Archived News

2020

Happy Holidays

  • 23 December. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the Language, Cognition and Brain lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2021. We’re on leave now until January 4th. Stay safe!

Matteo and Emma presenting at Psychonomics Society

  • November 19/20. Come along to Schedule C posters 1121 and 1138!

Matteo presenting at SNL

  • October 24. Come along to poster session F22!

New paper in press

  • September 21. It’s been a long time in coming, but we have a new paper in press in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on language embodiment… see Publications page.

Abstracts for virtual SNL and Psychonomics

Welcome, Verena!

  • August 1. We welcome our new postdoctoral fellow, Dr Verena Pritchard, to the lab!

Grant success!

  • July 23rd. Our application to the Wesley Medical Research grant round was successful! See Research Funding page for details.

Congratulations, Dr Hansen!

  • May 14. Congratulations to Sam Hansen on the award of his PhD!

New paper in press

  • April 23. We have a new paper in press in Language, Cognition and Neuroscience on the role of the left inferior frontal gyrus in resolving competition in spoken word production. See publications page.

We’re hiring!

  • April 6. We’re looking for a new postdoctoral fellow to work on our project involving language outcomes in children treated for posterior fossa brain tumours. Deadline for application is May 4 AEST. Apply here

Welcome Carly and Valeriya!

  • April 2. We welcome Carly Hood and Valeriya Tolkacheva who are both commencing their PhDs with the lab!

Science paper!

  • March 20. We have a new paper in Science on the genetic architecture of the brain! See Publications page.

COVID

  • February. Our thoughts are with all our colleagues and friends impacted by the pandemic. We look forward to catching up in the virtual world!

2019

Happy Holidays

  • 20 December. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the Language, Cognition and Brain lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2020. We’re on leave now until January 6th!

Grant Success!

  • 4 December. We’ve had some terrific luck with the ARC grant round. See Research Funding page for details.

Gesa Hartwigsen visiting

  • October 8. Dr Gesa Hartwigsen is visiting the lab from the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences, Leipzig. All you ever wanted to know about neural networks for higher cognitive functions, adaptive plasticity and compensation in neural networks for cognition, and plasticity and reorganization in the language network after stroke!

Sam interviewed by the Cognitive Neuroscience Society

New paper in press

  • July 31. We have a new paper in press in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on monitoring and inhibition in spoken word production. See publications page.

Congratulations to Matteo!

  • June 12. Congratulations to Matteo on receiving a Merit Award from the University of Trento for his Masters Degree!

Congratulations to Hanna and family!

  • June 3. Congratulations to Hanna and family on the birth of Oscar Felix!

Emma confirmed!

  • May 24. Congratulations to Emma whose PhD confirmation was approved!

Matteo confirmed!

  • May 4. Congratulations to Matteo whose PhD confirmation was approved!

New paper in press t

  • April 23. We have a new paper in press in Aphasiology on postsurgical aphasia. See publications page.

Farewell to Hanna!

  • April 10. Our best wishes to Hanna who has returned to the Netherlands to commence her Marie Curie Fellowship at Radboud University, Nijmegen.

Congratulations to Hanna!

  • February 28. Congratulations to Hanna who has been awarded a prestigious Marie Curie Fellowship by the European Commission!!

New paper in press

  • January 21. We have a new paper in press in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on visual form interference during production. See publications page.

New paper in press

  • January 13. We have a new paper in press in Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience on taboo word processing. See publications page.

2018

Happy Holidays

  • December 21. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the Language, Cognition and Brain lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2019. We’re on leave now until January 2nd!

Farewell to Kori

  • November 30. After 10 years in the lab, Kori is moving to Sydney. We wish her all the best for the future! Judging by her bowling, we know she will succeed in everything she tries!

Aphasiology symposium

Cathy Price visiting

  • November 26. Prof Cathy Price, Director of the Wellcome Trust Centre for Neuroimaging at University College London is visiting. All you ever wanted to know about language processing and neuroimaging.

ARC College of Experts

APS College of Clinical Neuropsychologists Annual Conference

Welcome to Kylie!

Vitória Piai visiting

  • November 7. Dr Vitória Piai is visiting the lab from Radboud University, Netherlands. All you ever wanted to know about language processing and patient populations such as stroke, brain tumour, epilepsy, and neurodegenerative disorders.

The Chauvels are visiting

COGNO

Venice

  • September 17 – October 2. Greig presenting at the Science of Aphasia conference in Venice and then taking some well-deserved leave.

Lab lawn bowls tournament

  • September 14. Our 2018 lawn bowls tournament ended in a draw (really…). So, we’re having a rematch in November!

PhD Scholarships

  • August 17. Our next round of PhD scholarships is about to open. Deadline for applications is September 30.

Quebec City

  • August 14-22. Greig, Katie, Sonia and Hanna presenting at the 10th Society for Neurobiology of Language conference in Canada.

Grant success!

  • August 8. Congratulations to Hanna who has been awarded a Young Investigator Grant from NARSAD! See Funding page.

Aphasiology Symposium of Australasia (ASA)

  • August 8. Our abstracts for ASA posted. See abstracts page.

Abstracts for IWLP, SNL & SoA

  • July 3. Our abstracts for International Workshop on Language Production, Society for Neurobiology of Language and Science of Aphasia posted. See abstracts page.

International Workshop on Language Production (IWLP)

  • July 2. Hanna in Nijmegen presenting at the 10th jubilee meeting of IWLP. See abstracts page.

Welcome Matteo!

  • April 13. We welcome Matteo Mascelloni to the lab. Matteo is commencing his PhD on the electrophysiology of language production.

Welcome Emma!

  • April 9. We welcome Emma Ward to the lab. Emma is commencing her PhD on action language production.

