Dawn Bowers, Ph.D., ABPP-CN

Dawn Bowers is a Professor and clinical/research neuropsychologist in the Departments of Clinical & Health Psychology and Neurology at the University of Florida. She is a UF Research Foundation Professor, the Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at the Fixel Institute, and neuropsychology director for the UF Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration program. Dr. Bowers received her Ph.D. from the University of Florida, interned at Boston University/Boston Veterans Administration Hospital (with an externship at the Framingham Heart Project), and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral neurology at the University of Florida. She is internationally known for her expertise in neurocognitive and emotion changes associated with age related disorders including Parkinson disease, Essential Tremor, Alzheimer’s disease and other neurologic disorders. Her research has spanned  laterality, attention and memory, and neuropsychology of emotion using TMS, ERP, psychophysiology, near infrared stimulation, computational modeling, and face digitizing. She has received continuous research funding by NIH and other foundations since 1981. She has over 225 peer-reviewed research articles, over 400 peer-reviewed research presentations, 1 co-authored book, and 1 clinical test.   She is strongly committed to clinical and research training of predoctoral and post-doctoral fellows and is MPI of an NINDS-funded T32 in Interdisciplinary Training in Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration. She sees patients clinically for neuropsychological assessment and intervention at the Fixel Center. Her lab website: https://cogneuro.phhp.ufl.edu

Dr. Bowers is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist (ABPP/CN) in the Department of Clinical & Health Psychology. She directs two offsite interdisciplinary clinics at the Fixel Institute of Neurological Disease, where her neuropsychology service is embedded with other providers (neurology, neurosurgery, psychiatry) to provide comprehensive one-stop shopping to patients with a variety of disorders (e.g., dementia subtypes, subcortical diseases, focal lesions, TBI, OCD, Tourettes, conversion disorder, sequelae of medical illness). Most candidates for deep brain stimulation (DBS) are seen through her clinics. Her approach to neuropsychological assessment is focused, eclectic, and flexible. As lead neuropsychologist for UF Fixel Institute’s Movement Disorders Program, she oversees the neuropsychology module of the INFORM database, one of the largest prospective clinical research databases for movement disorder patients in the world. As part of her clinical teaching, Dr. Bowers supervises graduate students, interns, and post-doctoral fellows as they rotate through her clinic.

Current research focuses on psychophysiological and behavioral signatures of cognitive/emotional change associated with normal aging and  Parkinson disease  and novel treatment approaches for apathy and executive dysfunction.  Her laboratory uses a variety of different tools to investigate hypothesis driven research ranging from transcranial magnetic stimulation, psychophysiology/electrophysiology (ERP), face digitizing, computational modeling, to experimental cognitive probes.  

Current funding

NIH/NINDS, T32-NS082168-06,  Interdisciplinary Training in Movement Disorders and Neurorestoration. MPI:  D. Bowers & D. Vaillancourt

NIH/NIA  R01-AG064587, Revitalizing Cognition in Older Adults at Risk for Alzheimer’s disease with Near Infrared Photobiomodulation. MPI: D. Bowers, A. Woods, & G. Alexander.

Parkinson Foundation Impact Award IMP-1938, Revitalizing cognition and motor symptoms in patients with Parkinson disease, PI: D. Bowers

NIH/NIA R21-AG057200, Determining plasticity of brain-regulatory mechanisms related to emotion processing: A Neurofeedback Approach in Aging and Parkinson Disease. MPI: D. Bowers & N. Ebner

Florida Department of Health Ed and Ethel Moore Alzheimer’s Program (Grant #20A15), Determining Plasticity of Brain-Regulatory Mechanisms Related to Emotion Processing: A Neurofeedback Approach in Older Adults with Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment. PI: Ebner; Bowers Co-I

NIH/NIA R01-AG12802177, Uncovering and Surveilling Financial Deception Risk in Aging, Supplement. PI: Ebner Co-I Bowers

NIH/NINSA-1UH3NS109845, Dual Lead Thalamic DBR-DBS Interface for Closed Loop Control of Severe Essential Tremor. MPI: Oweiss & Foote; Co-I Bowers

McKnight Brain Research Foundation. A Pilot Multi-Site Intervention with Near Infrared Stimulation. MPI: D. Bowers, G. Alexander, A. Woods

NIH R01 HD091658-01. Mechanisms of airway protection dysfunction in Parkinson’s disease. PI: K. Hegland, Co-I: D. Bowers

NIH/NINDS R01-NS096008, The Human Thalamocortical Network in Tourette. MPI: A. Gunduz & M.S. Okun, Co-I Bowers

NIH/NINDS UH3-NS095553, Closing the Loop on Tremor: A Responsive Deep Brain Stimulator for the Treatment. MPI: G. Gunduz & K. Foote, Co-I Bowers.

Recently Completed Funding

Fogarty Foundation, Dose Response Relationship between Near Infrared Stimulation and Brain Activity using Neuroimaging. PI: P. Sinha & Bowers (Mentor).

NIH/NINDS R21NS079767, Emotion Regulation, Executive Function, and Parkinson Disease, PI: D. Bowers

NIH/ NINDS R01-NS50633, Masked Faces in Parkinson Disease: Mechanism and Treatment. PI: D. Bowers

NIH/NIA R21-AG033284, Language and Executive Function in Parkinson’s Disease: Effects of dual task and exercise. MPI: L. Altmann & C. Hass; Bowers Co-I.

NIH/NIMH R01 MH62458, Priming, TMS, and Hemispheric Asymmetries. PI: D. Bowers.

Michael J. Fox Foundation, Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation for theTreatment of Apathy in Parkinson’s Disease (The Restore Study). MPI: H.Fernandez & D. Bowers