I am a cognitive neuroscientist whose research investigates how perception, attention, and memory change across the lifespan, with a particular focus on aging and Alzheimer’s disease.My work examines the behavioral and neural mechanisms of sensory and multisensory binding, selective attention, and decision-making under uncertainty, and how these processes are shaped by frontal control networks and the locus coeruleus–norepinephrine (LC-NE) system. Using multimodal methods, I study early cognitive and physiological markers of Alzheimer’s disease, as well as factors that promote resilience, such as education, cognitive reserve, and protective life experiences. Current projects also explore real-world applications, including driving safety and situation awareness in complex environments.
As an educator, I have developed and taught courses ranging from introductory psychology to advanced cognitive neuropsychology and laboratory methods in eye tracking and pupillometry. I also mentor undergraduate honors students, graduate students, and postdoctoral researchers. I received my A.B. in Psychology from the College of the Holy Cross, my Sc.M. and Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Brown University, and completed postdoctoral training in the cognitive neuropsychology of Alzheimer’s disease at Brown.
| Blujus, Jenna K., Cole, Michael W., Festa, Elena K., Buka, Stephen L., Salloway, Stephen P., Heindel, William C., Oh, Hwamee. "Functional redundancy of the posterior hippocampi is selectively disrupted in non-demented older adults with β-amyloid deposition." NeuroImage: Reports, vol. 5, no. 2, 2025, pp. 100255. |
| Kavanaugh BC, Parade S, Seifer R, McLaughlin NCR, Tirrell E, Festa EK, Oberman LM, Novick AM, Carpenter LL, Tyrka AR. "Childhood stress, gender, and cognitive control: Midline theta power." Journal of Psychiatric Research, vol. 169, 2024, pp. 298-306. |
| Festa, Elena K., Bracken, Bethany K., Desrochers, Phillip C., Winder, Aaron T., Strong, Peyton K., Endsley, Mica R. "EEG and fNIRS are associated with situation awareness (hazard) prediction during a driving task." Ergonomics, vol. 67, no. 12, 2024, pp. 1993-2008. |
| Korthauer LE, Festa EK, Gemelli ZT, He M, Heindel WC. "Effects of aging on externally cued and internally driven uncertainty representations." Neuropsychology, vol. 38, no. 3, 2024, pp. 249-258. |
| Rmus, Milena, He, Mingjian, Baribault, Beth, Walsh, Edward G, Festa, Elena K, Collins, Anne GE, Nassar, Matthew R. "Age-related differences in prefrontal glutamate are associated with increased working memory decay that gives the appearance of learning deficits." eLife, vol. 12, 2023. |
| Siefert, Elizabeth M., He, Mingjian, Festa, Elena K., Heindel, William C. "Pupil size tracks cue-trace interactions during episodic memory retrieval." Psychophysiology, vol. 61, no. 1, 2023, pp. e14409. |
| Wang TSL, Martinez M, Festa EK, Heindel WC, Song JH. "Age-related enhancement in visuomotor learning by a dual-task." Scientific reports, vol. 12, no. 1, 2022, pp. 5679. |
| Matthews N, Welch L, Festa EK, Bruno AA. "Double dissociation in radial and rotational motion sensitivity." PLoS ONE, vol. 16, no. 1, 2021, pp. e0246094. |
| He M, Heindel WC, Nassar MR, Siefert EM, Festa EK. "Age-related changes in the functional integrity of the phasic alerting system: a pupillometric investigation." Neurobiology of aging, vol. 91, 2020, pp. 136-147. |
| Lai LY, Frömer R, Festa EK, Heindel WC. "Age-related changes in the neural dynamics of bottom-up and top-down processing during visual object recognition: an electrophysiological investigation." Neurobiology of aging, vol. 94, 2020, pp. 38-49. |
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Siefert, E.M.
He, M.
Festa, E.K.
Heindel, W.C.
"Cue-trace interactions during episodic memory retrieval: Synergistic ecphory and the pupillary old/new effect." Context and Episodic Memory Symposium, 2020.
