Clinical neuroscience

Clinical Neuroscience seeks to better understand the way patients interact with and respond to health services.

Aiming to improve healthcare for neurology, psychological and sensory patients, the research groups work with human volunteers in out-patient clinics.

Applied Neurosciences and Neurorehabilitation

This team researches in the areas of neuropsychological assessment and rehabilitation and has examined rehabilitation of memory following brain injury, long term outcomes of posterior fossa tumours in childhood, information processing in multiple sclerosis and poststroke cognition and mood. Other clinical psychology interests include testing a model of violence prediction in the general population and examining the impact of antenatal yoga on birth outcomes.

Brain Imaging Group

This team explores the structure and function of the brain using imaging, in both pre-clinical and human models. The applications of this research span a broad area, including cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative disease, neurogenesis, hypoxia, obstructive brain disorders, traumatic brain injury (TBI), and other areas of neuroscience.

Clinical Visual Neuroscience Laboratory

The objectives of this research team are to improve clinical assessment of vision in order to better support the diagnosis and treatment of visual disorders in people of all ages.
Areas of interest include paediatric vision, eye movements, vision in developmental (e.g. autism) and psychiatric (e.g. schizophrenia) disorders, and clinical psychophysics.

Fetal Physiology and Neuroscience Group

This is a multidisciplinary systems physiology team, working on key physiological and pathophysiological questions in the fetus and newborn and on translational research. Current interests are focused on the cerebrovascular and cardiovascular adaptation to asphyxia in utero and the mechanisms and treatment of post-asphyxial encephalopathy.

General Practice and Primary Health Care

Research interests in person-centred health care, human flourishing, theory and philosophy in medicine and the health sciences, qualitative research, clinician-patient relationships and primary care neurology

Gerontology Research Group

The objectives of this research team are to make the lives of older people easier by developing and implementing neuroprotective therapies, generate translational research that facilitates independent living through the individuals lifecycle, and minimize the impact of dementia and degenerative brain diseases in the older population.

Human Neuropsychology

This research comprises two broad strands: understanding the clinical and neuropsychological effects of neurological disorders, and the neural bases of these effects with a strong emphasis on neurodegenerative disorders (particularly Huntington’s Disease, Alzheimer’s Disease and Motor Neuron Disease); and investigating the neural basis of cognitive functions, with a particular focus on memory, expertise (musical and computer-gaming) and effects of expertise on lateralisation of function.

IDEAL Study Team

Research interests include maternal drug use and the cognitive, social and neurodevelopment of children exposed prenatally to legal and illegal drugs, development of children born at risk for hypoglycaemia, child and adolescent mental health, resilience in children, adolescents and young adults training to be health professionals.

Language Processing

Research focuses on language processing from different perspectives, including cognitive and language processing in adolescents and adults with aphasia, and the psychosocial impacts of living with aphasia. Of particular interest is the interface between linguistics, psycholinguistics and aphasia. Research projects aim to investigate the differences between language processing and auditory processing after a stroke and language difficulties in adolescents.

Neurology Research Group

Translational research is the aim of this team, which involves taking findings produced in the lab and converting them into treatments and therapies for people living with the devastating effects of neurological illness. The group is based in Auckland Hospital, which provides this unit with the unique opportunity of performing research in a clinical setting.

Swallowing Research Laboratory

The Swallowing Research Laboratory works to improve the lives of people with swallowing difficulties through improved assessment, treatment and medical education. They investigate the efficacy of innovative teaching approaches including simulation and virtual patients on allied health education, and have completed a comprehensive normative database of video fluoroscopic swallowing studies.