Greig on leave

  • April 3. Greig and family on leave at the beach.

TMS!

  • March 28. Our new Magstim Transcranial Magnetic Stimulator (TMS) with Neuronavigation has arrived!! Time for some stimulating research!

Greig in Germany

  • March 11. Greig in Germany with a faculty delegation visiting universities in Tuebingen, Ehrlangen, Darmstadt, Frankfurt, Nuremberg, Berlin and Potsdam.

Welcome to our new honours students!

  • February 26. Welcome to Cassandra Powell and Luke Turner who will be conducting their honours thesis projects in our lab.

The Chauvels are visiting

2017

Happy Holidays

  • December 22. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the Language, Cognition and Brain lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2018. We’re on leave now!

Chiara Negwer visiting

  • December 2. Dr Chiara Negwer is visiting the lab for 3 weeks. All you ever wanted to know about pre-surgical language mapping with TMS… and have been afraid to ask.

New paper in press

  • November 8. We have a new paper in press in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology on priming and lexical competition. See publications page.

The Russians are coming! (Endeavour Fellowship success!)

Welcome to Sonia!

  • October 23. We welcome Sonia Brownsett, our new postdoctoral fellow!

Greig on leave

  • September 16-25. Greig and family on leave in the outback.

Science of Aphasia in Geneva

  • September 10-14. Greig and Hanna at the Science of Aphasia meeting – Hanna presenting our tDCS findings.

Hanna in Potsdam

  • September 4. Hanna in Potsdam, presenting at the European Society for Cognitive Psychology (ESCoP) conference.

We’re hiring!

  • September 1. We are seeking a motivated and enthusiastic Postdoctoral Research Fellow with neuroimaging skills. Interested candidates should apply online via the QUT website addressing the selection criteria. The deadline for application is Midnight AEST September 24, 2017.

New paper in press

  • August 23. Hanna has a new paper in press in PlosOne on verbal self monitoring in Parkinson’s disease. See publications page.

Greig in India

  • August 19-28. Greig is travelling in India (yes, for work).

PhD Scholarships

  • August 17. Our next round of PhD scholarships is about to open. Deadline for applications is September 30.

New paper in press

  • August 9. We have a new paper in press in Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology on visual form similarity and interference in naming. See publications page.

Congratulations to Hanna

  • August 3. Congratulations to Hanna who was awarded an IHBI Early Career Researcher Development grant!

Welcome Junko!

  • July 31. We welcome Junko Toraiwa to the lab. Junko is commencing her PhD on bilingual language production.

Prof Stephen M. Wilson visiting

  • June 21. Prof Stephen Wilson is visiting the lab. All you ever wanted to know about aphasia and lesion-symptom mapping… and have been afraid to ask.

New paper in press

  • June 16. We have a new paper in press in Cortex on tDCS and semantic interference in naming. See publications page.

Abstracts, abstracts, abstracts

  • May 29. Our accepted abstracts for OHBM, ESCOP and SoA now on the Conference Abstracts page!

We’re hiring!

  • April 24. We are seeking a motivated and enthusiastic Postdoctoral Research Fellow. Interested candidates should apply online via the QUT website or Seek addressing the selection criteria. The deadline for application is Midnight AEST May 22, 2017.

Hanna in Newcastle

  • April 19. Hanna is in Newcastle (Oz) presenting at the 44th Experimental Psychology Conference.

Hanna in Munich

  • March 20. Hanna is in Munich for the Research Opportunities Week at Technical University of Munich (TUM).

Congratulations to Kori and family!

  • March 6. Our congratulations and best wishes to Kori and her husband on the birth of their son, Maverick Lee Ramajoo!

Welcome to our new honours students!

  • March 2. Welcome to Emma Ward and Rebecca Dilworth who will be conducting their honours thesis projects in our lab.

Prof David Howard visiting

  • February 6-10. Prof David Howard is visiting the lab. All you ever wanted to know about aphasia, computational modelling of spoken word production… and have been afraid to ask.

New paper in press

  • January 10. We have a new paper in press in Neuropsychologia on fMRI of action naming. See publications page.

Congratulations to Hanna!

  • January 5. Congratulations to Hanna who has been selected to participate in the prestigious Research Opportunities Week (ROW) at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) in March as part of our ongoing collaboration on post-operative aphasia.

PhD Scholarships!

  • January 5. The QUT call for 2017 PhD scholarships is now open and ends 28 February. If you would like to apply, please contact either Greig or Hanna. Information is available on the Students page or here 2017 targeted round.

Hanna in Nijmegen

  • January 1. Hanna is in Nijmegen at the Max Planck Institute until the end of the month learning how to analyse intracranial EEG recordings with Vitoria Piai.

2016

Happy Holidays

  • December 24. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the Language, Cognition and Brain lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2017. We’re on leave now!

New papers in press

  • 22 December. We have a new paper in press in Neuroimage on the genetics of the resting state network. See Publications page.

Rob Hartsuiker visiting

  • November 20 to December 4. Prof Rob Hartsuiker is visiting the lab from the University of Ghent.

Grant success!

  • 10 November. Congratulations to Hanna who has been awarded a UA-DAAD Australia-Germany Joint Research Cooperation Scheme project grant!

New papers in press

  • 28 October . We have 2 new papers in press in Nature Communications and Nature Neuroscience reporting more results from the ENIGMA consortium! See publications page.

Greig away on leave

  • September 15 – October 7. Greig is taking some much-needed leave with his family!

Greig speaking at Science of Aphasia meeting

Society for Neurobiology of Language meeting

New paper in press

  • August 12. We have a new paper in press in Molecular Psychiatry reporting more results from the ENIGMA consortium! See publications page.

