MacAskill, M. R., Koga, K., & Anderson, T. J. (in press). Japanese street performer mimes violation of Hering’s Law. Neurology.
CONFERENCES
Tim Anderson and Charlotte Graham attended the 2nd World Parkinson Congress in Glasgow, Scotland, 28 Sept – 1 Oct. Charlotte presented the following paper:
Graham C, MacAskill MR, Dalrymple-Alford J, Livingston L, Pitcher T, Anderson TJ (2010). Memory-guided saccades, cognitive status, and dementia in Parkinson’s Disease. Movement Disorders, 25, S3: S691.
AWARDS
Hannah Farr won the Templin Prize for the best written technical report awarded by the Canterbury Branch of the Institution of Professional Engineers New Zealand (IPENZ) for her entry ‘Creative Writing in Engineering – A Pilot Study’.
PEOPLE AT VDVI
Ben Han (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) will be undertaking a 10 week University of Canterbury Summer Studentship project based at the Institute and supervised by Maggie-Lee Huckabee, Richard Jones, and Paul Gaynor. The project is titled ‘An electrical-impedance biofeedback instrument for swallowing rehabilitation’.
Shuang-Xiu Chuang (Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering) will be undertaking a 10 week University of Canterbury Summer Studentship project based at the Institute and supervised by Richard Jones, Govinda Poudel, Carrie Innes, and Phil Bones. The project is titled ‘Measurement and characteristics of video-based eye- closure: A critical marker in the detection of microsleeps’.
Abdul Wahab N, Jones RD, Huckabee ML (in press). Effects of olfactory and gustatory stimuli on neural excitability for swallowing. Physiology & Behavior.
CONFERENCES
Carrie Innes, Richard Jones, Amol Malla, and Govinda Poudel attended the 32nd Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC) in Buenos Aires, Argentina (31 Aug – 4 Sep). The following papers were presented:
Innes CRH, Poudel GR, Signal TL, Jones RD (2010). Behavioural microsleeps in normally-rested people. Proceedings of 32nd Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 32, 4448-4451.
Innes CRH, Lee D, Chen C, Ponder-Sutton A, Jones RD (2010). Different models for predicting driving performance in people with brain disorders. Proceedings of 32nd Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 32, 5226-5529.
Jones RD, Poudel GR, Innes CRH, Davidson PR, Peiris MTR, Malla AM, Signal L, Carroll GJ, Watts R, Bones PJ (2010). Lapses of responsiveness: Characteristics, detection, and underlying mechanisms. Proceedings of 32nd Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 32, 1788-1791.
Malla AM, Davidson PR, Bones PJ, Green R, Jones RD (2010). Automated video-based measurement of eye closure for detecting behavioral microsleep. Proceedings of 32nd Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 32, 6741-6744.
Poudel GR, Innes CRH, Bones PJ, Jones RD (2010). Effects of behavioural microsleeps on EEG theta and tracking performance during a pursuit tracking task. Proceedings of 32nd Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 32, 4452-4455.
AWARDS
Tracy Melzer was runner-up for the 2010 best student presentation at the Health Research Society of Canterbury Scientific Meetings.
PUBLICITY
Daniel Myall and Michael MacAskill featured on Our Changing World, Radio New Zealand National, on Thursday the 23 September 2010. The interview discussed ‘Parkinson’s disease and virtual reality’ and is also available online:
The Neurotechnology Research Programme has acquired a Polysomnography system (Compumedics ProFusion PSG 2; 2003) [gifted to Neurotechnology Research Programme by Children’s Health Service, CDHB]. Profusion PSG 2 is a comprehensive sleep analysis program which allows for automated analysis of sleep staging and events.
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.
Richard Jones attended the University of Otago, Christchurch, Centre for Bioengineering Mini-Conference on 23rd June 2010 and presented the following invited talk:
Jones R D (2010). An overview of the Christchurch Neurotechnology Research Programme.
Tracy Melzer attended the 16th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping in Barcelona, Spain, 6-10th June 2010. Tracy presented the following paper:
Melzer TR, Watts R, MacAskill MR, Keenan R, Shankaranarayanan A, Alsop DC, Graham C, Livingston L, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Anderson TJ (2010). Interpretation of arterial spin labeling (ASL) MRI perfusion deficits in Parkinson’s Disease.
