Many congratulations to Betina Ip, Nima Khalighinejad, and William Clarke, who have all been deservingly awarded the title of Associate Professor!
Betina's work looks at the influence of the environment on brain function. This interaction has been studied in neuroscience through investigating how sensory experience affects visual development. What supports experience dependent learning in early childhood? Can we facilitate learning in adults by understanding neuroplasticity? Betina's group attempt to answer such questions using advanced multimodal brain imaging, especially functional MR Spectroscopy (fMRS), behavioural measures and digital technology, including virtual reality. Ultimately, this research can contribute to a better understanding of how experience makes us who we are, and identify ways to harness cutting edge neuroscience and digital technology to improve health.
Nima's group investigate how the brain’s neuromodulatory systems influence cognition and behavior. By combining approaches ranging from computational modeling and neuroimaging to pharmacology and non-invasive brain stimulation, he aims to uncover the mechanisms through which neuromodulatory systems and their interactions drive learning, decision-making, and motivation in both humans and animal models. Find out more about their work on the NSC Lab website.
Will's work focusses on developing new methods for magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS). Using similar methods to MR imaging (MRI), MRS allows us to quantify the concentrations and chemical kinetics of many neurochemicals in the human brain. Furthermore, by using neurochemicals as endogenous probes we can also map cell-type-specific microstructure. Will's group seek to develop new ways of acquiring multi-voxel spectroscopic information to measure chemical dynamics and cellular microstructure across the brain. WIll released the open-science MRS analysis tool FSL-MRS and created a range of open-source tools for the MRS community. He is also a cofounder of the educational website MRSHub.