March 31st, 2009 by carrie
PUBLICATIONS
Innes CRH, Jones RD, Anderson TJ, Hollobon SG, Dalrymple-Alford JC (2009). Performance in normal subjects on a novel battery of driving-related sensory-motor and cognitive tests. Behavior Research Methods, 42(1), 284-294.
Mace JL, Porter RP, Dalrymple-Alford J, Anderson TA (in press). Effects of acute tryptophan depletion on mood in patients with Parkinson’s disease and the health elderly. Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Mace JL, Porter RP, Dalrymple-Alford J, Wesnes K, Anderson, TA (in press). Effects of acute tryptophan depletion on neuropsychological and motor function in Parkinson’s disease. Journal of Psychopharmacology.
Mace JL, Porter RP, O’Brien J, Gallagher P (2008). Cognitive effects of acute tryptophan depletion in the healthy elderly. Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 20(2), 78-86.
CONFERENCES
Tim Anderson was an invited speaker at the Faculty of Health Sciences, School of Nursing, Christchurch Polytechnic, Christchurch on 24th March. Tim presented ‘Teaching in the Management of Parkinson’s Disease, Living with Chronic Illness – Reviewing Parkinson’s disease as one example of living with chronic illness (GCPD700)’.
Tim Anderson attended the 9th International Conference on Alzhemier’s disease and Parkinson’s disease 11-15th March in Prague, Czech Republic and presented the following posters:
Melzer TR, Watts R, MacAskill MR, Shankaranarayanan A, Alsop DC, Keenan R, Graham C, Livingston L, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Anderson TJ. ‘Arterial spin labeling perfusion MRI in the characterisation of abnormal perfusion patterns in early, drug naïve Parkinson’s disease’.
Graham C, MacAskill MR, Livingston L, Dalrymple-Alford JC, Anderson TJ. ‘Influence of cognitive status in Parkinson’s disease on reflexive saccades’
Tim Anderson attended the National UPBEAT Weekend Conference in Christchurch on the 27th March. UPBEAT (Understanding Parkinson’s by Belief in Education, Attitude and Treatment) is a special interest group for people with early onset Parkinson’s Disease.
Tim Anderson attended the Clinicopathological Conference on Dementia with Lewy Bodies and Parkinson’s Disease Dementia (DLB/PDD) on the 8-10th March in Kassel, Germany.
John Dalrymple-Alford gave a presentation, entitled, “Parkinson’s disease, dementia and some recent observations,” to the “117th Annual Convocation of the Grand Royal Arch Chapter of Freemasons of New Zealand” in Palmerston North, 7th March.
Norsila Abdul-Wahab, Frauke Heck, Maggie-Lee Huckabee, and Phoebe Macrae, attended the 17th Annual Dysphagia Research Society Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana, USA which was held 5-7th March. Ellen Nijhof’s poster (presented by Maggie-Lee) was selected as one of the top 6 conference posters to be orally presented during a platform poster session:
Nijhof E, Abdul-Wahab N, Huckabee M-L (in press). Influence of Olfactory and Gustatory Stimuli on Submental sEMG Amplitude (Abstract). Dysphagia.
The following posters were also presented:
Macrae P, Huckabee M-L, Doeltgen SH, Jones RD (in press). Intra- and inter-rater reliability of hyoid displacement as measured by ultrasound (Abstract). Dysphagia.
Abdul Wahab N, Huckabee M-L, Jones RD (in press). Effects of olfaction and gustation on motor-evoked potentials from floor of mouth muscles (Abstract). Dysphagia.
PUBLICITY
Verena Pritchard and Ewald Neumann’s recent paper on negative priming tasks (published in Developmental Psychology) has received international recognition online in a science blog called Cognitive Daily. The Cognitive Daily link is advertised in the Science Times section of the electronic version of the New York Times. The Cognitive Daily article on Verena and Ewald’s research can be viewed at:
http://scienceblogs.com/cognitivedaily/2009/02/a_special_case_of_the_stroop_e.php
PEOPLE AT VDVI
Nadia Borlase is an MSc student from the Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury. Nadia’s project will be ‘Cognition in Parkinson’s disease: Thalamus and Posterior Cingulate’ and supervised by John Dalrymple-Alford, Tim Anderson, Greg Crucian, Richard Watts, and Michael MacAskill.
Hannah Farr is a PhD Candidate from the Centre for Bioengineering, University of Canterbury. Hannah’s project will be ‘Cellular pathways to neurovascular coupling’ and supervised by Tim David and Richard Watts.
Vineetha Varghese Chirackal is an MSc student from the Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury. Vineetha’s project will be ‘The predictive value of the Montreal Cognitive Assessment for cognitive status and everyday function in patients with Parkinson’s disease’ and supervised by John Dalrymple-Alford, Tim Anderson, Greg Crucian, and Michael MacAskill.
Amy Wang is a 4th year BSc(Hons) student from the Department of Psychology, University of Canterbury. Amy’s project will be ‘Cognitive and neuropsychiatric correlates of medial temporal lobe integrity in Parkinson’s disease’ and supervised by John Dalrymple-Alford, Tim Anderson, Greg Crucian, Richard Watts, and Michael MacAskill.
