullin, H. A., Rudolph, M. D. Song, A. W. & Madden, D. J. (2023). High-resolution multi-shot diffusion imaging of structural networks in healthy neurocognitive aging. NeuroImage, 275(1), 120191. 
5. Merenstein, J. L., Corrada, M. M., Kawas, C. H., & Bennett I. J. (2021). Age affects white matter microstructure and episodic memory across the older adult lifespan. Neurobiology of Aging, 106(1), 282-291.