Human Brain Mapping Meeting

Welcome to Hanna

  • April 11. Welcome to Hanna Gauvin, our new postdoctoral fellow!

New paper in press

  • April 4. We have a new paper in press in Brain and Language describing the effects of transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on semantic interference in picture naming. See publications page.

New paper in press

  • March 14. We have a new paper in press in Molecular Psychiatry reporting more results from the ENIGMA consortium! See publications page.

New paper in press

  • February 22. We have a new paper in press in Human Brain Mapping on the heritability and genetic correlation between the cerebral cortex and associated white matter connections. See publications page.

New paper in press

  • January 12. We have a new paper in press in Neurobiology of Ageing reporting effects of increased genetic risk for Alzheimer’s disease on hippocampal and amygdala volumes. See publications page.

2015

Happy Holidays

  • December 24. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the Language, Cognition and Brain lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2016. We’re on leave now!

New paper in press

  • December 22. Congratulations to Baptiste Couvy-Duchesne who has a paper about heritability of head motion and inattention/hyperactivity from his PhD now in press in PLOS ONE. See publications page.

New paper in press

  • 12 December. Congratulations to Harrison who has a new paper in press in Frontiers in Psychology responding to a commentary piece. See Publications page.

New paper in press

  • November 24. Congratulations to Sam Hansen who has a paper about taboo word production from his PhD now in press in QJEP. See publications page.

Grant Success!

  • 9 November. We’ve had some terrific luck with the NHMRC and ARC grant rounds. See Research Funding page for details.

New paper in press

  • October 20. We have a new paper in press on perilesional tDCS effects during fMRI. See publications page.

Society for Neurobiology of Language meeting

We’re hiring!

  • October 12. We are seeking a postdoctoral research fellow to join the lab! See the advertisement.

Congratulations, DR Sinclair!

  • 8 September. Ben’s PhD has been awarded. Congratulations, Dr Sinclair!

Society for Neurobiology of Language meeting abstracts

  • 12 August. SNL abstracts posted! See Abstracts page.

Deadlines for postdoctoral fellowship applications

  • 1 June. Deadlines for postdoctoral fellowship applications through the Vice Chancellor’s QUT and Endeavour programs are at the end of the month. Apply now!

Time for a change…

  • 1 June. Greig will be commencing his new appointment as Professor at Queensland University of Technology on 29 June. He will also be taking on the roles of Assistant Dean (Research) for the Faculty of Health, and Deputy Director of the Institute of Health and Biomedical Innovation.

New paper in press

  • 28 May. Congratulations to Harrison who has a new paper from his PhD in press in Journal of Neurolinguistics describing effects of part-whole relations in picture naming. See Publications page.

Anaïs returns…

  • 12 May. Congratulations to Anaïs who was awarded another traveling fellowship and will return in August for 3 months.

Change is coming…

  • 9 May. Stay tuned for a major announcement and some changes to the lab website in the coming weeks!

Congratulations, DR Vieth!

  • 6 May. Harrison’s PhD has been awarded. Congratulations, Dr Vieth!

New paper in press

  • 20 April. Congratulations to Emma Riley who has her paper from her honours thesis in press in Frontiers in Psychology on conceptual processing in picture naming. See Publications page.

New paper in press

  • March 27. We have a new paper in press in Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience describing our recent EEG work in speech production. See Publications page.

Sam in Europe

2014

Happy Holidays

  • December 24. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the Language, Cognition and Brain lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2015. We’re on leave now until February.

We have a Nature paper!

  • 20 November. The ENIGMA2 paper (neuroimaging genetics) is in press in Nature!

More Grant Success!

  • 5 November. We’ve had some terrific luck with the ARC grant round too, that will see our psycholinguistic/neurolinguistic work continue! Thanks to the ARC panel of course! See Research Funding page for details.

Grant Success!

  • 17 October. We’ve had some terrific luck with the NHMRC grant round, with three applications successful that will see our stroke and post surgical aphasia and genetics work continue! Thanks to everyone for their hard work on these, and thanks to the panel of course! See Research Funding page for details.

Welcome to Anaïs Llorens, our new postdoctoral fellow!

  • 7 October. Anaïs has joined us from Marseille to conduct some transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) studies of spoken word production. See people page.

Greig on leave

  • 22 September. Greig is away on leave until October 7.

Special Issue of Brain and Language

  • 16 September. Greig and Simon Fisher of the MPI, Netherlands are editing a Special Issue of Brain and Language on Genes, Brain and Language. Call for papers here.

Greig elected next chair of SNL in Amsterdam!

  • 1 September. Greig is now ‘chair elect’ of the Society for Neurobiology of Language following the meeting in Amsterdam.

New paper in press

  • 26 August. Congratulations to Harrison who has a new paper in press in a special issue in Frontiers on the role of conceptual features in lexical access. See Publications page.

Greig in the Netherlands

  • August 22-31. Greig is presenting at the Leiden Institute for Brain and Cognition (LIBC) and at the Society for Neurobiology of Language meeting in Amsterdam.

New papers in press

  • 15 August. We have three new papers in press in the journal NeuroImage describing our neuroimaging genetics work, including one by Baptiste! See Publications page.

Frontiers Research Topic

Greig on leave and then at IWOLP

  • July 7-21. Greig is away on leave, then will be in Geneva for the International Workshop on Language Production where he will be presenting new work and giving the closing remarks with Matt Goldrick.

FASIC Grant Success!

  • June 23. We’ve been awarded a France-Australia Science Innovation Collaboration (FASIC) program Early Career Fellowship to collaborate with Xavier Alario’s group in Marseille! Postdoctoral Fellow Anaïs Lorens will join the lab later this year to work on an EEG and tDCS project in collaboration with Marcus Meinzer at UQ CCR. See Research Funding page.

