David Loewenstein, PhD

Clinical Neuropsychology, Memory Disorders, Aging, Alzheimer's disease and Neurodegenerative Disorders

Dr. Loewenstein has a number of research interests centering on the early detection of early cognitive impairment in neurodegenerative and other brain disorders, development of novel cognitive and functional measures, examining relationships between neuropsychological measures and neuroimaging and other biomarkers of early Alzheimer’s disease. Further, Dr. Loewenstein and other investigators in his laboratory have been involved in developing cognitive and functional interventions for normal elderly patients as well as those with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and related disorders and development of culture fair assessment instruments.

Dr. Loewenstein has over 200 peer-reviewed journals in respected scientific journals, has served on standing and ad-hoc study sections for the NIH and has been an invited speaker to numerous national and international conferences. A sample of some articles follow:

Crocco E, Curiel-Cid RE, Kitaigorodsky M, González-Jiménez CJ, Zheng D, Duara R, Loewenstein DA (2020). A Brief Version of the LASSI-L Detects Prodromal Alzheimer's Disease States.J Alzheimers Dis. 78(2):789-799. doi: 10.3233/JAD-200790. PMID: 33074233.

Curiel Cid,  R., Crocco, EA ,Duara, R., Garcia,  JM., Rosselli,  M., DeKosky,ST., Smith,G., Bauer, R., Chirinos, CL., Adjouadi, M., Barker, WW, Loewenstein, DA (2020).  A novel method of evaluating semantic intrusion errors to distinguish between amyloid positive and negative groups on the Alzheimer's disease continuum. Journal of Psychiatric Research. 124. 131-136.

Loewenstein, D.A., Curiel, R.E., DeKosky, S., Bauer, R.M., Rosselli, M., Guinjoan, S., Adjouadi, M., Penate, A., Barker, W., Goenaga, S., Golde, T., Greig-Custo, M., Hanson, K.S., Li, C., Lizarraga, L., Marsiske, M., and Duara, R. (2018) Utilizing Semantic Intrusions to Identify Amyloid Positivity in Mild Cognitive Impairment, Neurology 2018;91:e976-e984. doi.10.1212/WNL.0000000000006128.

Loewenstein, D.A., Curiel, R.E, Buschke, H., Duara, R. (2018). Novel Cognitive Paradigms for the Detection of Memory Impairment in Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease. Assessment.  2018 Apr; 25(3):348-359. doi: 10.1177/1073191117691608. Epub 2017 Feb 12. 1073191117691608.

Loewenstein, D.A., Curiel, R.E., DeKosky, S., Roselli, M., Bauer, R., Grieg-Custo, M., Penate, A., Li, C., Lizagarra, G., Golde, T., Adjouadi, M., Duara, R. (2017) Recovery from proactive semantic interference and MRI volume: A replication and extension study, J Alzheimers Dis. 2017; 59(1):131-139. doi: 10.3233/JAD-170276.

Czaja, S.J., Loewenstein, D.A., Sabbag, S.A., Curiel, R.E., Crocco, E., Harvey, P.D. (2017) A Novel Method for Direct Assessment of Everyday Competence among Older Adults. Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease, 57 (2017) 1229-1238.

Loewenstein, D.A., Curiel, R.E., Greig, M.T., Bauer, R.M., Rosado, M., Bowers, D., Wicklund, M., Crocco, E., Pontecorvo, M., Joshi, A., Rodriguez, R., Hidalgo, J., Barker, W.W., Duara, R. (2016) A Novel Cognitive Stress Test for the Detection of Preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease: Discriminative Properties and relation to Amyloid Load, American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 24 (10): 804-813.

Loewenstein, D.A., Greig-Custo, M.T., Schinka, J.A., Barker,W.W., Shen, Q., Potter, E., Raj, A., Brooks, L., Varon, D., Schoenberg, M., Bank J., Potter, H., Duara, R. (2012) An Investigation of PreMCI: Subtypes and Longitudinal Outcomes. Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia. May; 8 (3): 172-179.

Loewenstein, D.A Czaja, S.J., Bowie, C., Harvey, P.D. (2012) Age associated differences in cognitive performance in older patients with Schizophrenia: A comparison with healthy older adults. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. 20 (1) 1-4.

Loewenstein, D.A., Amarilis Acevedo, A., Small, B.J., Agron, J., Crocco, E., Duara, R. (2009) Stability of Different Subtypes of Mild Cognitive Impairment among the Elderly over a Two to Three Year follow-up  period. Dementia and Geriatric Cognitive Disorders 17 (5) 437-440.

 Loewenstein, D.A, Acevedo, A., Potter, H., Schinka, J., Raj, A., Greig, M., Agron, J., Barker, W.W., Wu, Y., Small, B.,  Schofield, E., Duara, R. (2009) Severity of Medical Temporal Atrophy and Amnestic MCI: Selecting type and number of memory tests. American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry Dec; 17 (12) 1050-1058 doi: 10.1097/JGP.0b013e3181b7ef42.

Dr. Loewenstein  is Principal Investigator on several large NIH and state funded grants and has a number of ongoing longitudinal investigations nationally and internationally with new cognitive instruments developed in his laboratory. The Direct Assessment of Functional status Scale (DAFS) was one of the first performance-based scales for Alzheimer’s disease and has been translated into multiple languages. The Semantic Interference Test (SIT) and the Loewenstein- Acevedo Scales for Semantic Interference and Learning (LASSI-L) have shown considerable promise in the early detection and prediction of progression in patients with early Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative disorders. Susceptibility to proactive semantic interference (PSI) and most importantly, the failure to recover from semantic interference (frPSI) are extremely sensitive markers of preclinical AD, progression over time and brain biomarkers of amyloid load, tau load, cortical thickness and brain volumetric loss. Dr. Loewenstein’s laboratory works with many departments across the UM and numerous medical schools and Universities across the United States and abroad.