I am interested in how Virtual Reality (VR) can be used to help people living with intellectual disabilities. Throughout my PhD, I plan to explore ways VR can be used to improve social skills, enhance cognitive skills and develop skills to support independent living.

Supervisors: Dr Tobias Loetscher, Dr Ancret Szpak

I am a PhD student interested in the visual changes associated with aging. Visual impairment is a common condition amongst the aging population and can have a substantial impact on the happiness, independence, and functionality of daily life. My research will focus on the use of technology to enhance vision in older adults, as well as assistive technology to navigate their environments. The overall goal is to investigate whether these technologies can improve the quality of life for people with visual impairment.

Supervisors: Dr Tobias Loetscher and Dr Scott Coussens

Delirium is a neurocognitive disorder that can lead to significant cognitive and functional decline, increased dementia risk, and death. Delirium is theorised to be a disorder of functional brain disintegration, but little is known about neural vulnerability to delirium. My PhD aims to characterise neural vulnerability to delirium using EEG and ERPs in older adults undergoing cardiac procedures.

Supervisors: A/Prof. Hannah Keage and Dr Scott Coussens

My research centres around the association between spatial attention and fatigue in the healthy brain. Specifically, I will be investigating the neural mechanisms that lead to a shift in spatial attention as a result of mental fatigue and under which conditions this shift is evident, through employing prolonged cognitive tasks and conducting sleep restriction studies. I will also use electroencephalography (EEG) to measure alpha band activity as an index of mental fatigue and eye tracking devices to measure the direction of eye movement.

Supervisors: Dr Tobias Loetscher, Dr Scot Coussens, Prof Jill Dorrian, Prof Siobhan Banks and A/Prof Hannah Keage

I am interested in how our visual systems are influenced by what we have recently seen, and what we expect to see in the future. My research focuses on how repeated exposure to the same face or object can alter the response properties of neurons that encode these stimuli (known as stimulus-specific adaptation or repetition suppression). I use a variety of techniques including event-related potentials, fast periodic visual stimulation and multivariate pattern classification. I am now a postdoc at the University of Melbourne.

PhD Supervisors: Dr Hannah Keage and Dr Owen Churches

I have a broad interest in cognitive ageing and factors that help people maintain their cognitive functioning in later life. For my PhD, I investigated cognitive reserve in older people, and how this operates in the brain. I have used various brain imaging techniques, including electroencephalography (EEG) and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). I am now a Postdoctoral Fellow at Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). 

PhD Supervisors: Dr Hannah Keage and Dr Owen Churches

I have a broad interest in how we change both cognitively and physiologically throughout ageing. My research investigates how we could decrease future dementia risk in older adults undergoing elective cardiovascular surgery. Specifically I will be using cognitive training regimes to attempt to minimise the cognitive deficits caused by post-operative delirium (occurring in up to 50% of patients), as delirium greatly increases future dementia risk.

Supervisors: A/Prof Hannah Keage and Dr Ashleigh Smith

Apathy is a commonly reported symptom in older adults residing in aged care and may be associated with an increased risk of cognitive decline. Reminiscence therapy, a powerful way of providing a connection with a person’s past, has demonstrated results in improving mood symptoms and quality of life. My research will focus on reducing levels of apathy, combining both reminiscence therapy and immersive virtual reality.

Supervisors: Dr Tobias Loetscher and A/Prof Hannah Keage

Over 12,000 patients undergo cardiovascular surgery in Australia every year, with older patients increasingly undergoing these procedures. There is limited current evidence suggesting that these patients are more vulnerable to cognitive decline. My research investigates the short and long-term cognitive effects of cardiovascular surgeries in the older population, and what biomarkers (gait speed, rate of eye-blinking and electroencephalogram/EEG power spectrum) predict response.

Supervisors: Dr Hannah Keage and Dr Tobias Loetscher

I am interested in the link between nutrition and successful cognitive ageing. My research focuses on the Mediterranean diet, and its potential to improve cardiovascular health, protect cognitive function and reduce risk of dementia. To assess changes in cardiometabolic and cognitive function following adherence to a Mediterranean diet I will be conducting three randomised clinical dietary intervention trials at the Sansom Institute for Health Research, collaborating with CAIN and the UniSA Alliance for Research in Exercise, Nutrition and Activity (ARENA).

Supervisors: Dr Karen Murphy and Dr Hannah Keage.