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Tracy D Vannorsdall, Ph.D.

Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
Female
Expertise: Neuropsychological Assessment and Intervention, Neuropsychology, Psychiatric Complications of Neurological Diseases, Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Psychologist, Psychology ...read more
Research Interests: Transcranial direct current stimulation; Neuropsychology of cancer and its treatment; Structural brain imaging; Serum biomarkers of cognitive aging; Neuropsychology of cerebral ischemia; Medical comorbidities; Metabolic disorders ...read more
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The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Appointment Phone: 410-955-3268
600 N. Wolfe Street
Meyer Building Suite 218
Baltimore, MD 21287
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Phone: 410-502-3701
Background
Tracy D. Vannorsdall, PhD, is a board-certified clinical neuropsychologist and Assistant Professor within the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Department of Neurology at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. She completed her doctoral degree in psychology at the University of Maryland Baltimore County in 2006 following a one-year internship in clinical neuropsychology at the Ann Arbor VA Medical Center. Dr. Vannorsdall then completed a three-year clinical and research fellowship at the Johns Hopkins Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. She joined the faculty in 2009 and is currently an Assistant Professor in the Division of Medical Psychology.
Her work with patients provides insight and motivation for her research, which focuses on developing methods to improve cognitive functioning in those at risk for neuropsychological declines due to illness and medical treatments. She is exploring the potential benefits of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), a low-risk and non-invasive brain stimulation technique, as a means of enhancing cognitive functioning and reducing fatigue in medical disorders including cancer and multiple sclerosis. She also collaborates on projects aiming to reduce the negative cognitive effects of brain radiation.
Titles
- Assistant Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences
- Assistant Professor of Neurology
Departments / Divisions
Education
Fellowships
- Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine / Psychiatry (2009)
Research & Publications
Selected Publications
Schretlen, D. J., Inscore, A. B., Vannorsdall, T. D., Kraut, M., Pearlson, G. D., Gordon, B., et al. (2007). Serum uric acid and brain ischemia in normal elderly adults. Neurology, 69(14), 1418-1423.
Vannorsdall, T.D., Jinnah, H.A., Gordon, B., Kraut, M., & Schretlen, D.J. (2008). Cerebral ischemia mediates the effect of serum uric acid on cognitive function. Stroke, 39, 3418-3420.
Vannorsdall, T. D., Waldstein, S.R., Kraut, M., Pearlson, G. D., & Schretlen, D. J. (2009). White matter abnormalities and cognition in a community sample. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 24(3), 209-217.
Vannorsdall, T.D., Cascella, N.G., Rao, V., Pearlson, G.D., Gordon, B., & Schretlen, D.J. (2010). A morphometric analysis of neuroanatomic abnormalities in traumatic brain injury. Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences, 22, 173-181.
Christman, A.L., Vannorsdall, T.D., Pearlson, G.P., Hill-Briggs, F., & Schretlen, D.J. (2010). Cranial volume, mild cognitive deficits and functional limitations associated with diabetes in a community sample. Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 25(1), 49-59.
Schretlen, D.J., Vannorsdall, T.D., Winicki, J.M., Mushtaq, Y., Hikida, T., Sawa, A., Yolken, R.H., Dickerson, F.B., & Cascella, N.G. (2010). Neuroanatomic and cognitive abnormalities related to herpes simplex virus type 1 in schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research, 118(1-3), 224-231.
Sadleir, R., Vannorsdall, T.D., Schretlen, D. J., & Gordon, B. (2010). Transcranial direct current stimulation in a realistic head model. NeuroImage, 15:51(4), 1310-1318.
Gansler, D.A., Jerram, M.W., Vannorsdall, T.D., Schretlen, D.J (2011). Comparing alternative metrics to assess performance on the Iowa Gambling Task. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 33(9), 1040-1048.
Gansler, D.A., Jerram, M.W., Vannorsdall, T.D., Schretlen, D.J. (2011). Does the Iowa Gambling Task measure executive function? Archives of Clinical Neuropsychology, 26(8):706-17.
Vannorsdall, T.D., Maroof, D., Gordon, B., & Schretlen, D.J. (2012). Ideational fluency as a domain of human cognition. Neuropsychology, 26(3), 400-405.
Sung, K., Gordon, B., Vannorsdall, T.D., Ledoux, K., Pickett, E.J., Pearlson, G.D., & Schretlen, D.J. (2012).Semantic clustering of category fluency in schizophrenia examined via singular value decomposition analysis. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18(3), 565-570.
Gansler, D.A., Jerram, M.W., Vannorsdall, T.D., Schretlen, D.J. (2012). Hierarchical Organization of Cortical Morphology of Decision-making when deconstructing Iowa Gambling Task performance in healthy adults. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 18(3), 585-594.
