News and Events – February 2008
PUBLICATIONS
Anderson NL, Hughes RN. (in press). Increased emotional reactivity in rats following exposure to caffeine during adolescence. Neurotoxicology and Teratology.
Pritchard VE, Neumann E, Rucklidge JJ. (in press). Selective attention and inhibitory deficits in ADHD: Does subtype or comorbidity modulate negative priming effects? Brain and Cognition.
Snell DL, Surgenor LJ, Hay-Smith J, Siegert R (in press). A systematic review of psychological treatments for mild traumatic brain injury: An update on the evidence. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology.
Will BE, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Wolff M, Cassel J-C. (in press). Reflections on the use of the concept of plasticity in neurobiology. Translation and adaptation by Bruno Will, John Dalrymple-Alford, Mathieu Wolff and Jean-Christophe Cassel from J. Paillard, J Psychol 1976;1:33-47. Behavioural Brain Research.
McKinlay A, Kaller C, Grace R, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Anderson T, Fink J, Roger D. (2008). Planning in Parkinson’s Disease: A Matter of Problem Structure? Neuropsychologia, 46: 384-9.
McKinlay A, Grace RC, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Anderson T, Fink J, Roger D (2008). A profile of neuropsychiatric problems and their relationship to quality of life for Parkinson’s disease patients without dementia. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders, 14: 37-42.
CONFERENCES
Wu B, Maclaren JR, Watts R, Millane RP, Bones PJ. “Ordered k-space acquisition in contrast enhanced magnetic resonance angiography (CE-MRA)”, presented as a poster at SPIE Medical Imaging Conference, San Diego, Feb 2008, MI01-27.
GRANTS
John Dalrymple-Alford received a grant of $4850 from the Psychology Department, University of Canterbury for the study “Developing new tests to begin answers: What does enrichment do that improves memory in rats with thalamic lesions?” The aim of the study is to develop procedures to examine neuronal complexity and neuronal activation in an animal model of recovery of function in the context of diencephalic amnesia.
John Dalrymple-Alford and Greg Crucian received a grant of $15,000 from the Psychology Department, University of Canterbury for the study “Towards combating Alzheimer’s disease: Enriched cognitive stimulation, improved brain function?” The aim of the study is to develop fMRI memory procedures in older adults to contribute to studies with Alzheimer patients.
Two pre-proposals to the Michael J Fox Foundation “for Parkinson’s Research Cognitive Deficits and Mood Disorders in Parkinson’s Disease 2008 program” have been invited to be submitted as full applications. These projects are:
1. Does amantadine improve cognition, apathy and mood in early PD? (Tim Anderson, John Dalrymple-Alford, Richard Watts, Greg Crucian, Richard Porter, Michael MacAskill).
2. Mild cognitive impairment to dementia in Parkinson’s disease: Variations in functional default-mode network and structural diffusion tensor brain imaging. (John Dalrymple-Alford, Tim Anderson, Richard Watts, Greg Crucian).
GRADUATIONS
Rati Bell graduated in absentia on the 27th February 2008 with a Master of Science in Zoology (First Class Honours) from the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Canterbury. Her thesis was titled “Anterior and lateral thalamic lesions in object-odour paired associate learning”.
PUBLICITY
The Christchurch Driving Research Programme featured in an item on Newstalk ZB (nationwide) on 5 Feb Jan 2008 (Richard Jones interviewed).
PEOPLE AT VDVI
Nadia Borlase commenced a 4th year project in Psychology at the University of Canterbury. Her project is titled “Volumetric medial temporal lobe measures and cognitive function in Parkinson’s disease” and will be supervised by John Dalrymple Alford, Tim Anderson, Greg Crucian, and Richard Watts.
Tracey Melzer commenced a PhD at the University of Otago, Christchurch. His project is titled “Structural and functional MR imaging in Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s disease” and will be supervised by Tim Anderson and Michael MacAskill.
Amy Montagu commenced a 4th year project in Psychology at the University of Canterbury. Her project is titled “Memory for Temporal Order” and will be supervised by John Dalrymple-Alford, Greg Crucian, and Richard Watts. Amy will also be continuing work on the functional MRI-based project she completed as a University of Canterbury/CMRF Summer Student.
