Laura Stolp

Laura Stolp
PhD Student

Contact me if you would like to know more about my research.

Hi there! I'm Laura, a Ph.D. student at the CCC lab under the supervision of Dan and Tristan. I have a strong interest in complex systems, consciousness, and cognitive reserve.

My research concerns finding a neural marker for cognitive reserve and gaining insight into how cognitive reserve slows down cognitive decline in aging, dementia, and other neurodegenerative diseases. I aim to bring a unique perspective by exploring this topic through the lens of complexity science and information theory. Outside of research, music is a big part of my life. Whether it's as a singer or exploring music composition, the nuances of melodies often mirror the complexity I study in cognitive systems.

Current Research

The neural markers of cognitive reserve

My current main research focus is to determine what confers cognitive resilience in the ageing population and Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. I am using various neuroimaging techniques on big data datasets to examine the neural basis of these effects in healthy control analogues and AD patients, and link them to the consciousness and arousal levels, primarily via neural complexity and frequency measures. The eventual aim is to help discover a pharmacological intervention that could boost cognitive resilience in such patients.

Publications

Research Papers

Klein, B., Holmér, L., Smith, K.M., Johnson, M.M., Swain, A., Stolp, L., Teufel, A.I. and Kleppe, A.S., 2021. A computational exploration of resilience and evolvability of protein–protein interaction networks. Communications Biology, 4(1), p.1352.

I'll soon be releasing a preprint on neural markers of cognitive reserve! Stay tuned!

honours and awards