Mind the Gap: Hormonal Contraceptives and Brain Health—Symposium 1: Imaging the Brain on Hormonal Contraceptives

Talk Title: The Effects of Pubertal Exposure to Oral Contraceptives on Brain Structure and Function 

Bio: Dr. Nafissa Ismail is a Full Professor at the School of Psychology at the University of Ottawa and the holder of a University Research Chair in Stress and Mental Health. She obtained her PhD from Concordia University in 2009. She then completed a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Massachusetts and joined the University of Ottawa in 2012. Her research expertise is in Neuroimmunology and Neuroendocrinology. She was awarded Young Researcher of Year by the University of Ottawa in 2017, the Early Researcher Award by the province of Ontario in 2018, and was also awarded the prize for activity in the media and in the community 2021 by the Faculty of Social Sciences. She is also a member of the Global Young Academy and she has been elected to the College of New Scholars, Artists and Scientists of the Royal Society of Canada as of this year.

Talk Title: Striatal Dopamine Synthesis and Cognitive Flexibility Differ Between Hormonal Contraceptive Users and Non-user

Bio: Dr. Caitlin Taylor received her B.S. in Psychology and B.A. in French from Indiana University-Bloomington, and her PhD in Neuroscience from Georgetown University. Dr. Taylor’s graduate work focused on investigating age- and experience-dependent modulation of coherent visual motion processing using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). As a postdoctoral fellow in the Jacobs Lab, Dr. Taylor uses MRI to investigate the effects of oral contraceptive use on the brain, as well  to study the effects of sex hormones on the hippocampus. She is the recipient of a 2018 SAGE Junior Fellowship and the 2019 Harvey L. Karp Discovery Award. Outside of the lab, she is interested in sharing her love of science through science education and outreach.

Talk Title: OCP Effects on Hypothalamus: Clues and Limitations

Bio: Dr. Lipton, a neuroradiologist and neuroscientist, is Professor in the Gruss Magnetic Resonance Research Center, Department of Radiology at Albert Einstein College of Medicine as well as Medical Director of MRI Services at its University Hospital, Montefiore Medical Center, both in New York. He divides his professional time between the clinical practice of neuroradiology, teaching and research. Dr. Lipton’s translational research broadly seeks to characterize brain mechanisms linking environmental exposures to brain dysfunction and to understand how these relationships are modified by individual characteristics, such as sex and genes. His research program currently applies MRI to characterize brain microstructure and function in the contexts of repeated head impacts in sports as well as SARS-CoV-2 infection and aging. Dr. Lipton’s work on the impact of “heading” on brain structure and function in amateur soccer players, funded by the Dana Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, has received extensive worldwide scientific and lay-press attention.