News and Events – December 2011 & January 2012
PUBLICATIONS
Melzer, TR, Watts R, MacAskill MR, Pitcher TL, Livingston L, Keenan RJ, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Anderson TJ (2012). Grey matter atrophy in cognitively impaired Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 83:188-194.
GRADUATIONS
Sarah Davies graduated with a Bachelor of Speech and Language Therapy with first class honours from the University of Canterbury on 14th December.
Petra Hoggarth graduated with a PhD in Psychology from the University of Canterbury on 14th December. Her thesis was titled ‘Prediction of Driving Ability in Healthy Older Adults and Adults with Alzheimer’s Dementia or Mild Cognitive Impairment’ and was supervised by Richard Jones, John Dalrymple-Alford, and Carrie Innes.
Tracey Melzer graduated with a PhD in Medicine from the University of Otago on 10 December 2011. His thesis was titled ‘Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Cognition in Parkinson’s Disease’ and was supervised by Tim Anderson, Michael MacAskill, and Richard Watts.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Sarah Davies has been awarded the Sir Don Beaven Doctoral Scholarship to support her doctoral research at the Institute.
PEOPLE AT VDVI
Dr Laёtitia Debernard has joined the Institute as an imaging Postdoctoral Fellow in Prof David Miller’s multiple sclerosis MRI project. Laёtitia is originally from France and has a background in biomechanical engineering. She recently spent time with David in London getting up to speed with MRI techniques in multiple sclerosis.
Bob Young has joined the Institute as a Master of Science (Psychology) student under the supervision of John Dalrymple-Alford. Bob’s project is titled ‘The effect of enriched cognitive training in participants with mild cognitive impairment on cognitive decline and the default-mode network’.