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Persons based at MRC CBU
Rik Henson: MRC Senior Scientist
My research programme combines multimodal approaches towards understanding explicit and implicit memory, specifically recollection, familiarity and priming. Modalities include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and electro- and magneto-encephalography (E/MEG). The research concentrates on healthy volunteers and the domain of visual word and visual object processing, particularly faces. It also entails further development of formal methods to integrate fMRI and E/MEG, and more detailed computational models that relate these data to neurophysiological data from single-cell recording. Projects include: i) Functional and neural dissociations between recollection, familiarity and priming, and computational models thereof, ii) Detailed investigations of visual object priming, including masked priming, split visual-field priming and various object transformations, iii) Computational neural network models of priming that relate haemodynamic, electrophysiological, neurophysiological and behavioural data, iv) Methodological developments for analysing and integrating fMRI, EEG and MEG data.
John Hodges: Professor of Behavioural Neurology
At Addenbrooke's Hospital, I run the Memory Disorders Clinic (jointly with Dr. German Berrios, Dr Jeremy Brown and Dr Aidan Jones) and the multidisciplinary Early Onset Dementia Clinic. My main research interests can be divided into theoretical and clinical. The theoretical work based at the CBU focuses on the organisation and neural basis of long-term memory, especially semantic and autobiographical memory. The clinical work relates to the early diagnosis and differentiation of the dementias (Alzheimer's disease, semantic dementia, frontal dementia, PSP and Huntington's disease etc).
Karalyn Patterson: MRC Senior Scientist
My main interest is in the nature of semantic, phonological and orthographic representations of concepts and words, and how these interact in various common tasks such as object naming, word comprehension, word reading, short-term memory, etc. The principal source of evidence for this research comes from patterns of performance in patients with disorders of language and/or semantic memory. This neuropsychological approach is supplemented by experiments on normal language/memory processes (both behavioural, cognitive studies and functional imaging) and also by analysis of normal and "lesioned" networks that simulate some aspects of these abilities. A further focus, especially with respect to reading and its disorders, is cross-linguistic comparisons between English and Japanese, to help us understand which aspects of the reading process are universal and which are determined by the way that different writing systems encode meaning and phonology.
James Rowe: Senior Visiting Scientist (WT)
I am a consultant neurologist supported by a Welcome Trust Intermediate Clinical Fellowship to study the relationship between motor and cognitive processes in health and disease. Clinically I am interested in the overlap between disorders of movement and cognition, particularly in neurodegenerative disease like PD, PSP, CBD and FTD-variants. I use a combination of fMRI and neuropsychometry to characterize the functional changes associated with disease and assess potential surrogate indices of the efficacy of candidate therapies. I also study healthy adults, using a combination of fMRI, PET rTMS and (soon) EEG to understand the cognitive architecture for response selection and voluntary action, with the emphasis on formal analysis of network connectivity.
Morgan Barense: Post-Doctoral Researcher (MRC/Peterhouse)
I am interested in how memory functions are organized within the human brain and how this organization deteriorates following brain damage or disease. My specific research interests include the neural basis of human long-term memory and how this process might interact with other cognitive systems, such as perception and implicit memory.
I use neuroimaging techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging) to investigate brain activity as healthy participants try to remember information. This technique provides in vivo images of the active brain that can help to clarify the normal functioning of individual brain structures, as well as measure their deterioration through dementia. In addition to my neuroimaging research, I also conduct neuropsychological investigations in amnesic patients to determine how different kinds of memory are affected following brain damage. I work with patients with focal brain damage (e.g., following viral infection or head injury) and patients with neurodegenerative conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease.
Sharon Davies: Research Co-ordinator (MRC)
The main part of my work involves maintaining up-to-date records in the form of databases for test results (both routine and experimental) for all of the patients involved in the group's research work at the CBU. I also keep records of scan dates, DoIs, pathology results, annual re-testing dates and any other relevant information relating to individual patients and hence another important part of my work is providing information, results, test materials, equipment etc for specific patients or groups of patients, to other members of the group and to external collaborators. I also carry out basic statistical analyses mostly using SPSS for specific projects, provide graphs and proof-read papers if required. I also organise the regular group business meetings and the quarterly Carer's Support Group meetings that we run for carers of patients with fronto-temporal dementia, including the production and distribution of a newsletter.
Doris Eckstein: Post Doctoral Researcher (SNF)
I am a visiting researcher collaborating with Rik Henson and Matt Davis. My research focuses on the role of consciousness in cognition. In my actual project, I use masked priming and EEG to investigate the time course of nonconscious perception of words at different levels of word processing.