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| Venkatesan UM, Margolis SA, Tremont G, Festa EK, Heindel WC. "Forward to the past: Revisiting the role of immediate recognition in the assessment of episodic memory." Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, vol. 42, no. 2, 2020, pp. 1-11. |
| Kavanaugh, Brian, Tirrell, Eric, McLaughlin, Nicole, Sherman, Anna, Carpenter, Linda, Festa, Elena, Grammer, Jennifer, Ibanescu, Simona Temereanca, Oberman, Lindsay, Pizzagalli, Diego, Parade, Stephanie, Seifer, Ronald, Tyrka, Audrey. "Gamma Oscillations as a Potential Marker of Cognitive Control in Childhood Psychopathology." Biological Psychiatry, vol. 87, no. 9, 2020, pp. S175. |
| Matthews N, Welch L, Festa EK, Bruno AA, Schafer K. "Global depth perception alters local timing sensitivity." PLoS ONE, vol. 15, no. 1, 2020, pp. e0228080. |
| Korthauer, Laura E., Heindel, William C., Lai, Leslie Y., Tremont, Geoffrey, Ott, Brian R., Festa, Elena K. "Impaired integration of object feature knowledge in amnestic mild cognitive impairment." Neuropsychology, vol. 34, no. 6, 2020, pp. 699-712. |
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Festa, E.K.
He, M.
Korthauer, L.E.
Ott, B.R.
Heindel, W.C.
"Light- and task-induced pupillary response as indirect markers of cholinergic and noradrenergic function in prodromal Alzheimer’s disease." Alzheimer's Association International Conference, 2020.
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| Karpouzian-Rogers T, Heindel WC, Ott BR, Tremont G, Festa EK. "Phasic alerting enhances spatial orienting in healthy aging but not in mild cognitive impairment." Neuropsychology, vol. 34, no. 2, 2020, pp. 144-154. |
| Lynn A, Festa EK, Heindel WC, Amso D. "What underlies visual selective attention development? Evidence that age-related improvements in visual feature integration influence visual selective attention performance." Journal of Experimental Child Psychology, vol. 191, 2020, pp. 104732. |
| Margolis SA, Festa EK, Papandonatos GD, Korthauer LE, Gonsalves MA, Oberman L, Heindel WC, Ott BR. "A pilot study of repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation in primary progressive aphasia." Brain Stimulation, vol. 12, no. 5, 2019, pp. 1340-1342. |
| Korthauer, Laura E., Salmon, David P., Festa, Elena K., Galasko, Douglas, Heindel, William C. "Alzheimer’s disease and the processing of uncertainty during choice task performance: Executive dysfunction within the Hick–Hyman law." Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, vol. 41, no. 4, 2019, pp. 380-389. |
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Bracken, B.K.
Festa, E.K.
Sun, H.-S.
Leather, C.
Strangman, G.
"Validation of the fNIRS Pioneer™, a Portable, Durable, Rugged Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (fNIRS) Device." HEALTHINF , 2019, pp. 521-531.
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Jacobs, D.M.
Festa, E.K.
Salmon, D.P.
Galasko, D.R.
Heindel, W.C.
"Visual sensory binding in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease." Alzheimer's Association International Conference, 2019.
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| Santos, Cláudia Y., Johnson, Lenworth N., Sinoff, Stuart E., Festa, Elena K., Heindel, William C., Snyder, Peter J. "Change in retinal structural anatomy during the preclinical stage of Alzheimer's disease." Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease Monitoring, vol. 10, no. 1, 2018, pp. 196-209. |
| Davis, Jennifer, Wang, Shuhang, Festa, Elena, Luo, Gang, Moharrer, Mojtaba, Bernier, Justine, Ott, Brian. "Detection of Risky Driving Behaviors in the Naturalistic Environment in Healthy Older Adults and Mild Alzheimer’s Disease." Geriatrics, vol. 3, no. 2, 2018, pp. 13. |
| Welch, Leslie, Matthews, Nestor, Festa, Elena, Schafer, Kendra. "Double Dissociation in Radial & Rotational Motion-Defined Temporal Order Judgments." Journal of Vision, vol. 18, no. 10, 2018, pp. 330. |
| Matthews N, Welch L, Festa E. "Superior Visual Timing Sensitivity in Auditory But Not Visual World Class Drum Corps Experts." eNeuro, vol. 5, no. 6, 2018. |
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Festa, E.K.