PUBLICITY
Richard Jones, Carrie Innes, and Govinda Poudel were featured on Radio New Zealand National’s Our Changing World discussing their research on ‘Microsleeps’ (13 min), 10 June 2010. (www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/ourchangingworld)
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.
Kelly Hood (Canterbury Child Development Group) attended the Early Intervention Association of Aotearoa New Zealand (EIAANZ) conference, held at the Bruce Mason Centre in Auckland, 30th March – 1st April and presented the following seminar:
Hood K, Woodward L, and Champion P ‘Preschooler social competence as a predictor of later school adjustment amongst children born very preterm’.
INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Late last year, Richard Jones received an invitation for the Neurotechnology Research Group (www.neurotech.org.nz) to apply for participation in Europe’s COST Action ‘Advanced methods for the estimation of human brain activity and connectivity’, known as NeuroMath (www.neuromath.eu). COST is an intergovernmental framework for European COoperation in the field of Scientific and Technical Research, and allows coordination of nationally-funded research on a European level. The goal of COST (www.cost.esf.org) is to ensure that Europe holds a strong position in the field of scientific and technical research for peaceful purposes by increasing European cooperation and interaction in this field. COST also includes a provision for membership by institutions from non-European countries, making COST a powerful tool for tackling topics of a global nature.
COST provides financial support for numerous actions, including NeuroMath. NeuroMath was started in 2007 and now has participating institutions from 23 countries in Europe. Its main objective is to increase knowledge on the mathematical methods able to estimate cortical activity and connectivity in the human brain from non-invasive neuroelectric and haemodynamic measurements.
The initial focus of the Neurotechnology Research Group’s collaborative efforts will be on the application, refinement, and validation of methods for estimation of human brain activity and connectivity as applied to identifying and understanding the complex sequence of brain processes underlying different types of lapses and the recovery thereof. This will be greatly facilitated by bilateral visits of researchers between COST members of NeuroMath and the Van der Veer Institute.
The Neurotechnology Research Group is particularly keen to participate in, contribute to, and benefit from 3 of the 4 working groups in the NeuroMath Action:
·Multimodal integration of neuroelectric and haemodynamic data
·Development of new techniques for the estimation of brain activity and connectivity
·Non-invasive study of motor and cognitive brain processes
The benefits of membership of NeuroMath will be (1) improved exposure and mechanisms for forming linkages with like-minded research groups in Europe, (2) the availability of funding from COST to help take one or more researcher to the biannual NeuroMath meetings, and (3) the availability of funding from COST to help bring world leaders in methods for estimation of human brain activity and connectivity to visit the Institute in Christchurch. In fact, two of the Italian members, Professor Fabio Babiloni and Dr Laura Astolfi, are international Associate Investigators on the Neurotechnology Research Group’s Marsden-funded Lapses of responsiveness project. Another member, Dr Bart Vanrumste (Belgium), spent 2001-2003 in New Zealand as a Postdoc with Richard Jones and Phil Bones. In return, it is hoped that NeuroMath will benefit from collaboration with the Neurotechnology Research Group and its skills and experience in lapses/drowsiness/sleep, EEG signal processing (event detection, source separation, localization), fMRI, and recording simultaneous-fMRI+EEG.
GRADUATIONS
Hannah Farr graduated with a Bachelor of Engineering with first class honours in Chemical and Process Engineering from the University of Canterbury on the 9th April.Hannah’s honours project was titled ‘Metabolic autoregulation in the human cerebro-vasculature’ and supervised by Tim David.
Amol’s face, eye, eye-closure detection algorithm in action. The video shows face region-of-interest (blue box), with its centre (black cross) in which, the eye closure is measured based on position of the estimated upper eyelid (blue dash lines) in reference to the position and height when the eye is fully open (red lines). The recording was made in ambient lighting with infrared emitting diodes around camera, and with an infrared filter in front of the lens. The file contains 33 frames at 5 frames/s but note that frames are not sequential nor processed in real-time.
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.
