Michael Yassa
Professor and Chancellor’s Fellow UC Irvine
- Irvine CA
Michael Yassa is interested in how learning and memory mechanisms are altered in aging and neuropsychiatric disease.
Media
Social
Biography
What are the neural mechanisms that support learning and memory?
How are memory circuits and pathways altered in the course of aging, dementia, and neuropsychiatric disorders such as depression and anxiety?
How can we identify early preclinical biomarkers that can distinguish between normal and pathological neurocognitive changes so that we can better design diagnostic and therapeutic tools.
To address these questions, Yassa develops and refines cognitive assessment tools that specifically target memory processes and computations, such as pattern separation. Yassa's lab also develops, optimizes, and uses a host of advanced brain measurement techniques including high-resolution structural, functional, and diffusion MRI, PET, EEG, and intracranial recordings (ECoG) in patients, to explore the brain’s architecture at very fine levels of detail.
Yassa's lab combines these approaches with more traditional psychophysics including measurements of galvanic skin response (skin conductance), heart rate variability, and eye tracking. They are also working with collaborators to develop novel platforms for cellular resolution functional imaging in awake, behaving animals using novel MRI tracers. Finally, we are actively developing and testing several pharmacological and nonpharmacological cognitive enhancement interventions in older adults at risk for dementia, including studies of physical exercise.
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Ossoff Scholars Award in Cognitive Disorders Research
2011
Alzheimer’s Treatment Center, Johns Hopkins Medicine
Roger W. Russell Scholar’s Award in the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
2010
Center for Neurobiology of Learning and Memory
Carl W. Cotman Scholar’s Award in the Neurobiology of Neurological Disorders
2010
MIND Institute, University of California, Irvine
Fine Science Tools Travel Award in Neuroscience
2010
University of California, Irvine
Education
UC Irvine
PhD
Neurobiology and Behavior
2010
The Johns Hopkins University
MA
Psychological and Brain Sciences
2007
The Johns Hopkins University
BA
Neuroscience
2002
Affiliations
- American Psychological Association
- Cognitive Neuroscience Society
- International Neuropsychological Society
Links
Media Appearances
Everything, everywhere, all at once: Inside the chaos of Alzheimer’s disease
The Transmitter online
2025-06-16
Michael Yassa, UC Irvine pressor of neurobiology and behavior writes, “We have been thinking about Alzheimer’s the wrong way. …What if Alzheimer’s only looks like one disease because we keep trying to force it into a single narrative? If that’s the case, then the search for a single cause—and a single cure—was always destined to fail. Real progress, I believe, requires two major shifts in how we think.”
Does Sleep Apnea Pave Way for Cognitive Decline?
The Good Men Project online
2025-06-14
Co-corresponding author Michael Yassa, UC Irvine professor of neurobiology and behavior and director of the campus’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory, adds: “We may have found a missing piece of the puzzle. Low oxygen during REM sleep seems to harm tiny blood vessels in the brain, and that damage shows up in areas we rely on for memory. This might help explain why even mild sleep apnea can impact brain health long before memory problems show up.”
Study: If You Have This Sleep Problem, You May Be More Prone to Memory Loss
The Healthy online
2025-05-31
One of the study’s authors, Dr. Michael Yassa, further explained in a press release: “We may have found a missing piece of the puzzle. Low oxygen during REM sleep seems to harm tiny blood vessels in the brain, and that damage shows up in areas we rely on for memory. This might help explain why even mild sleep apnea can impact brain health long before memory problems show up.” Dr. Yassa is a professor of neurobiology and behavior at the University of California, Irvine. … REM sleep is key because during it “your brain does some of its most important cleanup and memory storage work,” said Destiny E. Berisha, an author of the study and a doctoral researcher in neurobiology and behavior at UC Irvine.
Does Sleep Apnea Pave Way for Cognitive Decline?
Futurity online
2025-05-13
“Our study found that low oxygen levels from obstructive sleep apnea may be linked to cognitive decline due to damage to the small blood vessels in the brain and the downstream impact of this damage on parts of the brain associated with memory,” says co-corresponding author Bryce A. Mander, assistant professor of psychiatry and human behavior at the University of California, Irvine. … Co-corresponding author Michael Yassa, UC Irvine professor of neurobiology and behavior and director of the campus’s Center for the Neurobiology of Learning & Memory, adds: … “Low oxygen during REM sleep seems to harm tiny blood vessels in the brain … This might help explain why even mild sleep apnea can impact brain health long before memory problems show up.” … “REM sleep is when your brain does some of its most important cleanup and memory storage work,” says co-corresponding author Destiny E. Berisha, a doctoral researcher in neurobiology and behavior at UC Irvine. “If oxygen levels drop during that time, we may be interrupting critical maintenance for the brain’s memory systems.”