Heindel, W.C.
Santos, C.Y.
Snyder, P.J.
"Audiovisual sensory integration is sensitive to beta-amyloid load in the preclinical stage of Alzheimer’s disease." Alzheimer's Association International Conference, 2017.
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Heindel, W.C.
Festa, E.K.
Santos, C.Y.
Venkatesan, U.M.
Badre, D.
Snyder, P.J.
"Controlled semantic retrieval is sensitive to changes in beta-amyloid load in preclinical Alzheimer’s disease: A neurocognitive stress test for Alzheimer-related disruptions to frontotemporal pathways." Alzheimer's Association International Conference, 2017.
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| Venkatesan UM, Festa EK, Ott BR, Heindel WC. "Differential Contributions of Selective Attention and Sensory Integration to Driving Performance in Healthy Aging and Alzheimer's Disease." Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, vol. 24, no. 5, 2017, pp. 486-497. |
| Festa, Elena K., Katz, Andrew P., Ott, Brian R., Tremont, Geoffrey, Heindel, William C. "Dissociable Effects of Aging and Mild Cognitive Impairment on Bottom-Up Audiovisual Integration." Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, vol. 59, no. 1, 2017, pp. 155-167. |
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Schwartz, A.E.
Festa, E.K.
Heindel, W.C.
"Effects of timbre distortion and arousal on memory for vocal and instrumental melodies." Association for Psychological Science, 2017.
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| Landy KM, Salmon DP, Galasko D, Filoteo JV, Festa EK, Heindel WC, Hansen LA, Hamilton JM. "Motion discrimination in dementia with Lewy bodies and Alzheimer disease." Neurology, vol. 85, no. 16, 2015, pp. 1376-1382. |
| Kane, Amy E., Festa, Elena K., Salmon, David P., Heindel, William C. "Repetition priming and cortical arousal in healthy aging and Alzheimer's disease." Neuropsychologia, vol. 70, 2015, pp. 145-155. |
| Ott BR, Davis JD, Papandonatos GD, Hewitt S, Festa EK, Heindel WC, Snellgrove CA, Carr DB. "Assessment of driving-related skills prediction of unsafe driving in older adults in the office setting." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol. 61, no. 7, 2013, pp. 1164-9. |
| Festa, E. K., Ott, B. R., Manning, K. J., Davis, J. D., Heindel, W. C. "Effect of Cognitive Status on Self-Regulatory Driving Behavior in Older Adults." Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, vol. 26, no. 1, 2013, pp. 10-8. |
| Heindel WC, Festa EK, Ott BR, Landy KM, Salmon DP. "Prototype learning and dissociable categorization systems in Alzheimer's disease." Neuropsychologia, vol. 51, no. 9, 2013, pp. 1699-708. |
| Matthews, N., Welch, L., Festa, E., Clement, A. "Remapping time across space." Journal of Vision, vol. 13, no. 8, 2013, pp. 2-2. |
| Davis, Jennifer D., Papandonatos, George D., Miller, Lindsay A., Hewitt, Scott D., Festa, Elena K., Heindel, William C., Ott, Brian R. "Road test and naturalistic driving performance in healthy and cognitively impaired older adults: does environment matter?." Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, vol. 60, no. 11, 2012, pp. 2056-62. |
| Festa, Elena K., Heindel, William C., Ott, Brian R. "Dual-task conditions modulate the efficiency of selective attention mechanisms in Alzheimer's disease." Neuropsychologia, vol. 48, no. 11, 2010, pp. 3252-61. |
| Daiello LA, Ott BR, Festa EK, Friedman M, Miller LA, Heindel WC. "Effects of cholinesterase inhibitors on visual attention in drivers with Alzheimer disease." Journal of Clinical Psychopharmacology, vol. 30, no. 3, 2010, pp. 245-251. |
| Ott, B. R., Heindel, W. C., Papandonatos, G. D., Festa, E. K., Davis, J. D., Daiello, L. A., Morris, J. C. "A longitudinal study of drivers with Alzheimer disease." Neurology, vol. 70, no. 14, 2008, pp. 1171-1178. |
| Ott BR, Festa EK, Amick MM, Grace J, Davis JD, Heindel WC. "Computerized maze navigation and on-road performance by drivers with dementia." Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry and Neurology, vol. 21, no. 1, 2008, pp. 18-25. |
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Wu, L.
