Dalrymple-Alford JC, MacAskill MR, Nakas C, Livingston L, Graham CF, Crucian GP, Melzer TR, Kirwan J, Keenan R, Wells S, Porter RJ, Watts R, Anderson TJ (in press). The MoCA: Well-suited screen for cognitive impairment in Parkinson’s disease. Neurology.
Hoggarth P, Innes C, Dalrymple-Alford J, Croucher M, Severinsen J, Gray J, Oxley J, Brook B, Abernethy P, Jones R (in press). Assessment of older drivers in New Zealand: the current system, research, and recommendations. Australasian Journal on Ageing.
van Stockum S, MacAskill MR, Anderson, TJ (in press). Bottom-up effects modulate saccadic latencies in well-known eye movement paradigm. Psychological Research.
Choo AL, Robb MP, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Huckabee M-L, O’Beirne GA (2010). Different lip asymmetry in adults who stutter: Electromyographic evidence during speech and non-speech. Folia Phoniatrica et Logopaedica, 62:143–147.
Doeltgen SH, Dalrymple-Alford J, Ridding MC, Huckabee M-L (2010). Differential Effects of Neuromuscular Electrical Stimulation Parameters on Submental Motor Evoked Potentials. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 24:519-527.
McKinlay A, Grace RC, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Roger D (2010). Characteristics of executive function impairment in Parkinson’s disease patients without dementia. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 16:268-277.
GRANTS
Toni Pitcher, John Dalrymple-Alford, Lucy Johnston, Richard Watts, Michael MacAskill, Richard Porter, Caroline Bell, Ross Keenan, and Tim Anderson were successful in obtaining a grant of $179,899 from the Neurological Foundation of New Zealand for their project ‘Magnetic Resonance Imaging of Anxiety in Parkinson’s disease’. The grant will cover salary and MRI costs.
AWARDS
Tracy Melzer won the University of Otago, Christchurch, round of the ‘PhD in 3’ Competition and was awarded $500 to put towards his research/conference attendance. Tracy will be travelling to Dunedin on the 19th August to compete in the University of Otago wide final of the ‘PhD in 3’ competition.
PUBLICITY
Richard Jones, Carrie Innes, Govinda Poudel, and Phil Bones were featured in an Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand magazine article about their lapse research. ‘Caught Napping’, e.nz Magazine, Vol 11/4, 35-37.
PEOPLE AT VDVI
Yaqub Jon Mohamady commenced his PhD studies through the Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch. His project is titled ‘Real-time enhancement of deep electrical activity in the brain associated with behavioural microsleeps’ and will be supervised by Richard Jones, Govinda Poudel, and Carrie Innes.
Wu CC, Fairhall SL, McNair NA, Hamm JP, Kirk IJ, Cunnington R, Anderson TA, Lim VK (2010). Impaired sensorimotor integration in focal hand dystonia patients in the absence of symptoms. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry. 81: 659-665
GRADUATIONS
Govinda Poudel graduated with a PhD in Medicine from the University of Otago on the 22nd May. Govinda’s PhD was titled ‘Functional magnetic resonance imaging of lapses of responsiveness during visuomotor tracking’ and supervised by Richard Jones, Carrie Innes, and Phil Bones.
AWARDS
Petra Hoggarth was one of two students to win the Department of Psychology University of Canterbury, heat of the ‘PhD in 3’ Competition.
Ramesh Kaipa won 2nd place in the Health Research Society of Canterbury Poster Expo for his poster titled ‘Recovery of Speech following total glossectomy: An acoustic and perceptual appraisal’ (Authors: Ramesh Kaipa, Michael P Robb, Greg A. O’ Beirne, Robert S. Allison).
Phoebe Macrae was awarded the ‘Research Excellence Award’ by the New Zealand Speech Therapists Association. This award recognises innovative research that contributes to clinical work.
Phoebe Macrae won 2nd place in the Scientific Abstract Award at the meeting of the 18th annual Dyspagia Research Society meeting in San Diego, in March with her paper ‘Manometric pressures within and across 3 sessions: within subject variance and order effects’.
Phoebe Macrae won the Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury, heat of the ‘PhD in 3’ Competition.
PUBLICITY
Richard Jones, Govinda Poudel, and Carrie Innes were interviewed for a story based on their Marsden Funded project ‘Losing the struggle to stay awake: What happens in the brain during a lapse of responsiveness?’ which will air on Radio New Zealand National as part of the Our Changing World programme. From 10th June, a link to the interview will be on the Radio New Zealand website at www.radionz.co.nz/ourchangingworld.
The annual ‘Forget Me Not‘ appeal by Alzheimer’s New Zealand ran from 26 July to 1 Aug, 2009. To coincide with this, the Institute highlighted its current research into functional, structural, and cerebral bloodflow MR imaging in Alzheimer’s.
The project was also covered in the Christchurch ‘Press’ here; in brief in the New Zealand Herald, Dominion Post, Otago Daily Times, and Gisborne Herald; and in a national radio interview with Larry Williams on NewsTalkZB.
In the brief (4 minute) movie below, biochemist Gregory Petsko makes a compelling case to show that neurological diseases of ageing, such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, will be a major global challenge in the 21st century:
This was originally posted here as one of a series of many TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks. They cover a huge range of areas but are united in all being presented by very effective communicators. Worth checking out.
The Van der Veer Institute’s was featured in the first episode of the Canterbury Medical Research Foundations series “The Body, The Research, The Professor”. Interviews were conducted with Tim Anderson, Richard Jones, Carrie Innes, and Maggie-Lee Huckabee.
The Van der Veer Institute’s Lapse research programme was featured in TVNZ ONE’s Close Up feature on ‘Microsleeps’, shown on the 14th of April 2008. The embedded version below requires flash to be installed.
