Mapping the human brain
A panel presentation and discussion exploring cognition, behaviour, and degenerative disease
Online via Webex (Please REGISTER)
Amer Burhan
Modulating brain networks with non-invasive brain stimulation to treat neuropsychiatric illnesses
Amer Burhan is a Geriatric Psychiatrist, Physician-in-Chief and Endowed Chair for Applied Mental Health Research at the Ontario Shores Centre for Mental Health Sciences in Whitby, Ontario, and Associate Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto. He is also an Adjunct Research Professor in Psychiatry and Neurosciences at Western University and Geriatric Psychiatrist with the Operational Stress Injury Clinic at Saint Joseph’s Health Care and is associate scientist at the MacDonald Franklin Operational Stress Injury Research Centre and the Lawson Health Research Institute in London Ontario. He leads several pragmatic clinical trials in the area of neuropsychiatry of dementia and in therapeutic brain stimulation for resistant mental illness across the life-span in addition to being active in several initiatives to develop guidelines to standardize definitions, assessment, and management of treatment resistant mental illnesses. He is a clinician, educator, and investigator and his career is focused on complex mental health presentation in old age and on therapeutic brain stimulation.
At Research Talks, he will discuss modulating brain networks with non-invasive brain stimulation such as electronic and magnetic transcranial stimulation to treat neuropsychiatric illnesses.
Myra Fernandes
Memory and the life cycle of the brain
Myra
Fernandes is
a
Professor
in
Cognitive
Neuroscience
at
the
University
of
Waterloo.
Her
research
identifies
cognitive
processes
and
key
brain
structures
supporting
memory
function.
She
uses
procedures
such
as
fMRI
brain
scans,
as
well
as
computer
and
paper/pencil
testing
in
young
adults,
in
senior
citizens,
and
in
those
with
a
past
head
injury
or
concussion.
Myra was awarded the Canadian Psychological Association’s President’s New Researcher Award, the Ontario Ministry of Research & Innovation’s Research Excellence Award, and the Women in Cognitive Science Canada Mentorship Award. She holds numerous editorial board positions and is a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science, and Canadian Society for Brain Behaviour & Cognitive Sciences. She is a past co-Chair of the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada’s grant review panel for Biological Systems.
The ability to encode, store, and retrieve information requires numerous cognitive processes. Identifying those critical for successful memory performance is a goal of psychologists and neuroscientists. At Research Talks, Myra will discuss the brain changes that accompany aging, and how these impact our ability to think, communicate and remember. She will review evidence from cognitive experiments, neuroimaging data, and studies of normal aging, that pinpoint critical processes and brain regions important for enabling contextually-rich high-quality memories and recollections of the past. She will also review a variety of encoding techniques that can be used on a daily basis to engage more diverse brain representations, ultimately enhancing memory capabilities and performance.
Peter Hall
Reaching beyond conventional brain health metrics
Peter
Hall is
a
Professor
in
the
School
of
Public
Health
and
Health
Systems
at
the
University
of
Waterloo,
and
Director
of
the
Prevention
Neuroscience
Laboratory.
His
research
has
two
main
foci:
1)
the
interplay
of
the
mind
and
brain
with
the
social
environment
in
the
context
of
disease
prevention
research,
and
2)
the
development
and
validation
of
conceptually
meaningful
measures
of
brain
health
using
magnetic
stimulation
and
mobile
brain
imaging.
He
is
a
Fellow
of
the
Academy
for
Behavioral
Medicine
research,
and
recipient
of
early
career
awards
from
the
Canadian
Psychological
Association
and
Canadian
Institutes
for
Heath
Research.
He
has
completed
advanced
fellowships
in
transcranial
magnetic
stimulation
(TMS)
at
Harvard
Medical
School
and
Duke
University
Medical
Centre.
At Research Talks, Peter will discuss the rationale for reaching beyond conventional brain health metrics with the aim of identifying new approaches to brain health assessment that might eventually play a role in early diagnosis of brain diseases. In particular, challenge-based paradigms - very widely used in other areas of medicine might be of particular interest when mapping the brain, behaviour and cognition. He will provide an overview of some emerging approaches using TMS coupled with mobile brain imaging.
Donna Kwan
A team science approach to looking across the neurodegenerative spectrum
Donna
Kwan
is
a
Clinical
Neuropsychologist
and
the
Neuropsychology
Platform
Lead
for
the
Ontario
Neurodegenerative
Disease
Research
Initiative
(ONDRI)
and
Ontario
Brain
Institute
(OBI)
funded
initiative. ONDRI
is a
multi-site,
multi-cohort,
multidisciplinary
cohort
study
on
Ontarians
living
with
diseases
such
as
Alzheimer's,
Amyotrophic
Lateral
Sclerosis
(ALS), Parkinson's,
Frontotemporal
Dementia,
and
Vascular
Dementia.
At Research Talks, Donna will outline the team science approach across the neurodegenerative spectrum and how, in her unique role as a neuropsychological liaison, she collaborates with scientists, clinicians, statisticians, and community members to shed light on the role of cognitive (dys)function in understanding neurodegenerative disease.