Neskovic, P.
Reyes, E.
Festa, E.
Heindel, W.
"Classifying n-back EEG data using entropy and mutual information features." European Symposium of Artificial Neural Networks (ESANN) Proceedings, 2007, pp. 61-66.
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| Gitten JC, Winer JL, Festa EK, Heindel WC. "Conditional associative learning of spatial and object information in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder." Child Neuropsychology, vol. 12, no. 1, 2006, pp. 39-56. |
| Festa EK, Ott BR, Heindel WC. "Considering phasic alerting in Alzheimer's disease: comment on Tales et al. (2006)." Neuropsychology, vol. 20, no. 6, 2006, pp. 757-60; discussion 761-2. |
| Festa, Elena K., Insler, Rachel Z., Salmon, David P., Paxton, Jessica, Hamilton, Joanne M., Heindel, William C. "Neocortical Disconnectivity Disrupts Sensory Integration in Alzheimer's Disease." Neuropsychology, vol. 19, no. 6, 2005, pp. 728-38. |
| GRACE, JANET, AMICK, MELISSA M., D'ABREU, ANELYSSA, FESTA, ELENA K., HEINDEL, WILLIAM C., OTT, BRIAN R. "Neuropsychological deficits associated with driving performance in Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease." Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, vol. 11, no. 6, 2005, pp. 766-75. |
| Festa-Martino, Elena, Ott, Brian R., Heindel, William C. "Interactions Between Phasic Alerting and Spatial Orienting: Effects of Normal Aging and Alzheimer's Disease." Neuropsychology, vol. 18, no. 2, 2004, pp. 258-268. |
| Festa-Martino E, Welch L. "Motion capture depends on signal strength." Perception, vol. 30, no. 4, 2001, pp. 489-510. |
| Festa EK, Welch L. "Recruitment mechanisms in speed and fine-direction discrimination tasks." Vision research, vol. 37, no. 22, 1997, pp. 3129-43. |
My research examines the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying perception, attention, and memory, with a focus on how these processes change in healthy aging and Alzheimer’s disease. I am especially interested in sensory and multisensory binding, selective attention, and decision-making under uncertainty, and how these functions are supported by frontal control networks and the locus coeruleus–norepinephrine (LC-NE) arousal system. To investigate these questions, I use behavioral paradigms, neuropsychological assessments, and multimodal physiological measures including EEG/ERP, pupillometry, fNIRS, and eye tracking.
A central goal of my work is to identify early neurocognitive markers of Alzheimer’s disease and to understand the factors that contribute to risk and resilience across the life course, including education, cognitive reserve, and early-life adversity. My translational research explores how these markers can inform early detection, guide interventions to support cognitive and emotional functioning, and predict real-world outcomes such as driving safety and situation awareness. I have also investigated the potential of neurofeedback training to enhance cognitive performance in aging and dementia.
I study the neural and cognitive mechanisms of perception, attention, and memory in aging and Alzheimer’s disease, using multimodal methods to identify early markers of decline and resilience factors that shape cognitive aging and real-world performance.
