First ever keynote address-COTA conference!

I've been very busy preparing my very first ever keynote address! This is such an exciting honour and I can't wait to hear the other speakers and meet other conference goers. Though I'll admit its very nerve-wracking!!!
I'll be giving a talk at the upcoming  WA Active Ageing Conference for the WA Council on the Ageing. My presentation will be about the neurobiology of physical activity and the reading I've been doing for it has been really interesting.
Physical activity can alter the structure of the brain, improving brain function and providing important psychological effects. There is even evidence for physical activity affecting mechanisms involved in certain diseases such as Alzheimer's disease.
What is scary is that these effects are evident throughout the lifespan, so its really important to try and incorporate physical activity as a part of your daily routine. This sounds difficult, but there is actually a difference between physical activity and exercise! Think about getting up and stretching at work, walking further to the printer or car park, housework and gardening are even forms of physical activity!!
Details on the conference can be found on the COTA website or here COTA conference update

See through brains!

Wow, what will they think of next!
A team of Neuroscientists at Stanford University have created a new technique to visualise biological systems. They have found a way to "dissolve" the fatty membranes that surround each brain cell to create See through brains.
The 3D video that accompanies this weblink is extraodinary. People ask why I love Neuroscience, this is why :) These kind of powerful techniques allow us to gain a better understanding of how the cells of the brain develop, are interconnected and allow transmission of neural communication.
Amazing.

Public lectures hosted by the Alzheimer's Association of Western Australia

Some more lectures open to members of the public.
These lectures are hosted by the Alzheimer's Association of Western Australia. A range of fantastic speakers and topics will be covered-I personally can't wait to hear 2013 Australian of the Year Ita Buttrose AO OBE, a personal heroine of mine :)
You can register online or by contacting Alzheimer's WA.

Public seminar-Professor Alan Mackay-Sim

The NRP is hosting a Public Research Seminar by Professor Alan Mackay-Sim. Professor Mackay-Sim is the Director of the National Centre for Adult Stem Cell Research at Griffith University (Australia).
He led an Australian clinical trial in the transplantation of adult olfactory ensheathing glia into the injured spinal cord. He and his team are now using olfactory stem cells to develop cellular models of diseases such as schizophrenia, Parkinson’s and motor neurone disease. They have identified differences in nerve cell regeneration in schizophrenia and bipolar disorder that help understand how these diseases develop.
The seminar will be held on Tuesday the 30th of April, 2013 at the University of Western Australia. Details can be found at the NRP website.

Published last year....

Having some time off away from the lab gave me a chance to get some work published.
I was lucky to have an opinion piece published on The Conversation website on genetic testing in neurodegenerative diseases.
I was also able to publish some original research papers, in one instance, an image from our paper was chosen to be the cover image for that issue of Brain Research, which was very exciting!
Lastly, I was able to publish a paper from work I did with a previous PhD student, Hamid Sohrabi on risk factors for cognitive decline, namely changes in your ability to discriminate between different  odours.

Back to work!!

Hi there,
I'm back at work now following the birth of my second daughter last year.
It was great having the opportunity to bond with her and take some time away from work. It gave me a chance to work on some ideas for new grants.
This year I've been lucky enough to secure my own research grant, which is funding my salary!
Many thanks to the Neurotrauma Research Program for funding my grant, which is investigating methods of manipulating astrocyte function following brain trauma.
Over the course of the year, I'll be posting more information about my research, public events and other interesting Neuroscience things!
Cheers,
Kristyn

Synesthesia

A recent topic discussed in a third year class I was teaching was a condition known as "Synesthesia".

The word synesthesia is derived from the ancient Greek "together" and "sensation". Synesthesia is a neurologically based condition where stimulation of one sensory or cognitive pathway leads to automatic and involuntary experiences in a second pathway.

The most studied and most common form of synesthesia is known as Grapheme-Colour Synesthesia, where letters or numbers appear to be inheritantly coloured. An example of how a person with this condition may perceive letters and numbers is shown below:


Interestingly synesthesia runs strongly in families and can also be reported by people during a seizure related to temporal lobe epilepsy, or in people who have had a stroke, or in people who suffer from blindness or deafness.

Apparently over 60 types of synesthesia have been reported, including Ordinal Linguistic Personification where ordered sequences (such as numbers or letters) have a distinct personality. Smells and sounds can also be linked with visual stimuli!

Recent neuroanatomical studies have shown that brain regions which process certain sensory modalities have increased connections to other cortical representations-in other words, their brains have additional connections which link 2 different senses together. So not only is this condition inheritently interesting, research into synesthesia may provide insights into cognitive and perceptual processes and pathways in the human brain.

Synesthesia can also provide insights into how language has developed and into the cognitive processes of learning and memory.