Society for Neurobiology of Language meeting abstracts

  • June 13. SNL abstracts posted! See Abstracts page.

International Workshop on Language Production abstracts

  • May 30. IWOLP abstracts posted! See Abstracts page.

New papers in press

  • 23 May. We have several new papers in press describing our neuroimaging genetics work. See Publications page.

Lab members at EPC

Welcome to the Language, Cognition and Brain Sciences lab!

  • March 31. The lab has had a name change to more accurately reflect what we do. Historically, we were the first lab at UQ to employ fMRI for cognitive neuroimaging. However, fMRI is only one of the methodologies we use for our research questions.

Grant success!

  • March 20. We’ve been awarded a Health and Behavioural Sciences Faculty Collaborative Research Seeding Grant to examine relationships between literacy and numeracy development with Wendy Arnott and Jenny Ziviani.

New paper in press

  • March 17. Congratulations to Harrison who has a new paper on semantic distance effects in picture naming in press in the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology. See Publications page.

Greig at IDEALAB

Prof David Howard visiting

  • February 5-7. Prof David Howard is visiting the lab. All you ever wanted to know about aphasia, computational modelling of spoken word production… and have been afraid to ask.

Grant success!

  • February 4. Thanks to Marcus Meinzer, we’ve been successful in the latest UQ Major Equipment and Infrastructure (MEI) & NHMRC Equipment Grant round.

New paper in press

  • January 28. We have a new paper in press in the journal Cortex on cumulative semantic interference in object naming. See publications page.

Holiday

  • January 20. Greig away on leave until the 28th.

Katharina speaking at the European Workshop on Cognitive Neuropsychology

  • January 17. Katharina’s and Melina’s work on emotional valence effects in spoken word production has been accepted for an oral presentation at EWCN. Well done! See abstracts page.

Reviewing Editor

  • January 7. Greig is now an editor for the journal Brain & Language.

New paper in press

  • January 6. Congratulations to Sophie who has a new paper on fMRI activity associated with semantic versus phonological anomia treatments in aphasia in press in Brain and Language. See publications page.

2013

Happy Holidays

  • December 20. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the fMRI lab successful this year, with best wishes for 2014.

Associate Editor

  • December 18. Greig will be an Associate Editor for the journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, commencing in 2014.

Editor

  • December 16. Greig is editing the new Oxford University Press Handbook of Neurolinguistics, due in 2015, along with Niels Schiller (Leiden University) and Michele Miozzo (Columbia University).

Grant success!

  • December 9. We’ve been awarded 2 years of project funding from the Cancer Council to investigate post-operative aphasia. See Research Funding page for more details.

New paper in press

  • 29 November. Congratulations to Sophie who has a new paper on functional connectivity changes associated with aphasia therapy in press in Human Brain Mapping. See publications page.

Congratulations to our First Class Honours students!

  • November 27. Congratulations to lab members Emma Riley and Melina West who were awarded First Class Honours!

Society for Neurobiology of Language and Society for Neuroscience meetings

  • November 4-15. Sam, Katie and Greig in San Diego for SNL and SFN.

New papers in press

  • October 22. We have several new papers in press on imaging genetics, including the final paper from Gabriella’s PhD thesis. Well done, Gabriella! See publications page.

New paper in press

  • September 13. We have a new paper in press on cumulative semantic interference in object naming in a special issue of the journal Language and Cognitive Processes. See publications page.

Congratulations and farewell to Katharina

  • September 3. After her all-too-brief postdoctoral fellowship with us, Katharina has returned to Germany to commence her new position in Bonn. We wish her the best of luck in her new career.

New paper in press

  • 31 August. Congratulations to Sophie who has a new paper on white matter changes associated with aphasia therapy in press in Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair. See publications page.

We’ve been blogged about…

New paper in press

  • June 28. We have a new paper in press in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on embodied language and the cortical representation of nouns and verbs. See publications page.

Holidays

  • June 24. End of semester and beginning of school holidays – Greig away until July 1.

Congratulations, Katharina!

  • June 19. Congratulations to Katharina and her husband Fabian who are now married! We wish them all the best for the future!

New paper in press

  • May 30. We have a new paper in press on neuroimaging genetics in the journal NeuroImage. See publications page.

Organisation for Human Brain Mapping Meeting (OHBM) abstracts

  • May 22. See Abstracts page for posters.

New papers in press

  • April 10. We have a number of new papers in press on neuroimaging genetics in the journals Human Brain Mapping, NeuroImage, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, USA. See publications page.

Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC)

Congratulations and farewell to Gabriella

  • March 29. Gabriella is leaving us to commence a prestigious fellowship at Harvard. Best wishes from all of us!

Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) abstracts

  • March 18. Australasian Experimental Psychology Conference (EPC) abstracts posted. See Abstracts page!

Prof David Howard

New Honours students

  • March 4. We welcome 3 new honours students in the lab: Emma Riley, Melina West and Aidan Hegarty who will all be investigating aspects of lexical access in speech production for their projects.

New paper in press

  • January 10. We have a new paper in press in a special issue of Frontiers in Human Neuroscience on embodied language. See publications page.

2012

Happy Holidays

  • December 21. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the fMRI lab successful this year, with best wishes for the new year. See you in 2013.

Welcome to Katharina Saß: postdoctoral fellow!

  • December 3. Katharina has joined us from Aachen and is now gracing our people page.

Congratulations to Julia Cook!

  • November 28. Julia was awarded Honours I. Well done!

Congratulations to Carly Mayberry!

  • November 14. Carly’s doctoral dissertation was passed. Well done!

Society for Neurobiology of Language Conference

  • October 21-30. Greig at SNL meeting in San Sebastian.

Congratulations, DR Blokland!

