The Brain Dynamics Lab, led by Dr. Andrea Protzner at the University of Calgary, is a diverse collection of doctoral and postdoctoral research trainees, undergraduate students, and volunteers. Together, they strive to reveal new understandings of the brain and how it changes across the lifespan and various impairments.
Dr. Andrea Protzner, PhD
My research goal is to build a framework that links cognitive integrity and neural dynamics to provide a coherent understanding of how cognition emerges from operations in the intact and impaired brain.
The following two areas of interest give the flavour of this approach:
Brain Signal Variability in the Context of Brain Damage: Computational research suggests that brain signal variability is an important parameter reflecting the functional integrity of neural systems. Thus, we can think of variability as a metric of what the system is capable of doing (whereas task-related signal indicates what the system is doing at any given moment of observation). I have shown that variability tracks both tissue health and functional capacity in patients with mesial temporal lobe epilepsy (mTLE). In my current work, I am trying to use signal variability to identify individual differences in cognitive resilience during aging, and the capacity to benefit from treatment in psychiatric disorders.
Brain Network Reorganization in Major Depressive Disorder: Ideally, to predict functional changes after focal alterations in brain function, one should take into account whole-brain network reorganization. My recent work focuses on how deep brain stimulation affects mood regulation networks in treatment resistant depression. The aim is to customize neurostimulation therapy by creating personalized computer models that simulate the effects of local stimulation on large-scale brain networks using patient-specific connectivity and anatomy.
LAB MEMBERS
Kelsey Cnudde | PhD Student
Kelsey is a PhD student, having completed her MSc in the Brain Dynamics Lab, which was co-supervised by Dr. Penny Pexman (Language Processing Lab). Her MSc research focused on the neural changes (in ERPs and brain signal complexity) that accompanied behavioural change as a result of learning on a visual word recognition task. In her PhD research, she will continue to explore neuroplasticity by investigating brain signal complexity and other neural changes associated with episodic memory in epilepsy patients.
Amirhossein Ghaderi | Postdoctoral Fellow
Amirhossein is a postdoctoral associate with a background in physics and cognitive neuroscience. He uses neuroimaging approaches to investigate functional/structural brain networks in health and brain diseases.
Michael McLaren-Gradinaru | PhD Student
Michael is a PhD student co-supervised by Dr. Giuseppe Iaria in the Spatial Cognition Lab (Neurolab). He has a passion for helping others and has focused his research primarily on understanding a complex spatial disorder known as Developmental Topographical Disorientation (DTD). For his PhD, he is examining the effect of this spatial training across different ages that are critical for the development of spatial navigation and orientation skills. He is using EEG to examine the brain-network changes that occur following orientation and navigation training, which will help to better understand how the training is affecting the brain.
Gwen van der Wijk | PhD Student
Is investigating changes in brain dynamics over the course of treatment for major depressive disorder using medication and neurostimulation therapy. My goal with these projects is to get a better understanding of how the individual differences in brain function interact with the changes triggered by treatment, so this information can be used to personalize treatment of depression in the future. I am also interested in brain plasticity, that is, how the brain changes over the course of treatment within individuals, and what factors determine whether these changes lead to positive or negative outcomes.
Hongye Wang | PhD Student
Hongye completed her Master’s degree with the Brain Dynamics Lab in 2016. Her Master’s work focused on investigating the effect of Scrabble expertise on healthy brain aging. She is now a PhD candidate supervised by Dr. Andrea Protzner. She is generally interested in brain dynamics explored by functional neuroimaging data such as fMRI and EEG. Currently, she is studying the relationship between spatial/temporal context memory performance and age-related differences in fMRI signal variability, across the adult lifespan. She is also interested in the developmental trajectory of fMRI signal variability during early childhood and how it interacts with white matter maturation.
Lab Alumni
Maddie Kelly | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2022-2023
Kayla Brill | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2022-2023
Mah Noor | Undergraduate Summer Student, 2022
Talha Zafar | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2021-2022
Noaah Reaume | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2020-2021
Gahyun Kim | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2020-2021
Alison Wilson | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2020-2021
Louisa Krile | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2019-2020
Baeleigh Ellement | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2019-2020
Sora Ahn | Postdoctoral Fellow, 2018-2019
Alison Heard | PhD Student, 2014 - 2018
Julie Aitken | MSc Student, 2016 - 2019
Matt Szostakiwskyj | Research Analyst, 2017-2018
Sofia Van Hees | Postdoctoral Fellow, 2014 - 2017
Jessie Hart Szostakiwskyj | MSc Student, 2014 - 2016; Research Assistant 2013 - 2014
Katelyn Larson | Research Assistant, 2016 - 2017
Keelin Rivard | MSc Student, 2014 - 2016
Sabine Seyffarth | MSc Student, 2012 - 2014
Stephanie Willatt | Research Assistant, 2015 - 2016; Undergraduate Honours Student, 2014 - 2015
Bijan Mohammed | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2015 - 2016
James Lu | Research Assistant, 2014 - 2015; Undergraduate Honours Student, 2013 - 2014
Soyee Chu | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2014 - 2015
Carolyn Dvorack | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2013 - 2014
Kaia Myers-Stewart | Research Assistant, 2014; Undergraduate Summer Student, 2013 & 2014
Kim Mikalson | Research Assistant, 2014; Undergraduate Honours Student, 2012 - 2013
James Campbell | Undergraduate Honours Student, 2012 - 2013
Filomeno Cortese, Seaman Family MR Research Centre, University of Calgary
Giuseppe Iaria, Neurolab, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary
Natalia Jaworska, Department of Psychiatry, University of Calgary
Viktor Jirsa, Institut de Neurosciences des Systèmes, Aix-Marseille Université
Zelma Kiss, Hotchkiss Brain Institute, University of Calgary
Mary Pat McAndrews, Neuropsychology, University Health Network
Anthony Randal McIntosh, Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest Centre
Penny Pexman, Department of Psychology, University of Calgary
Working together gets us farther, faster