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    Academic Student-Athletes Honoured 
    York University’s top academic student-athletes were
    honoured at the annual academic all-Canadian luncheon.
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    Psychopharmacology Workshop 
    Dr. Stephen List leading a one-day workshop on
    “Psychopharmacology: What Psychologists Need to Know.”
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    FedDev Announcesment  
    Feds announce millions for new project: York a major partner
 
 
 

Psychology prof to receive neuroscience Young Investigator Award

York psychology Professor Shayna Rosenbaum will receive the Canadian Association for Neuroscience 2013 Young Investigator Award at the opening ceremony of the upcoming annual meeting in Toronto Tuesday, May 21.

A cognitive neuroscientist and clinical neuropsychologist, Rosenbaum, considered a renowned expert in the area of cognitive neuroscience of memory, combines brain imaging techniques with cognitive methods to study the neural bases of ShaynaRosenbaumlearning and memory in patients with memory impairment.

“I feel very fortunate and honoured to have been selected to receive this award, especially because it also represents the achievements of undergraduate and graduate students in my lab with whom I have had the privilege to collaborate. It also recognizes cognitive neuroscience as a valuable discipline,” says Rosenbaum of the Faculty of Health.

Shayna Rosenbaum

Her work has allowed her to further an understanding of the different forms of memory and how these are represented in the brain. Her research has also investigated the effects of specific brain injuries on learning and memory, and of the social and personal effects of amnesia. Rosenbaum is also examining strategies that may be used by amnesic patients to compensate for the changes in the way their brains work.

“My work continues to be inspired and refined by the theoretical and methodological discoveries of the neuroscience community of York University,” she says.

The Canadian Association for Neuroscience contends that Rosenbaum’s publication track record demonstrates the importance of her research contributions. She has authored 40 publications, published or in press, many in prestigious journals, such as Science or Nature Neuroscience. Twenty of these publications were produced in the last three years alone. Her work has gained media attention from many of the top news sources in Canada (CBC News, CTV, the Toronto Star and National Post) and the United States (USA Today and The New York Times). She has also served as expert commentator for the journal Nature, CBC radio, the Canadian Press and The Globe and Mail, further highlighting her capacity to explain the complex nature of memory formation to the public.

She has received many awards, including the 2010 Sloan Research Fellow in Neuroscience.  The Sloan award has been an excellent predictor of research superstars in Canada and the U.S.

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Prof awarded nearly half a million to study concussions and dementia

Everyone from young sports players to construction workers may be at risk of being declared fit for regular duties too soon after having a concussion because no one tests their cognitive and mobility skills together, says York kinesiology Professor Lauren Sergio.

They could be at heightened risk of re-injuring themselves or others, says Sergio, who recently received a $472,549 Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CHIR) operating grant over five years.

The grant is to study the effects of thinking and moving simultaneously in people who have had a concussion or are at risk for dementia through early signs of cognitive decline or family history. Sergio is working with York kinesiology Professor Alison Macpherson, the study’s co-investigator, and a team of graduate students, including Kara Hawkins.

Sergio was intrigued by the results of her recent pilot study in which there was a surprising breakdown in communication between two parts of the brain – the parietal lobe, which controls LaurenSergiospatial orientation, and the frontal lobe, which controls planning, judgment and certain types of movement – in people who have had a concussion or a family history of dementia.

Lauren Sergio demonstrates one of the simple tasks she is using in her research

But current clinical tests are not picking this up, she says. “What we’re finding right now is that current clinical exams, either post-concussion or pre-dementia, even early dementia, will test basic motor skills – and, actually, those tend to be not so bad – and then they will test thinking. But they are always tested separately.”

Since the separate tests will seem fine, these asymptomatic, post-concussion sports players are being allowed back onto the hockey ice or the football field, or a construction worker is being cleared to operate machinery. But what Sergio and her team are discovering is contrary to current tests; these people may not be ready to resume sports or work, and there may be a risk of further injury to themselves or others.

“We are finding there is a huge effect of combining the two – thinking and moving – and testing them together. As soon as you have them moving and they have to think at the same time, their performance just drops off,” says Sergio of the School of Kinesiology & Health Science in the Faculty of Health.

That’s a problem for a young hockey player who has to be aware of who is coming up beside him while skating, puck handling, trying to remember what the coach told him and trying to take a shot on net or pass the puck. The problem is compounded in young people as they are more likely to act first and think later. In tests, Sergio has found as people get older they start to prioritize thinking over moving, but younger people start moving first.

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