  • 26 September. Gabriella’s PhD has been awarded. Congratulations, Dr Blokland!

New papers in press

  • 21 September. We have a new paper in press in the journal Brain and Language concerning the likely representation of nouns and verbs…
  • 20 September. We have a number of new papers in press on neuroimaging genetics. See publications page.

Society for Neurobiology of Language Conference abstracts

  • 8 August. SNL abstracts posted! See Abstracts page.

International Workshop on Language Production

  • 18 July. Greig and Harrison in New York. See Abstracts page for posters.

Stephen M. Wilson visiting

  • July 9. Stephen Wilson from the University of Arizona is visiting the lab this week and will be presenting a seminar on Thursday, July 12, rm 201.

New papers in press

  • July 5. We have some new papers on neuroimaging genetics in a special issue of the Cambridge University Press journal Twin Research and Behavior Genetics, including a meta-analysis from Gabriella’s thesis.

International Workshop on Language Production abstracts

  • June 14. IWOLP posters posted! See Abstracts page.

Lab members at Organisation for Human Brain Mapping Meeting

  • June 10. Ben and Gabriella are in Beijing presenting their work. See Abstracts page for posters.

New paper in press

  • May 6. We have a new paper in press in the Journal of Neuroscience on imaging genetics. See publications page.

New paper in press

  • 26 April. We have a new paper in press in the Journal of Experimental Psychology: General on categorical and thematic relations in spoken word production. See publications page.

New PhD student

  • 17 April. Sam Hansen has officially commenced his PhD in the lab. Welcome to the lab, Sam!

New paper in press

  • 16 April. We have a new paper in press in the journal Nature Genetics, from our involvement in the Enhancing Neuro Imaging Genetics through Meta-Analysis (ENIGMA) Consortium employing quite a large sample size (N = 7,795) for a brain imaging study. See publications page and press coverage in the New York Times

New papers in press

  • March 20. We have a new paper in press in the journal Brain Connectivity on graph theory metrics and imaging genetics. See publications page.
  • March 14. We have 2 new papers in press in the Journal of Neuroscience and Neuropsychopharmacology on imaging genetics. See publications page.

New students

  • March 14. We welcome 3 new honours students in the lab: Julia Cook, Jessica Lister, and Anika Short who will all be investigating aspects of lexical access in speech production for their projects.

2011

Happy Holidays

  • December 23. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the fMRI lab successful this year, with best wishes for the new year. See you in 2012.

New paper in press

  • December 1. New paper in press in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences USA on imaging genetics. See publications page.

Neurobiology of Language and Society for Neuroscience meetings

  • November 10-18. Most of the lab are at these meetings!

Neurobiology of Language posters

  • November 4. NLC posters posted!

New paper in press

  • November 2. New paper in press in a special issue of the Australian Journal of Psychology on testing psychological theories with functional neuroimaging. See Publications page.

Grant Success

  • October 30. Congratulations to Katie McMahon and David Copland on their successful ARC grant application supporting research into language production impairments in Parkinson’s Disease. See Research Funding page for more details.

Academy of Aphasia poster

  • October 10. AoA poster posted!

New paper in press

  • September 15. We have a new paper in press in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on rival lexical and post-lexical models of distractor interference in picture naming. See Publications page.

Greig at ICOM5

  • July 30-August 8. Greig will be speaking at the 5th International Conference on Memory (ICOM5), in York, UK.

Postdoctoral position open

  • June 22. A postdoc position is now open at the Biomedical Imaging Group, CSIRO ICT Centre in collaboration with the Genetic Epidemiology group, QIMR. The position is dedicated to investigating genetic effects on brain connectivity in our large twin sample undergoing MRI scanning, including DTI, fMRI, resting state fMRI and structural imaging. Details of the position and information on how to apply are here.

New paper in press

  • June 13. We have a new paper in press in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on single- vs dual-process memory models of recognition memory. See Publications page.

Gabriella’s paper in press

  • June 8. Congratulations to Gabriella whose paper on the heritability of working memory related brain activation has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Neuroscience! See Publications page.

OHBM posters

  • June 8. OHBM posters posted!

CNS poster

  • March 25. CNS poster posted!

Lots of news

  • March 8. Lots of news to report. We have 2 new papers describing large-scale imaging genetics studies in press in Molecular Psychiatryand Journal of Neuroscience. See Publications page. We have 2 new PhD students to welcome to the lab: Harrison Veith, and Benjamin Sinclair who joins us from the UK; 1 new PsyDoc student: Carly Mayberry; 3 new honours students: Zoe Petruzzelli, Nadia Munoz, and Samuel Hansen. More on their thesis projects later… We have had some grant success that will support TMS and eye-tracking facilities within the school. See Research Funding page.

Floods

  • 15 January. As many of you may be aware, Brisbane is in the midst of a flood crisis. Campus was abandoned on Tuesday and the return to ‘normal’ operations is currently scheduled for Thursday, 20th. Our sympathy and best wishes go to our colleagues and friends who have been affected. Thank you to all those who have enquired about our wellbeing.

2010

Happy Holidays

  • 23 December. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the fMRI lab successful this year, with best wishes for the new year. See you in 2011.

Grant success

  • 18 November. An NHMRC Project grant will fund our research into the genetics of brain structure and function. See Research Funding page for more details.

New conference abstracts

  • 5 November. Conference abstract page updated.

New papers on heritability of grey and white matter in press

  • 25 October. We have two new papers in press in NeuroImage and Neuroreport. See Publications page.

Promotion

  • 25 October. Greig has been promoted to Associate Professor effective January 1.

Grant success

  • 25 October. An ARC Discovery Project grant will fund our recognition memory research with John Dunn and Emily Freeman. See Research Funding page for more details.