January 31st, 2009 by carrie
PUBLICATIONS
Pritchard VE, Neumann E (2009). Avoiding the potential pitfalls of using negative priming tasks in developmental studies: Assessing inhibitory control in children, adolescents, and adults. Developmental Psychology, 45(1), 272–283.
GRANTS
Petra Hoggarth was successful in obtaining a Canterbury Medical Research Foundation Travel Grant-in-Aid of $2000 to put towards her attendance at the International Neuropsychological Society 37th Annual Meeting to be held 11-14th February 2009 in Atlanta, USA.
Phoebe Macrae was successful in obtaining a Canterbury Medical Research Foundation Travel Grant-in-Aid of $2000 to put towards her attendance at the 17th Annual Dysphagia Research Society Meeting to be held 5-7th March 2009 in New Orleans, USA.
Tracy Melzer was successful in obtaining a Canterbury Medical Research Foundation Travel Grant-in-Aid of $750 to put towards his attendance at the 15th Annual Meeting of the Organization for Human Brain Mapping (HBM) to be held 18-22nd June 2009 in San Francisco, USA.
December 31st, 2008 by carrie
PUBLICATIONS
Herbert CE, Hughes RN (in press). A comparison of 1-benzylpiperazine and methamphetamine in their acute effects on anxiety-related behavior of hooded rats. Pharmacology, Biochemistry and Behavior.
Melzer TR, Cook NJ, Butler AP, Watts R, Anderson N, Tipples R, Butler PH (in press). Spectroscopic biomedical imaging with the Medipix2 detector. Australasian Physical and Engineering Sciences in Medicine.
EVENTS
The Van der Veer Institute Brain Research Forum was held on Monday 1st December, in the Beaven Lecture Theatre. The speaker was Dr Greg O’Beirne, Senior Lecturer in Audiology in the Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury. Greg presented ‘Waveforms, Boltzmann functions, and tuning curves – What electrophysiological measures can tell us about auditory function’.
The Van der Veer Institute recognised its research volunteers (both patients & controls) on Wednesday 3rd December with a Volunteer Day morning tea. The morning tea was held at the Chinese Hall next to the Institute and included talks from Michael MacAskill, Tracy Melzer, Phoebe Macrae, Tim Anderson, and John Bayley. Awards were presented to volunteers Diana Broughton and Lorna Best in acknowledgement of the time they give to greet and assist patients arriving for clinic appointments undertaken at the Institute.
GRANTS
Carrie Innes was successful in obtaining an ACC Career Development Award of $137,512 which will provide 0.5 salary and expenses over 3 years to support the project ‘Avoiding accidents due to lapses and errors in sleep-deprived people’.
Megan McAuliffe, Catherine Moran, and Tim Anderson were successful in obtaining a Neurological Foundation project grant of $62,625 over three years for their project ‘Factors influencing older listeners’ comprehension of disordered speech associated with Parkinson’s disease’.
GRADUATIONS
Malik Peiris graduated on 19th December with a PhD from the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Canterbury. His thesis was titled ‘Lapses in Responsiveness: Characteristics and Detection from the EEG’ and supervised by Richard Jones and Philip Bones.
SCHOLARSHIPS
Oshrat Sella was successful in obtaining a University of Canterbury International Doctoral Scholarship. This scholarship is awarded to the top five International students applying for University of Canterbury Doctoral Scholarships each year. The scholarship includes $25,000 pa stipend, cost of fees, and an economy return airfare home. Oshrat will be undertaking a swallowing neurophysiology-related PhD project under the supervision of Maggie-Lee Huckabee.
Sarah Wright successful in obtaining a University of Otago Postgraduate Scholarship. The scholarship includes $20,000 pa stipend and cost of fees. Sarah will be undertaking a PhD project related to ‘Saccades, advanced MRI, and dementia’ under the supervision of Tim Anderson, Michael MacAskill, and Richard Watts.
APPOINTMENTS
Richard Jones has been invited to membership of International Program Committee of the 31st Annual International Conference of IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2009), 2-6 Sept 2009, Minneapolis, USA.
PEOPLE AT VDVI
Julia Corbett commenced a summer studentship with Maggie-Lee Huckabee. Julia’s project is ‘Transcranial magnetic stimulation induced motor evoked potentials from the submental muscle group in young adults with spastic and dystonic cerebral palsy and age and gender matched controls: a pilot study’.
Nick Mann commenced a summer studentship with John Dalrymple-Alford. Nick’s project is ‘The fMRI of spatial memory in the elderly’.
Kirsten Ritchie commenced a summer studentship with John Dalrymple-Alford. Kirsten’s project is ‘The fMRI of moral dilemmas’.
Oshrat Sella commenced a PhD in the Department of Communication Disorders, University of Canterbury. Her project will be related to swallowing neurophysiology and will be supervised by Maggie-Lee Huckabee.