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Dr Ute Leonards Functional mechanisms of visual perception and attention Full contact details |
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Projects - Diseases - Processes - Techniques - Equipment - Funding - Collaborations - Teaching - Publications & further information
Research
My work specialises in the use of brain imaging techniques – mainly functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) – in combination with other measurements, to investigate cortical processes of perception, attention and cognition. I compare normal subjects with patients displaying neurological conditions. This increases knowledge of the particular disorder, and leads to insights on normal cortical function.
Two current lines of research address how the brain is altered in schizophrenia.
One project focuses on visuo-spatial attention. Do the altered eye movements
seen in schizophrenia lead to accompanying attention deficits? The second project
is concerned with voluntary action. Schizophrenic patients display striking changes in voluntary action. However, although voluntary action is thought to be localised to the pre-frontal lobes, patients have normal brain activity in this area of the brain.
A further area of interest is in Alzheimer`s disease. AD is difficult to diagnose at early stages. I am using EEG activation to study whether there is a correlation between the cortico-cortical networks of working memory and levels of cognitive impairment. I am also comparing temporal processing in the auditory and visual domains of AD patients with that in unaffected subjects. Establishing these relationships will provide valuable tools for diagnosis.
A poorly understood phenomenon is the perception of glare. How are light-emitting sources (such as a lamp) distinguished from a reflected source of light (such as a piece of white paper beneath)? I am carrying out studies to determine whether there is a distinct neural substrate for each situation.
By using the latest technology to study cortical processing, my work will allow advances in understanding the very basis of how the brain works.
- Investigation of the functional substrate of visuo-spatial attention in normal observers and in patients with schizophrenia.
- The cortical network of voluntary action in schizophrenia.
- Identification of early dysfunction of cortico-cortical circuits in mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.
- Temporal processing in brain ageing and patients with AD.
- Neural mechanism of "glare" perception.
Neurological patients (e.g. neglect), psychiatric patients (schizophrenia, Alzheimer's disease)
Visual perception, attention, memory, eye movements, development and ageing
functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), electroencephalogram (EEG), eye movement recordings, psychophysics
Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) scanner, electroencephalogram (EEG), SMI eye tracker
Projects - Diseases - Processes - Techniques - Equipment - Funding - Collaborations - Teaching - Publications & further information
Grants and funding
- 2000-2006: total of six grants, each 2.5 to 3 years, from the Swiss National Science Foundation
- 2000-2002: University Hospitals of Geneva
Teaching
Teaching experience: Tutor for Learning by problem solving, Units Behaviour and Perception, Emotion and Behaviour, for 3rd year medical students.Lectures for post-graduate students in psychiatry
Supervision in psychology, neurosciences, medicine, biology and neurosciences.
Publications, recommended reading and further information
Website: http://psychology.psy.bris.ac.uk/UteLeonards.htm
Projects - Diseases - Processes - Techniques - Equipment - Funding - Collaborations - Teaching - Publications & further information