I am a Cognitive Neuroscientist and Speech-Language Therapist with a keen interest in cognitive and behavioural disturbances in the setting of neurological disease. My research has focused on understanding the mechanisms that underlie apathy and impulsivity – disorders of motivation with debilitating consequences – in Huntington’s disease and Parkinson’s disease.

I design and use experimental behavioural paradigms to investigate a broad range of cognitive processes including effort-based decision making, delay discounting, time perception, and more, as well as the influence of environmental context on choice behaviour. I use drift diffusion modeling as a technique to uncover latent cognitive processes in choice data. I also use neuroimaging techniques (including fMRI, diffusion imaging) to investigate the neural underpinnings of apathy. I take a hypothesis-driven approach, informed by human and animal neuroscience, to examine specifically the brain regions involved in the expression of goal-directed behavior.

I have extensive clinical experience in cognitive and behavioral disturbances, having worked in an adult neurorehabilitation hospital for 8 years as a Speech-Language Therapist, in South Africa. In this setting I developed a keen interest in motivational disturbances, and in particular, understanding the brain mechanisms underlying apathy and impulsivity.

Affiliations:

·       Department of Medicine, University of Otago, Christchurch

·       New Zealand Brain Research Institute, Christchurch

·       Department of Neurology, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston

Scholarships and Grants:

·       2021 – University of Otago Doctoral Scholarship