News

FRONTIER’S 2011 newsletter

Wednesday, December 7th, 2011

FRONTIER’s Newsletter highlights events and news for 2011

FRONTIER researchers win awards

Wednesday, November 9th, 2011

Sharpley Hsieh has been awarded the SOMS (School of Medical Sciences) Paper of the Month for her recent paper entitled “Neural basis of music knowledge: evidence from the dementias”, Brain, 134: 2523-2534.

Muireann Irish has been awarded the 2011 Dean’s Rising Star Award from UNSW which acknowledges the achievements of post-doctoral staff and early career research recognised as part of the Faculty’s Talent Management Program to be outstanding in their respective fields of activity.

New Publications

Monday, October 24th, 2011

Kumfor, F., Miller, L., Lah, S., Hsieh, S., Savage, S., Hodges, J.R., Piguet O. (in press) Are you really angry? The effect of intensity on emotion recognition in frontotmeporal dementia. Social Neuroscience, 6(5-6):502-14.

Lillo, P., Savage, S., Mioshi, E., Kiernan, M., Hodges, J.R. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and Frontotemporal dementia: a behavioural and cognitive continuum. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, accepted 6/11/11/.

Mathew, R., Bak, T. H., Hodges, J.R. (in press) Diagnostic criteria for Corticobasal Syndrome: A comparative study. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry,Oct 21. [Epub ahead of print]

Mioshi, E., Lillo, P., Kiernan, M., Hodges, J.R. (in press) Activities of daily living in motor neuron disease: role of behavioural and motor changes. Journal of Clinical Neuroscience.

Schofield, E.C., J.R. Hodges, J.R., Bak, T.H., Xuereb, J.H., G.M. Halliday, G.H. (in press) The relationship between clinical and pathological variables in Richardson’s Syndrome.  Journal of Neurology, Aug 12. [Epub ahead of print].

Weickert, T.W., Leslie, F., Rushby, J., Hodges, J.R., Hornberger, M. (in press) Probabilistic association learning in Frontotemporal dementia and schizophrenia. Cortex, Oct 6. [Epub ahead of print].

Researchers find location of ‘Waltzing Matilda’ in the brain

Monday, August 22nd, 2011

Sharpley Hsieh (PhD Student) and the FRONTIER team have pinpointed the area of our brain where we store memories of well-known tunes such as ‘Waltzing Matilda’ and ‘Baa Baa Black Sheep’.Click link for NeuRA updateABC online, and Sydney Morning Herald reviews.

Sharpley Hsieh (PhD Student) won the Luria Award at the combined INS/ASSBI conference.

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

The Luria Award was established in 1999 and is presented by the Australian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment (ASSBI) at their annual conference for the best PhD student presentation. This year, the annual ASSBI conference was held in conjunction with the mid-year International Neuropsychological Society (INS) conference in Auckland, New Zealand and the theme of the conference was “The Social Brain”. The title of her talk was “Are you happy? Knowledge of words that describe emotions in frontotemporal dementia”.

Publications

Sunday, June 19th, 2011

Acosta-Cabronero,  J., Patterson, K., Fryer, T.,  Hodges, J., Williams, G., Pengas, G., Nestor, P.  Atrophy, hypometabolism and white matter abnormalities in semantic dementia tell a coherent story. Brain, 134(Pt 7):2025-35.

Burrell, J., Kiernan, M.C., Vucic, S., Hodges, J.R. Motor Neuron Dysfunction in FTD. Brain 134(Pt 9):2582-94.

Hornberger, M., Geng, J., Hodges, J.R. Convergent evidence of orbitofrontal cortex grey and white matter changes related to disinhibition in behavioural variant frontotemporal dementia. Brain, 134(Pt 9):2502-12.

Hsieh, S., Hornberger, M., Piguet, O., Hodges J.R. Neural basis of music knowledge: Evidence from the dementias. Brain, 134(Pt 9):2523-34.

Hughes, L.E., Nestor, Hodges, J R., Rowe, J. B. Magnetoencephalography of frontotemporal dementia: spatiotemporally localised changes during semantic decisions. Brain, 134(Pt 9):2513-22.

Leyton, C.E., Villemagne, V.L., Savage, S.,  Pike, K.E., Ballard, K.J., Piguet, O., Burrell, J.R., Rowe, C.C.,  Hodges, J.R.  Subtypes of Progressive Aphasia: application of the International Consensus Criteria and validation using β-amyloid imaging. Brain,  134(Pt 10):3030-43.

Rascovsky, K., Hodges, J.R.,  Knopman, D., Mendez, M.F.,  Kramer, J.H., Neuhaus, J., van Swieten, J. C., Seelaar, H.,   Dopper, E.G.P.,  Onyike, C.U.,  Hillis, A.,  Josephs, K.A., Boeve, B.F.,  Kertesz, A., Seeley W.W.,  Rankin, K., Johnson, J.K., Gorno-Tempini, M.L., Rosen, H.,  Latham, C.,  Lee, A., Kipps, C.M., Lillo, P., Piguet, O., Rohrer, J., et al.  Sensitivity of Revised Diagnostic Criteria for the Behavioral Variant of Frontotemporal Dementia. Brain, 134(Pt 9):2456-77.

Watch the new ACE-R training video

Tuesday, June 14th, 2011

You can now watch an ACE-R training video when learning how to administer the test. Click here to access the video, practice scoring sheet and updated administration guide (2011). You will have access to these training materials once you complete a brief registration form.

Read a personal blog on bvFTD in our carers’ section under (website for carers)

Monday, March 14th, 2011

Read a personal blog on bvFTD in our carers’ section

NHMRC funds research project grant on eating disturbance in frontotemporal dementia.

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

Olivier Piguet and John Hodges, in collaboration with Katherine Samaras of the Garvan Institute have received funding for a 3-year research project to investigate feeding disturbance and hypothalamus integrity in early frontotemporal dementia.  Marked eating disturbance (overeating, snatching food) is a common clinical manifestation in frontotemporal dementia. This project will characterise this deficit and define its biological causes using blood tests and brain imaging. Results will help in designing therapeutic interventions targeting this disabling feature.

Research on eating disturbance in Frontotemporal Dementia featured in the Sydney Morning Herald

Sunday, November 14th, 2010

http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/researchers-find-source-of-dementia-sufferers-insatiable-need-to-eat-20101114-17sqh.html

Hear ABC Interview (with Tim Holt) on eating disturbance in FTD Interview