Greig at conference

  • 21 – 28 October. Greig will be attending the Academy of Aphasia meeting in Athens, Greece.

Research Excellence Award

  • 22 September. A UQ Foundation Research Excellence Award will fund new 128 Channel EEG research, enhancing our ability to investigate the temporal and spatial signatures of speech production. See Research Funding page.

New paper in press

  • 19 September. We have a new paper in press in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience on single- vs dual-process memory models of recognition memory that also takes a critical look at the use of subjective confidence ratings in fMRI studies. See Publications page.

Greig at conference

  • 31 August – 7 September. Greig will be attending the International Workshop on Language Production in Edinburgh, UK.

New paper in press

  • 24 August. We have a new paper in press in NeuroImage on structural correlates of semantic memory. See Publications page.

Congratulations, DR Postle!

  • 13 July. Natasha Postle’s thesis examining the semantic somatotopy hypothesis has been passed without revisions, and has been recommended for the award of PhD. Congratulations, Tash!

#10 Hottest Article!

  • 15 June. Our paper in the special issue of Brain & Language dedicated to Mirror Neurons is currently #10 in the list of the TOP25 Hottest Articles on Sciencedirect for that journal.

New conference abstracts

  • 11 June. Conference abstract page updated.

Niels Schiller visiting

  • 19-22 February. Niels is visiting from Leiden, Netherlands and will be giving a seminar on “Single word processing in Chinese and Japanese: multiple readings of Japanese kanji” on Friday at 3pm.

Suse Schnell visiting

  • 13 February. Suse is visiting from Freiburg, Germany and will be working on a project investigating the heritability of fibre tracts involved in language processing.

New paper in press

  • 8 February. Julia has a new paper in press from her postdoc with us on semantic processing of environmental sounds. See Publications page.

Greig on vacation

  • 11 January. Greig will be on vacation until January 27.

2009

Happy Holidays

  • 22 December. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the fMRI lab successful this year, with best wishes for the new year. See you in 2010.

Greig relocating to the School of Psychology

  • 22 December. Greig will be commencing his new appointment as ARC Future Fellow at the School of Psychology in 2010.

The new 3T MRI system is not the first campus MRI for cognitive neuroscience…

  • 17 December. Contrary to some recent spin of a non-magnetic kind, the new 3T isn’t the first campus MRI system in Australia, let alone at UQ. This accolade goes to the venerable and soon to be decommissioned 2T system on which the first successful fMRI studies in Australia were conducted in the late ‘nineties and early ‘noughties. That was a time when 2T was considered high field. Lest we forget.

New paper in press

  • 16 December. Julia has a new paper in press from her postdoc with us on the postcue naming effect in speech production. See Publications page.

Farewell to Sarah

  • 8 December. Sarah has completed her project and returned to PHELMA.

3T installation

  • 10 November. Our new 3T MRI system has arrived on campus!

Julia moves on to greener pastures

  • 1 November. After completing her postdoc with the lab, Julia has moved to the Centre for Clinical Research to commence her new position in epilepsy research. We wish her the best of luck in her new career.

More Grant Success!

  • 29 October. Greig has been awarded an NHMRC Career Development Award.More information on the Research Funding page.

Grant success!

  • 26 October. David Copland and Katie McMahon were successful with their ARC Discovery Project application this round, as was Greig who was also awarded a QEII Fellowship. More information on the Research Funding page.

Workshop on Statistical Parametric Mapping for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging

  • 30 September. The ARC Network in Human Communication Science (HCSNET) will be hosting a workshop on SPM for fMRI on campus, November 18-20, with an emphasis on imaging in language research. Deadline for expressions of interest: 28 October. For more information, see the HCSNET workshop page.

Postdoctoral Research Fellowships in Aphasia Rehabilitation

  • 22 September. The Centre for Clinical Research Excellence (CCRE) in Aphasia Rehabilitation has several postdoctoral research fellowshipsavailable, including one in Brisbane. Applications close 30/09.

Greig the Future Fellow

  • 10 September. Greig has been awarded an ARC Future Fellowship to pursue research on the cognitive neuroscience of language.

Research Assistant position

  • 9 September. We have a joint RA position available with QIMR to assist with the twin imaging project data analyses. Applications close 25/9. Details may be found here.

Farewell to Chloe

  • 14 August. Chloe has completed her project and returned to PHELMA.

Talking Brains

  • 17 June. Greg Hickok’s and David Poeppel’s excellent Talking Brains blog has broadened our discussion of semantic somatotopy below, with some interesting responses from Friedemann Pulvermüller and David Kemmerer. Thanks to Greg and David for hosting this discussion.

Somatotopic organisation of action word meanings – Again!

  • 26 June. We’re very interested in claims of a so-called “semantic somatotopy” in primary and premotor cortex (i.e., overlapping activity for executing/observing actions performed with a specific effector and retrieving word meanings related to that effector). See Tash Postle’s paper in NeuroImage last year in which the peak maxima from neuroimaging studies cited as evidence for this claim were plotted against cytoarchitectonic maps of BA4 and BA6 in the language dominant left hemisphere. Friedemann Pulvermüller and colleagues have a new fMRI paper using cluster analysis in press in Human Brain Mapping in which they conclude that “The motor-premotor region was dominated by semantic somatotopy… with face, arm, and leg word activation foci at inferior lateral (-49/11/16), dorsolateral (-32/-5/52), and dorsal sites (-19/-21/61).” So, here are 10 mm spheres centred on those peak maxima plotted in relation to the cytoarchitectonic maps of BA4 (red) and BA6 (blue) from Eickhoff et al. (2006). Again, not much congruency with respect to the actual cortical motor areas, and as motor execution and/or observation conditions weren’t included in the study, we have no evidence that these clusters are representative of the actual neuronal ensembles used by the participants to perform effector movements. Interestingly, though, the leg peak is in BA6 this time.

