Aging and Neurocognition Lab

On October 7, the Alzheimer's Association hosted a Walk to End Alzheimer's here in Champaign (for more information about the Champaign walk click  here  or about the walks in general click  here ). Members of AANCL walked at the event to show our support for the cause! It was uplifting to see how many people care about ending this disease and hear about what people have done to help those who are suffering because of Alzheimer's. There was a great turnout with 429 participants this year! Shraddha, FanTing, Stephany, and Lydia walked to support the cause!

As part of the Saffran Student Scholar Award that Lydia received, she attended and presented a poster at the 12th Annual Eleanor M. Saffran Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience and Rehabilitation of Communication Disorders at Temple University (Philadelphia, PA). Her poster was titled "Cognitive and Neural Alterations in Age-Associated Hearing Loss".

Lydia, a PhD student in the lab, received the Saffran Student Scholar Award for the 12th Annual Eleanor M. Saffran Conference on Cognitive Neuroscience and Rehabilitation of Communication Disorders at Temple University. The award will include: registration to the conference, lunch with Dr. Lana Shekim, attendance at a pre-conference dinner with the speakers, travel support for airfare, and hotel accommodations. Congratulations Lydia!

Shraddha, a PhD student in the lab, received an  Audiology/Hearing Science Research Travel Award which includes complimentary registration to attend the 2017 ASHA Convention in Los Angeles, California in November 2017. For more information, please visit the SHS page here . 

FanTing, an undergraduate research assistant in the lab, received another award for her summer research. The Students Preparing for Academic-Research Careers (SPARC) award aims to garner student interest in pursuing a PhD and academic careers, particularly in communication sciences and disorders. For more information about the award and the work FanTing will complete over the summer, please visit the SHS post here .

Andrew and Meghan, undergraduate research assistants in the lab, graduated from UIUC with degrees in Speech and Hearing Science! We are so proud of them and will miss having them in the lab. Good luck to you both on your future endeavors!

Congratulations to Lydia on her first first-author publication! The paper is titled "Theta and Alpha Alterations in Amnestic Mild Cognitive Impairment in Semantic Go/NoGo Tasks". Abstract Growing evidence suggests that cognitive control processes are impaired in amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI); however the nature of these alterations needs further examination. The current study examined differences in electroencephalographic theta and alpha power related to cognitive control processes involving response execution and response inhibition in 22 individuals with aMCI and 22 age-, sex-, and education-matched cognitively normal controls. Two Go/NoGo tasks involving semantic categorization were used. In the basic categorization task, Go/NoGo responses were made based on exemplars of a single car (Go) and a single dog (NoGo). In the superordinate categorization task, responses were made based on multiple exemplars of objects (Go) and animals (NoGo). Behavioral data show

Andrew, Stephany, Meghan, and FanTing made us proud by all presenting posters at the Undergraduate Research Symposium in April! They did a great job of explaining their work to the judges, students, faculty, and professors who attended the event. Congratulations to all of you! Andrew: Portable Listening Devices: Listening Habits, Hearing Health, and Cognition Stephany and Meghan: Electrophysiological Markers of Cognitive Control in Picture Word Interference Task FanTing: Connected Language in Alzheimer's Disease Undergraduate Research Symposium, April 2017  

FanTing, an undergraduate research assistant in the lab, received the Campus Honor Program's Summer Research Award which will allow her to spend the summer researching a topic of her choice. FanTing will be exploring functional communication in individuals with Alzheimer's disease. At the end of the summer she will submit a research report of her findings. Congratulations FanTing! We are so proud of you and so excited to have you working in the lab this summer! For more information, see the SHS announcement here .

Lydia and Shraddha presented their poster "Characterizing Early and Late Mild Cognitive Impairment Using EEG Alpha Power" at the second annual Interdisciplinary Health Sciences Initiative Clinical and Translational Neuroscience Workshop at Carle Foundation Hospital on February 17. This workshop focused on the topics of sleep, rehabilitative and restorative neuroscience, and neurological disease (for more information click   here ). Great work representing our lab Lydia and Shraddha!

The LINC (Life story Intervention through Narratives and Conversations) program was started by Dr. Raksha Mudar and Clarion Mendes to train graduate student clinicians on how to deliver personalized care to individuals diagnosed with dementia and other neurodegenerative conditions. The program has been a wonderful success and was recently highlighted on the UIUC facebook page here !