Claire Murphy, Ph.D
Professor
Department of Psychology
San Diego State University
6386 Alvarado Court, Suite 224
San Diego, CA 92120-4913
Mail Code: 1863
Phone: (619) 594-4559
FAX: (619) 594-6780
E-Mail: cmurphy@sdsu.edu
Research Interests: Research interests are varied, but center on the relationship of the brain to behavior. There are several research projects investigating normal function and function in impaired populations: Patients with Alzheimer’s Disease, Huntington’s Disease, Down’s Syndrome, the elderly, head trauma patients, normal children, children with head trauma, and whatever new populations become available to provide a window to the functioning of the brain.
The techniques used in the laboratory range from neuropsychological and psychophysical testing to recording the brain’s event-related potentials and functional MRI.
There is particular interest in neurodegenerative diseases (Alzheimer’s Disease and Down’s Syndrome, for example) and their effects on sensory and cognitive function in the brain.
Collaborative efforts are underway with investigators at the Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, the Genetic Disorders Clinic, and the Head and Neck Surgery Department at UCSD, as well as the EEG experts at Scripps and the neuropsychologists and MRI experts at UCSD and the VA. One of the benefits of doing research in San Diego is the existence of good opportunities for collaboration.
Lab: Life-Span Human Senses
Selected Recent Invited Addresses
Murphy, C. Chemical Senses in Older Adults and Alzheimer’s Disease. Jean Mayer Human Nutrition Research Center on Aging at Tufts University, Boston, MA, November 1, 2010.
Murphy, C. fMRI Responses to Reward Value of Chemosensory Stimuli in the Human Brain. European Chemoreception Organization Conference. Avignon, France, September 18, 2010.
Murphy, C. Neuropsychological, Psychophysiological and Neuroimaging Assessment of Olfactory Functional Impairment in Alzheimer’s Disease and ApoE e4 Carriers. Workshop on Sensory and Motor Dysfunction in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease. National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, August 9, 2010.
Murphy, C. Overview: Olfaction and Alzheimer’s Disease. NIA Workship on Sensory and Motor Dysfunction in Aging and Alzheimer’s Disease.
National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, August 9, 2010.
Murphy, C. Impact of Aging on Flavor Perception. Keynote Address. Monell Chemical Senses Center, Philadelphia, PA, April 7, 2010.
Murphy, C. Alzheimer’s Disease and Olfactory Function. Olfaction and Degenerative Neurologic Disease. Liaison between Neurologist and Otolaryngolotist. Tokyo, Japan, March 20, 2010,
Murphy, C. Processing of Taste, Olfactory and Flavor Information in the Human Brain, Institute for Human Science and Biomedical Engineering at AIST, Tsucuba, Japan, March 19, 2010.
Murphy, C. FMRI Response to Taste in the Hungry Brain. International Life Sciences Institute Annual Meeting, San Juan, PR, January 26, 2010.
Murphy, C. Cental Processing of Gustatory Stimuli of Different Qualities: Differential fMRI Activation in Brain Regions of Interest. Salk-IPSEN Symposium on Biological Complexity: Sensory Systems: Smell, Taste, Touch, Hearing and Vision, The Salk Institute, La Jolla, January 14, 2010.
Murphy, C. Olfactory dysfunction in neurodegenerative disease: Focus on Alzheimer’s disease. Beijing International Meeting on Research in Taste and Smell. Beijing, China, November 16, 2009.
Murphy, C., Haase, L., Green, E., Jacobson, A., Cerf-Ducastel, B., Kemmotsu, N., Downer, D., Ramos, L. Psychophysical Assessment During Functional Neuroimaging. Beijing International Meeting on Research in Taste and Smell. Beijing, China, November 17, 2009.
Murphy, C. Chemosensory functional impairment in aging and Alzheimer’s disease: Insights from ERP and neuroimaging studies. University of Bergen, Norway, April 3, 2009.
Selected Recent Publications
Green, E., Jacobson, A., Haase, L., and Murphy, C. (2011, in press). Reduced nucleus accumbens and caudate nucleus activation to a pleasant taste is associated with obesity in older adults. Brain Research.
Jacobson, A. Green, E.R., and Murphy, C. (2010). Age-related functional changes in gustatory and reward processing regions: A fMRI study. NeuroImage, 53, 602-610.
Morgan, C.D. and Murphy, C. (2010). Differential effects of active attention and age on event-related potentials to visual and olfactory stimuli Internat J. Psychophysiology, 78, 190-199.
Razani, J., Chan, A., Nordin, S. and Murphy, C. (2010). Semantic networks for odors and colors in Alzheimer’s disease. Neuropsychology. 24(3), 291-299.
Cerf-Ducastel, B. and Murphy, C. (2009). Age-related differences in the neural substrates of cross-modal olfactory recognition memory: An fMRI investigation. Brain Research.1285: 88-98
Haase, L., Cerf-Ducastel, B., and Murphy, C. (2009). Cortical activation in response to pure taste stimuli during the physiological states of hunger and satiety. NeuroImage, 44 (3), 1008-1021.
Haase., L., Cerf-Ducastel, B. and Murphy, C. (2009). The effect of stimulus delivery technique on perceived intensity functions for taste stimuli: Implications for fMRI studies. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 71 (5), 1167-1173.
Murphy, C., Solomon, E.S., Haase, L., Wang, M. and Morgan, C.D. (2009). Olfaction in aging and Alzheimer’s disease: Event-related potentials to a cross-modal odor recognition memory task discriminate ApoE e4+ and ApoE e4- individuals. Ann. NY Acad. Sciences. 1170: 647-657
Smith, W.M., Davidson, T.M., and Murphy, C. (2009). Regional variations in chronic rhinosinusitis, 2003-2006. Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery, 141, 347-352
Smith, W.M., Davidson, T.M., and Murphy, C. (2009). Toxin-induced chemosensory dysfunction: A case series and review. American Journal of Rhinology and Allergy, 23, 78-581.
Pirogovsky, E., Murphy, C. and Gilbert, P.E. (2009). Developmental differences in memory for cross-modal associations. Developmental Science 12(6), 1054-1059.
Schubert, C.R., Carmichael, L.L., Murphy, C., Klein, B.E.K., Klein, R., and Cruickshanks, K.J. (2008). Olfaction and the 5-year incidence of cognitive impairment in older adults. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 56, 1517-1521.
Murphy, C. (2008). The chemical senses and nutrition in the elderly. Journal of Nutrition for the Elderly 247-265.
Hernandez, R.J., Bayer, Z.C., Brushfield, A.M., Pirogovsky, E., Murphy, C. and Gilbert, P.E. (2008).The effect of encoding condition on source memory for odors in healthy young and older adults. Gerontology, 54, 187-192.
Sundermann, E., Gilbert, P.E., and Murphy (2008). The effect of hormone therapy on olfactory sensitivity is dependent on Apolipoprotein E genotype. Hormones and Behavior. 54, 528-533.
Murphy, C., Schubert, C.R., Cruickshanks, K.J., Klein, B.E.K., Klein, R., and Nondahl, D.M. (2002). Prevalence of olfactory impairment in older adults. Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), 288(18), 2307-2312.