Ryan Dougherty, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Kinesiology and Health, Rutgers-New Brunswick

Associate Member, Rutgers Center for Healthy Aging Research

Dr. Dougherty’s research focuses on identifying specific aspects of physical activity and the underlying physiological mechanisms relevant to dementia risk. His research integrates a variety of techniques, combining laboratory measures of physical activity and energy expenditure with state-of-the-art neuroimaging methods. The overarching goal of his research program is to identify the neurological pathways through which physical activity and exercise help preserve cognitive health in later life, and as a result, make evidence-based contributions towards treatments to delay age- and disease-related cognitive decline.