Tina Emery: Research Assistant (ART)
Working on the ART grant, I am mainly responsible for neuropsychological testing of patients either with Dementia with Lewy Bodies or with static lesions; I occasionally see patients with various forms of dementia too. I am responsible for some of the administrative and organisational duties of the ART group such as collating and centralising the data collected by group members.
Boyd Ghosh: MPhil/PhD Student (Brain entry Scholarship)
I have moved to Cambridge from Bristol to continue training to be a neurologist. My PhD (supervised by James Rowe and John Hodges) focuses on the effects of progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). I am bringing together a number of research methods to try to understand the variation of symptoms from patient to patient, and to see whether one can use early non-invasive tests to predict the type of PSP that is evolving – for example with or without significant cognitive problems.
Hilary Green: Research Assistant (MRC)
I am working for John Hodges and Karalyn Patterson. I meet patients who attend the Early Onset Cognitive Disorders clinic to carry out neuropsychological tests both at home and in the clinic. I assist on research projects investigating the acquisition and function of language and knowledge. These studies are carried out through the study of patients with language and memory problems most of whom suffer from Fronto-temporal dementias (Frontal Variant Fronto-Temporal Dementia; Semantic Dementia or Non-fluent Progressive Aphasia).
Aidan Horner: PhD student (MRC)
During my PhD I will be investigating priming using both behavioural and neuroimaging techniques. Specifically, I am interested in the potential multiple components of both positive and negative priming, and their neural correlates. In the first instance, experiments will concentrate on the contribution of response congruency, as distinct from the conventional focus on perceptual components of priming. Ultimately, the intention is to correlate behavioural data with neuroimaging results and to further dissociate the multiple potential components of priming using the temporal and spatial resolutions of EEG/MEG and fMRI respectively.
Laura Hughes: Research Assistant
I am currently working with James Rowe at the CBU. We are investigating the role of the prefrontal cortex for voluntary and goal directed actions, and prefrontal interactions with other brain systems. We use both behavioural and functional imaging data from healthy adults and patients with neurodegenerative diseases (such as Parkinson's disease) to understand the cortical networks of the intact brain and to assess changes related to disease.
Lotte Meteyard: Post-doctoral Researcher
I completed my PhD with Gabriella Vigliocco at University College London, my thesis explored interactions between the perception of visual motion and the semantic representation of motion. I am currently working for Karalyn Patterson and investigating language production in patients with Semantic Dementia, in particular how well syntax/grammar is preserved.
Georgina Morrill: Secretary (MRC)
I am the Secretary for the group, my role includes: Dealing with telephone enquiries from patients, families and those involved with care, liaising with the Brain Bank as necessary. Preparing and processing general correspondence from audio-taped dictation. Assisting in the preparation of Ethics submissions for members of the DMS Group. Assisting in the preparation of research grant proposals for members of the DMS Group. Assisting with preparation of research papers and chapters for publication and final submission. Maintaining and updating databases for published papers and papers in progress for the DMS Group. Processing reprint requests. Liaise with organisations and groups in which Prof. Hodges is involved eg: ART, PSP etc.
Elias Mouchlianitis: Part-time Research Assistant \ PhD student (MRC)
I am collaborating with Dr. Rik Henson in a project that aims to investigate hemispheric differences in view-dependent and independent priming. More specifically, by using the divided visual-field paradigm, we aim to identify whether same and different views of previously studied stimuli are processed differently in the right and left cerebral hemispheres. We intend to integrate behavioural, EEG and fMRI data and possibly relate findings to current theories (e.g. Marsolek, 2002) of dissociable neural systems in the processing of visual word-form and visual object recognition.
Jason Taylor: Post Doctoral Researcher (MRC)
I study the cognitive and neural bases of episodic and semantic memory using the complementary approaches of functional neuroimaging -- ERP, fMRI, MEG -- and cognitive neuropsychological studies of impaired memory due to neurological disorders. A current collaboration with Rik Henson and Anna Woolams uses MEG to explore two subprocesses of recognition memory, recollection and familiarity, and whether they are differentially affected by fluency (relative ease of processing of a stimulus) at perceptual and conceptual levels. I joined the Memory Group in January '07 after a postdoc with John Olichney at UCSD (and briefly at UC Davis) investigating interactions between episodic and semantic memory in patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) using fMRI and ERP. I conducted my dissertation research in Bill Heindel's lab at Brown University using ERPs to investigate the role of perceptual-feature representations in semantic memory.
Karen Taylor: PhD Student (MRC)
During my PhD I will be investigating various aspects of human long-term memory with the use of behavioural, neuropsychological and neuroimaging techniques. I am particularly interested in understanding the differential contributions of medial temporal lobe structures to recollection and familiarity, processes thought to contribute to recognition memory; memory for different stimulus types, for example, spatial vs. non spatial, visual vs. auditory.