Vannorsdall, T.D., Schretlen, D.J. Andrejczuk, M., Ledoux, K., Bosley, L.V., Weaver, J.R., Skolasky, R.L., & Gordon, B. (2012). Altering automatic verbal processes with transcranial direct current stimulation. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 3: 73, 1 - 6.
Sadlier, R.J., Vannorsdall, T.D., Schretlen, D.J., & Gordon (2012). Target optimization intranscranial direct current stimulation. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 3: 90, 1-13.
Takayanagi, Y., Gerner, G.J., Takayanagi, M., Rao, V., Vannorsdall, T.D., Sawa, A., Schretlen, D.J., and Cascella, N.G. (2013). Hippocampal volume reduction correlates with apathy in traumatic brain injury but not schizophrenia. The Journal of Neuropsychiatry and Clinical Neurosciences,25(4): 292-301.
Sung, K., Gordon, B., Vannorsdall, T.D., Ledoux, K., & Schretlen, D. J. (2013). Impaired retrieval of semantic information in bipolar disorder: A clustering analysis of category fluency productions. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 122(3), 624-634.
Schretlen, D.J., Varvaris, M., Ho, T., Vannorsdall, T.D., Gordon, B., Harris J.C., Jinnah, H.A. (2013). Regional brain volume abnormalities in Lesch-Nyhan Disease and its variants: A cross sectional study. The Lancet Neurology, 12(12): 1151-1158.
Ledoux, K., Vannorsdall, T.D., Pickett, E.J., Schretlen, D.J., & Gordon, B. (2014). Capturing additional information about the organization of entries in the lexicon from verbal fluency productions. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 36(2):205-20.
Schretlen, D.J.,Van Steenburgh, J.J., Varvaris, M., Vannorsdall, T.D., Andrejcuk, M.A., & Gordon, B. (2014). Can transcranial direct current stimulation improve cognitive functioning in adults with schizophrenia? Clinical Schizophrenia and Related Psychoses, 3: 1-27.
Vannorsdall, T.D., Kueider, A.M., Carlson, M.M., Schretlen, D. J. (2014). Higher baseline serum uric acid is associated with poorer cognition but not rates of cognitive decline in women. Experimental Gerontology, 60:136-139.
Schretlen, D.J., Varvaris, M., Vannorsdall, T.D., Gordon, B., Harris, J.C., Jinnah, H.A. (2015). Brain white matter volume abnormalities in Lesch-Nyhan disease and its variants. Neurology, 84(2): 190-196.
Vannorsdall, T.D., van Steenburgh, J.J., Schretlen, D.J., Jayatillake, R., Skolasky, R.L., Gordon, B. (2016).Reproducibility of tDCS results in a randomized trial: Failure to replicate findings of tDCS induced enhancement of verbal fluency. Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology 29, 11-17.
Redmond, K.J., Ye, X., Assadi, R., McIntyre, R., Moore, J., Ford, E., Grossman, S., Quinones, A.,Kleinberg, L., Vannorsdall, T.D. (2015). Neural Progenitor Cell (NPC) Sparing Radiation Therapy (RT)plus Temozolomide (TMZ) in Newly Diagnosed Glioblastoma Multiforme (GBM) Associatedwith Neuro-Cognitive Function but Not Tumor Outcomes: Results of a Prospective Clinical Trial. Neuro-Oncology, 17(suppl 5):v198-v199.
Redmond, K.J., Mahone, M.E., Sair, H., Vannorsdall, T.D., Terezakis, S., Kleinbert, L., McNutt, T. Wharam, M., Horska, A. (2014). Cranial radiation encompassing the genu is associated with neuro-psychological sequelae in children: a prospective study of Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) and Proton MR Spectroscopy. Neuro-Oncology 16 (suppl 5):v137-v137.
Redmond, K.J., Mahone, E.M., Sair, H., Vannorsdall, T., Terezakis, S. A., Kleinberg, L. R., McNutt, T.R., Wharam, M., Horska, A. (2014). Diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) and proton MR spectroscopy (MRS) detected region specific injury to white matter in children treated with cranial irradiation. International Journal of Radiation Oncology, Biology, Physics, 90(1): S721-S722.
Activities & Honors
Honors
- Butters Award, International Neuropsychology Society North American Conference, 2014 - 2014
- Nelson Butters Award for Research Contributions to Clinical Neuropsychology, National Academy of Neuropsychology, 2011 - 2011
- Blue Ribbon Award, Neuropsychology, American Psychological Association, 2007 - 2007
Memberships
- American Academy of Clinical Neuropsychology
- American Board of Professional Psychology
- American Psychological Association
- International Neuropsychological Society
Videos & Media
Recent News Articles and Media Coverage
Where Oncology Meets Brain Science, Hopkins BrainWise - Summer 2015
Patient Ratings & Comments
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