Donna L. Korol is an associate professor in Department of Biology of Syracuse University, New York United States. She specializes in neural mechanisms of learning and memory with a focus on changes across the lifespan and under different fitness, hormonal, and disease states.

My primary research interests are directed at understanding the neural mechanisms of learning and memory, specifically, how changes in signaling and metabolic state influence the neural components of memory and forgetting across the lifespan. My research has a particular emphasis on hormonal regulation of these components, with one aim to develop behavioral and neurobiological models of menopause. Ongoing work addressing these issues includes the following strands of research:  Estrogenic modulation of neural plasticity and the role of selective estrogen receptormediated cell signaling events.  Hormonal modulation of neurophysiological models of memory and forgetting across the lifespan, using long-term potentiation (LTP) long-term depression (LTD) paradigms in rodents.  Neural mechanisms for the effects of physical and cognitive activity on learning and memory, focusing on shifting metabolic profiles and the roles of trophic factor signaling.  The cognitive, metabolic, and cell biological phenotypes of Parkinson’s disease. The goal is to identify pre-motor changes in brain and behavior that may provide an early diagnostic tool that would allow interventions that may prevent or attenuate disease progression.