Based at University Department of Neurology
Robert Arnold: Research Assistant
I am a grant-funded research assistant focusing on neuropsychological testing of patients with mild cognitive impairment and appropriate control subjects in connection with projects investigating suspected and actual dementia of Alzheimer's type. I am also involved from time to time in carrying out similar testing on other subjects, especially those with other dementias. I also occasionally undertake the testing of control and other subjects in connection with other specific projects including the validation and calibration of new tests.
Kate Dawson: Research Nurse based at Addenbrooke's
I run clinical trials for patients with mild to moderate Alzheimer's disease. All patients participating in the trial are seen as outpatients. At each visit, patients will have various safety (blood tests and ECG's) and efficacy measures (MMSE, Adas(Cog) CIBIC, PDS and GDS) performed.
Christopher Kipps: Clinical Research Fellow
My interest is in the neural basis of social cognition, and I am funded by the Wellcome Trust to study this in frontotemporal dementia using FDG-PET, MRI and neuropsychological testing. Particular areas of interest involve aspects of cognition such as the Theory of Mind, decision-making and emotional processing. I am also interested in longitudinal imaging methods in dementia, and their relationship to clinical assessment.
Eneida Mioshi: Research Assistant
I've been helping Prof. Hodges on the revision of the Addenbrooke's Cognitive Examination (ACE-R) by re-designing it. Iâve been testing the revised version, organising its data and also contacting group members who have been using it in various clinical and research settings. Therefore I've been working closely to Kate Dawson at the Memory Clinic and Drug Clinic at R3 - Addenbrooke's. I've been also involved in a new project, which is aiming to investigate functional performance of patients in everyday life. These patients are diagnosed as Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Alzheimer's Disease and Fronto-Temporal Disease patients. We'll be assessing them with existing Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADLs) and Activities of Daily Living (ADLs) scales in order to investigate the spectrum of IADL and ADL impairment in those populations, and any correlation between IADL/ADL performance with executive function and apathy. We also intend to draw performance profiles in each diagnosis group and compare sensitivity and specificity of some existing ADL scales on these different patients' population.
Joanna Mitchell: Data Manager
I have recently joined the group, based at R3 at Addenbrookeâs, as data manger working closely with John and with Kate Dawson. My aim is to establish a comprehensive database containing all of the clinical and eventually radiological and neuropath data.
George Pengas: Clinical Research Fellow
My interest is in topographical and autobiographical episodic memory. I am funded by the Alzheimer's Research Trust to study these cognitive domains by contrasting Alzheimer's disease (AD), Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI), Semantic Dementia (SD) and Huntington's disease patients using novel computer-generated neuropsychological tests of topographical memory, autobiographical interviews, structural (MR) and functional (PET) imaging, in an attempt to identify the neural basis of these memory domains and develop them as cognitive markers to enhance specificity for the early diagnosis of MCI-stage AD.
Blanca Ramirez-Ruiz: Postdoctoral Visiting Scientist
My PhD at the University of Barcelona, which I completed in 2006, investigated the neuropsychological and neuroanatomical substrates of hallucinations in Parkinson's disease. My current research focuses on the relationship between visual and perceptual functions, semantic processes and psychiatric symptoms in a wider range of neurodegenerative diseases. My clinical project combines neuropsychological exploration of visual, perceptual and semantic functions with structural neuroimaging in patients with Corticbasal degeneration (CBD), Posterior cortical atrophy (PCA) and Dementia with Lewy Bodies (DLB).
Alison Yorke: Clinical Secretary
I am the secretary to Prof John Hodges, and also perform work for Chris Kipps, Andrew Graham, Jonathan Knibb, Peter Nestor, Thomas Bak and Robert Arnold, together with Jo and Kate.
Senior Collaborator: Kim Graham: Prof of Psychology, University of Cardiff
My main research interest is the cognitive and neural organisation of human long-term memory. Research techniques include neuropsychological testing of patients with progressive and nonprogressive memory impairments, and the use of structural and functional neuroimaging in patients and healthy subjects. Current projects include: (a) understanding the role of medial and lateral temporal lobe structures in memory consolidation; (b) investigating how semantic knowledge interacts with other cognitive domains, particularly new learning and language; (c) determining the role of non-hippocampal medial cortices in long-term memory, and investigating the interactions between memory and visual processing; (d) elucidating how frontal and temporal regions interact to support memory retrieval; (e) investigating possible strategies for the acquisition of previously lost semantic knowledge; (f) determining the dissociability, both cognitively and neurally, of different types of long-term memory (e.g., autobiographical, semantic and episodic memory).