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 1^st 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 3^rd 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 19^th 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 31^st 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.

The successful student will be based at the Van der Veer Institute and will conduct research using the Hagley Radiology 3T MRI scanner in the same building. See here for information on our current MR research capabilities and projects.

The award of the scholarship will take into account both the attributes of the student and the potential projects in which they may be involved. Applicants should examine current research projects at the Institute and identify areas in which they would like to be involved.  Students will be considered from a variety of backgrounds and do not need to have experience in MRI research, although that may be an advantage. Current students in MRI projects have backgrounds in psychology, medicine, physics, and engineering. However, the first award of this scholarship is likely to favour a project with a focus on the physics and techniques of MRI rather than other areas.

Submit:

• a brief CV,
• academic record, and
• preferred area of research

To:
Dr Michael MacAskill, Chief Scientist
Van der Veer Institute
michael.macaskill@vanderveer.org.nz

By:
Friday 30 Jan, 2009

Direct queries related to research projects to Dr Richard Watts, Director of MRI Research

Direct other queries to Dr MacAskill.