References:

Pulvermüller, F., Kherif, F., Hauk, O., Mohr, B., & Nimmo-Smith, I. (in press). Distributed cell assemblies for general lexical and category-specific semantic processing as revealed by fMRI cluster analysis, Human Brain Mapping.

Eickhoff, S.B., Heim, S., Zilles, K., & Amunts, K., (2006). Testing anatomically specified hypotheses in functional imaging using cytoarchitectonic maps. NeuroImage, 32, 570–582.

Chloe and Sarah have arrived

Congratulations, Dr Sveller

  • 25 June. Congratulations to Christina Sveller who has been awarded her doctorate!

HBM2009 posters

  • 17 June. Gabriella’s and Julia’s posters for HBM2009 now available on the Conference Abstracts page.

Congratulations, Dr Strudwick

  • 7 May. Congratulations to Mark Strudwick who has been awarded his PhD!

New Horizons

  • 28 April. Greig making a point or grasping for a peanut at the New Horizons meeting in Hawaii earlier this month.

New paper in press

  • 3 April. We have a new paper in press reporting the effects of ldopa on striatal resting state connectivity in the Journal of Neuroscience. See Publications page.

CNS Meeting

  • 30 March. Greig back from the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting where he had the chance to catch up with colleagues including Greg Hickok and David Poeppel of Talking Brains fame.

New paper on naming processes in press

  • 18 March. We have a new paper reporting auditory context effects in picture naming in press in Cognitive, Affective, & Behavioral Neuroscience. See Publications page.

OHBM 2009 Abstracts

  • 5 March. We have a host of abstracts accepted for the Human Brain Mapping meeting! See Abstract page.

Greig speaking at MACCS

New paper on semantic priming and dopamine in press

  • 30 January. Dave Copland’s paper on the effects of levodopa on semantic priming is in press in Cerebral Cortex. See Publications page.

Australian Neuroscience Society meeting

  • 29 January. Greig speaking at the Australian Neuroscience Society meeting in Canberra. See Abstracts page.

New paper on genetics and DTI in press

  • 16 January. New paper in press in Journal of Neuroscience on the genetics of white matter measured with DTI. See Publications page.

2008

Happy Holidays

  • 19 December. A happy holiday season to everyone who helped make the fMRI lab successful this year, with best wishes for the new year. See you in 2009.

CNS 2009 abstracts

  • 18 December. Our two abstracts accepted for the Cognitive Neuroscience Society Meeting 2009! See Abstract page.

New Horizons in Human Brain Imaging meeting

  • 5 December. Greig has been invited to speak at the New Horizons in Human Brain Imaging: A Focus on the Pacific Rim meeting, immediately prior to the International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine (ISMRM) meeting in Hawaii next year. See Abstract page.

Australian Neuroscience Society meeting

  • 5 December. Greig has been invited to speak at the Australian Neuroscience Society meeting in Canberra next year in a symposium on Bridging the gap: Human neuroimaging as the interface between brain and cognition. See Abstract page.

Katie promoted

  • 13 November. Katie has been promoted to Senior Research Fellow, effective January 2009. Congratulations, Katie!

Sad news

  • 20 October. We received the sad news that our colleague and friend, Jonathan Chalk, passed away this morning after a long battle with cancer. As a neurologist, Jon made significant contributions to neuroimaging research into Alzheimer’s disease and stroke. He will be missed.

HCSNet Workshop

Gabriella at SPR meeting

ANAT3022 lectures

  • 7 October. Greig will be lecturing in ANAT3022 for the next 3 weeks.

Another paper on mirror neurons and language in press

  • 29 September. We’ve another fMRI paper in press on the putative links between mirror neurons and language. This one’s for a special issue of the journal Brain & Language. See the Publications page.

Marjorie Villien homeward bound

  • 15 August. Marjorie is returning to MINATEC.

Another paper in press for Julia

  • 12 August. Julia’s paper from her PhD on the influence of colour and sound on neuronal activation during visual object naming has been accepted for publication in Brain Research. See the Publications page.

Natasha’s PhD paper in press

  • 7 August. Tash’s fMRI paper from her PhD project on the putative somatotopic organisation of action word meanings has been accepted for publication in NeuroImage. This is the full paper describing the study in the SFN poster mentioned below. See the Publications page.

Julia’s first postdoc paper in press

  • 29 July. Julia’s paper on the semantic blocking effect in speech production has been accepted for publication in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. See the Publications page.

Another genetics paper in press

  • 17 July. Paper in press in a Special Issue of Brain Imaging and Behavior. See the Publications page.

Marjorie Villien visiting

  • 11 June. Marjorie is visiting from MINATEC for 3 months while she completes a phMRI project.

Posters for HBM 2008 meeting

  • 10 June. Julia’s and Mark’s posters for next week’s Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Meeting in Melbourne are now available for viewing! See the Conference Abstract page.

More doubts about a somatotopic organisation of action word meanings

  • 28 May. Some of our recent work has addressed claims of a so-called “semantic somatotopy” in primary and premotor cortex (i.e., overlapping activity for executing/observing actions performed with a specific effector and retrieving word meanings related to that effector). See Tash Postle’s poster presented at SFN last year on the Conference Abstracts page in which the peak maxima from neuroimaging studies are plotted against cytoarchitectonic maps of BA4 and BA6 in the language dominant left hemisphere. Folks have noted that some studies have reported peaks in the right hemisphere too. So, here are the peak maxima in the right hemisphere for the two studies that reported overlapping activation for arm movements and arm related words, plotted in relation to the cytoarchitectonic maps of BA4 (red) and BA6 (blue). Again, not much congruency, either with respect to actual motor cortical areas or across studies.