NIA (1R01 AG069265-01): Mechanisms of Risk and Resilience to Age-Related Cognitive Decline: A 60-Year Prospective Prenatal Cohort, 9/15/20 - 4/30/25, Co-Investigator
NIA (1R01 AG064002-01A1): Novel Cognitive Markers of Early Alzheimer’s Disease, 9/01/20 - 4/30/25, Co-Investigator & Subcontract Principal Investigator
DOD (W81XWH-20-C-0058): Monitoring, Extracting, and Decoding Indicators of Cognitive Workload (MEDIC), 8/10/20 - 8/09/22, Subcontract Principal Investigator
Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience and Aging: Mechanisms of Motivation and Cognitive Control in Healthy Older Adults, 6/01/19 - 5/31/20, Co-Investigator
Brown University Research Seed Funding Award: Combined EEG and Pupillometry Measures of Language Processing as Markers for Early Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease, 2/09/18 - 6/30/20, Co-Investigator
NASA (SBIR-NNX16CJ08C): Cognitive Assessment and Prediction to Promote Individualized Capability Augmentation and Reduce Decrement, 6/08/16 - 12/08/17, Subcontract Principal Investigator
NIA (2R01-AG16335-06A1): Naturalistic Assessment of the Driving Ability of Cognitively Impaired Elders, 5/15/07 - 4/30/13, Co-Investigator
Alzheimer’s Association (IIRG-07-59553): Efficacy of qEEG Neurocognitive Training in Early-Stage Alzheimer’s Disease, 9/01/07 - 6/30/11, Principal Investigator
Brown University Brain Science Program’s Pilot Research Award: Quantitative EEG and Neurofeedback in Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, 4/01/06 - 3/31/07, Principal Investigator
Brown University Collaboration for Translational Brain Research: Multisensory Integration in Alzheimer’s Disease, 11/01/03 - 10/31/04, Co-Investigator
National Research Service Award (F32-AG05843): Feature Integration and Attention in Alzheimer’s Disease, 6/01/00 - 5/31/03, Postdoctoral Fellow
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 1998 | PhD | Brown University |
| 1994 | ScM | Brown University |
| 1992 | BA | College of the Holy Cross |
Karen T. Romer Award for Excellence in Advising
Brown University Dissertation Research Fellowship Award
National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Research Fellowship
National Eye Institute Travel Fellowship Grant
Psi Chi National Honor Society
Sigma Xi, Scientific Research Society
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Badre, David | Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences, Chair of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences |
| Buka, Stephen | Professor of Epidemiology |
| Carpenter, Linda | Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Daiello, Lori | Associate Professor of Health Services, Policy and Practice (Research), Associate Professor of Neurology (Research) |
| Davis, Jennifer | Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Clinician Educator |
| Heindel, William | Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences |
| Kavanaugh, Brian | Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Korthauer, Laura | Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior (Research) |
| Margolis, Seth | Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Nassar, Matt | Associate Professor of Neuroscience, Assistant Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences |
| Ott, Brian | Professor Emeritus of Neurology |
| Papandonatos, George | Professor of Biostatistics (Research) |
| Seifer, Ronald | Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Song, Joo-Hyun | Associate Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences |
| Tremont, Geoffrey | Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Tyrka, Audrey | Mary E. Zucker Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Professor of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Chair of Psychiatry and Human Behavior |
| Welch, Leslie | Associate Professor of Cognitive and Psychological Sciences |
International Neuropsychological Society
Cognitive Neuroscience Society
International Society to Advance Alzheimer Research and Treatment
Vision Sciences Society
| CLPS 0010 - Elementary Psychology: An Introduction to Mind and Behavior |
| CLPS 0010 - Mind, Brain and Behavior: An Interdisciplinary Approach |
| CLPS 0450 - Brain Damage and the Mind |
| CLPS 1420 - Cognitive Neuropsychology |
| CLPS 1480B - Cognitive Aging and Dementia |