Women are better than men at science job interviews
Nature online
2024-10-09
An investigation into academic hiring outcomes for biological-science roles has suggested a surprising trend: women who applied for assistant professor positions in North America were more likely to get job offers than were men. … Michael Yassa, a neuroscientist at the University of California, Irvine, says that the bioRxiv study provides an interesting snapshot of a crucial part of the hiring process. He co-authored a 2023 report3 in the Federation of American Societies for Experimental Biology (FASEB) Journal that detailed successful efforts at his institution to diversify faculty recruitment in the field of biomedical sciences. Among other things, his institution took steps to ensure greater gender balance in hiring committees.
NIH seeks input on how structural racism affects brain research, health
The Transmitter online
2024-04-17
Several neuroscientists who study the effects of racism on the brain told The Transmitter they felt cautious optimism when they read the RFI. “I love that they’re asking for information and input,” says Michael Yassa, professor of neurobiology and behavior, and director of the Center for the Neurobiology of Learning and Memory at the University of California, Irvine.
Shifting Toward Precision Care in Multiple Sclerosis Using Disease Activity Tests and Serum Biomarkers: Michael Y. Sy, MD, PhD
NeurologyLive online
2023-10-24
Michael Y, Sy, MD, PhD, associate professor of clinical neurology at the University of California, Irvine School of Medicine, discussed the use of a multiple sclerosis disease activity test and serum biomarkers in improving the landscape of care for patients.
Articles
Associations between pattern separation and hippocampal subfield structure and function vary along the lifespan: A 7 T imaging study
Scientific ReportsJoost M. Riphagen, Lisa Schmiedek, Ed H. B. M. Gronenschild, Michael A. Yassa, Nikos Priovoulos, Alexander T. Sack, Frans R. J. Verhey & Heidi I. L. Jacobs
2020
Pattern separation (PS) describes the process by which the brain discriminates similar stimuli from previously encoded stimuli. This fundamental process requires the intact processing by specific subfields in the hippocampus and can be examined using mnemonic discrimination tasks. Previous studies reported different patterns for younger and older individuals between mnemonic discrimination performance and hippocampal subfield activation.
1100 Self-Monitoring Of PVT Performance In Healthy Adults And Individuals With MDD
SleepO Galli, N Goel, M Basner, J Detre, M Thase, Y Sheline, H Rao, D Dinges, P Gehrman
2020
Negativity bias in depression has been repeatedly demonstrated in the judgment and decision-making literature. Research investigating the impact of sleep deprivation on self-evaluation of performance in healthy or depressed populations is limited. We examined 1) whether individuals with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) exhibit a negativity bias in subjective ratings of performance on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) as compared with healthy adults, and 2) the impact of total sleep deprivation (TSD) on these ratings.
Pattern Separation and Source Memory Engage Distinct Hippocampal and Neocortical Regions during Retrieval
Journal of NeuroscienceRebecca F. Stevenson, Zachariah M. Reagh, Amanda P. Chun, Elizabeth A. Murray and Michael A. Yassa
2020
Detailed representations of past events rely on the ability to form associations between items and their contextual features (i.e., source memory), as well as the ability to distinctly represent a new event from a similar one stored in memory (i.e., pattern separation). These processes are both known to engage the hippocampus, although whether they share similar mechanisms remains unclear. It is also unknown if, and in which region(s), activity related to these processes overlaps and/or interacts.
Down syndrome: Distribution of brain amyloid in mild cognitive impairment
Alzheimer's & Dementia: Diagnosis, Assessment & Disease MonitoringDavid B Keator, Michael J Phelan, Lisa Taylor, Eric Doran, Sharon Krinsky‐McHale, Julie Price, Erin E Ballard, William C Kreisl, Christy Hom, Dana Nguyen, Margaret Pulsifer, Florence Lai, Diana H Rosas, Adam M Brickman, Nicole Schupf, Michael A Yassa, Wayne Silverman, Ira T Lott
2020
Down syndrome (DS) is associated with a higher risk of dementia. We hypothesize that amyloid beta (Aβ) in specific brain regions differentiates mild cognitive impairment in DS (MCI‐DS) and test these hypotheses using cross‐sectional and longitudinal data.
CA1 20-40 Hz oscillatory dynamics reflect trial-specific information processing supporting nonspatial sequence memory
BioRxivSandra Gattas, Gabriel A. Elias, Michael A. Yassa, Norbert J. Fortin
2020
The hippocampus is known to play a critical role in processing information about temporal context. However, it remains unclear how hippocampal oscillations are involved, and how their functional organization is influenced by connectivity gradients. We examined local field potential activity in CA1 as rats performed a complex odor sequence memory task. We find that odor sequence processing epochs were characterized by increased power in the 4-8 Hz and 20-40 Hz range, with 20-40 Hz oscillations showing a power gradient increasing toward proximal CA1.