References:

Esopenko, C., Borowsky, R., Cummine, J., & Sarty, G. (in press). Mapping the semantic homunculus: A functional and behavioural analysis of overt semantic generation. Brain Topography.

Hauk, O., Johnsrude, I., Pulvermüller, F. (2004). Somatotopic representation of action words in human motor and premotor cortex. Neuron 41, 301-307.

Another grant

  • 22 April. Helen Chenery’s ARC Linkage Infrastructure Equipment and Facilities (LIEF) application has been funded after some time on the wait list! Details on the Research Funding page.

First genetics paper in press

  • 8 April. Gabriella’s first fMRI study of twins is now in press in a special issue of Biological Psychology. See the Publications page.

Greig at CNS 2008 meeting

  • 7 April. Greig will be attending the Cognitive Neuroscience Society meeting in San Francisco next week. Visit him at his poster. He’ll also be receiving a Top Reviewer award from Elsevier/Neuropsychologia.

Abstracts for HBM 2008 meeting

  • 3 March. Abstracts accepted for the Organisation of Human Brain Mapping Meeting 2008! See Abstract page.

Julia’s first PhD paper in press

  • 15 February. The first paper from Julia’s PhD is in press in Cerebral Cortex. See the Publications page for more information.

Back on deck

  • 7 January. We’re all back on deck after the holidays. Luckily, Australia Day is only 3 weeks away…

2007

Grant Success!

  • 18 December. Dave Copland’s grant application for a 128 channel geodesics EEG system was a success. Congratulations Dave! See the Research Funding page for more information.

Julia’s viva

  • 14 December. Julia has been awarded her PhD. Well done!
  • 9 December. Julia Hocking is flying back to UCL to complete her viva and be awarded her PhD.

Abstract for CNS 2008 meeting

  • 5 December. Abstract accepted for Cognitive Neuroscience Society Meeting 2008! See Abstract page.

HBM2008 Symposium

  • 30 November. Our symposium submission for the Human Brain Mapping 2008 conference was accepted, one of only three to be scheduled! It’s entitled On the Relevance of Functional Neuroimaging to Psychology and features Rik Henson, Max Coltheart, Russ Poldrack and Greig as speakers.

Acupuncture papers

  • November. Mark Strudwick has had his first papers accepted from his PhD project describing a new point injection method for fMRI. Congratulations, Mark!

Strudwick MW, Wilson SJ. Automated Syringe Driver for Acupoint Injection in fMRI Studies: a case for quantified point injection in neuroimaging studies of acupuncture. Expert Rev Med Devices.
Strudwick MW, Hinks RC, Choy STB. Point injection as an alternative acupuncture technique: an exploratory study of patient responses. Acupuncture in Medicine.

Grant success!

  • September 25-26. We’ve had terrific luck this grant round with the NHMRC and ARC, having 3 project and 1 infrastructure grants funded. See the Research Funding page for more information!

Sad news

  • September. We received the sad news that our friend and colleague Ginny Ng from the IOP in London passed away earlier this month after a fight with cancer. Ginny’s professional and personal touch will be sorely missed.

CMR Review Recommendations

  • August 22. The review of the Centre for Magnetic Resonance has been completed. Draft recommendations by the expert panel have included permitting the centre to enrol PhD students and joint appointments with schools, departments and institutes for research staff. These recommendations are welcomed by the lab members. If you are interested in commencing a PhD in cognitive neuroscience next year, or having us lecture in your subjects/courses, do let us know!

Jan Hoffmann visiting

  • August. Jan is visiting from the Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften, Hamburg until December. He will be working on the twins imaging project.

NHMRC Grant Review Panel

  • August 6-10. Greig is in Melbourne for the NHMRC Neurology and Brain Imaging Grant Review Panel.

Abstract for SFN 2007 meeting

  • 3 July. Natasha’s abstract accepted for Society for Neuroscience Meeting 2007! See Abstract page.

Travel award

  • Julia Hocking has been awarded an OHBM travel award for the June 2007 meeting in Chicago to present her abstract entitled Cross-modal object processing in three different anterior temporal regions. Congratulations, Julia!

NIH Award Letter

  • 24 May. We received our award letter from the NIH for our grant “Genetic influences on the brain: A twin imaging study”.

Gabriella Blokland visiting

  • 28 March. Gabriella is visiting from the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam until October. She will be working on the twins imaging project.

Abstracts for CNS and OHBM 2007 meetings

  • Abstracts accepted for CNS and OHBM 2007! See Abstracts page.

Greig is back

  • Greig is back at work as of February after taking a combination of paternity, recreation and long service leave.

2006

Andrew Hockey graduates

  • Andrew Hockey graduated in December with his Masters of Philosophy. His thesis was Computational modelling of the laguage production system: Semantic memory, conflict monitoring and cognitive control processes. Congratulations, Andrew!

Julia is here

  • Julia Hocking arrived 30 October, and is now working in the lab!

APS Award!

2005

We’re on the cover of the March 2005 issue of Cognitive Brain Research!


Issue Cover!

de Zubicaray, McMahon, Eastburn, Finnigan and Humphreys (2005). fMRI evidence of word frequency and strength effects during episodic memory encoding.

For better or worse, the press has also occasionally taken an interest in some of our work…

  • Melbourne Age, January 7, 2006, All the rage – the prognosis for 2006
  • Australasian Science, June 2002, 23(5), 36-37. Testing the ghost with the machine
  • Sydney Morning Herald, October 2001, Talk about a dream gene
  • Melbourne Age, October 2001, Science seeks gift of the gab
  • ABC Radio National, June 2001, Brain Map
  • The Sci Files (CSIRO National Science Radio interview), July 2001, Mapping what the brain is up to