Congratulations, Mark!

Yesterday was a big day for the Bray Neuroimaging Lab: Mark successfully defended his Master's thesis titled "Modular Development of Gray Matter in Childhood and Adolescence". He investigated network development in the healthy human brain during childhood and adolescence and looked at a data set of over 400 typically developing participants. In particular, he analyzed whether surface area, cortical thickness and volume undergo different developmental trajectories and show differential synchronized developmental patterns. 

Mark started his Master's project in Biomedical Engineering in January 2014 for which he was awarded an NSERC studentship. He was part of the NSERC CREATE International and Industrial Imaging Training (I3T) Program, which is designed to train highly qualified personnel who will drive the future of Medical Imaging in Canada. We're sad to see him leave, but also excited for him to begin the next phase of his education at the Schulich School of Medicine & Dentistry at Western University this fall.

Science and creativity go hand in hand...

Kari Parson is a perfect example of an artistic scientist and we are happy that her art will decorate our meeting room from now on. 

Left: Mosaic "Mirror Neuron"

Right: Acrylic painting of an axial brain slice

Come and meet us at OHBM 2015

Mark will be presenting his poster on Wednesday, June 15, between 12:45 - 14:45:

#4070 Neurodevelopmental trajectories of structural covariance networks in the human cerebral cortex. Mark Krongold, Cassandra Cooper, Signe Bray

Don't miss the poster by our colleagues from Montreal on Thursday, June 16, between 12:45 - 14:45:

#3240 Localizing focal structrual alterations of the basal ganglia in autism spectrum disorders. Min Tae Park, Manu Schuetze, Signe Bray, Mallar Chakravarty

Congratulations, Keelin!

...for receiving the CREATE I3T scholarship.

The CREATE I3T Program is intended to prepare trainees to be future academic and commercial leaders, by providing them with cutting-edge technical skills and knowledge in Medical Imaging. Read more about it here.

Signe announced as Scientific Director of CAIR Program

We're excited that Signe has been announced as the scientific director of the Child and Adolescent Imaging Research (CAIR) program. Read more about her and CAIR here. 

Congratulations, Ivy!

...for successfully defending your Honors Thesis Project! 

Congratulations, Brian!

... for winning this year's Queen Elizabeth II Graduate Scholarship! The scholarship rewards the high level of achievement of students pursuing graduate studies in Alberta. 

New paper on functional connectivity

Check out Sarah's paper "Variation in functional connectivity along anterior-to-posterior intraparietal sulcus, and relationship with age across late childhood and adolescence” which has been published in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience (click on the image for access).

ACHRI 2015 Symposium

We attended the ACHRI 2015 Symposium yesterday which gave us a wonderful overview of the research done in the ACHRI Genes, Development & Health theme and where we met lots of other ACHRI trainees. Keelin, Mark and Manu also presented their research during a poster session and had interesting discussions about their projects. Today, we are looking forward to workshops aiming to help trainees build their careers. Thank you ACHRI for organizing!

Mark presented results from his thesis project "Neurodevelopmental Trajectories of Structural Covariance Networks in the Human Cerebral Cortex". Keelin presented preliminary results from her thesis project "Evoked responses to affective stimuli as a marker for reward system dysfunction in ASD." Manu presented first results from a question she asked for her neuroimaging study: "Can pictures of 'restricted interests' be used to investigate neural responses during reinforcement learning in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders?".

Autism Awareness Day 2015

We had an amazing time celebrating Autism Awareness Day yesterday, April 2nd, at the Olympic Plaza in Calgary!  The event was filled with great people, music, and bubble blowing!  We met Mayor Nenshi who was also there supporting Autism awareness in the Calgary community!

Brain Day Calgary

Keelin, Mark and Manu volunteered for Brain Day Calgary for which we visited students in grade 4. Besides teaching injury prevention and how to fit a bike helmet, we had many fun neuroscience facts for them. The kids drew the four different lobes onto balloons, guessed the brains of different animals, outperformed us in a hearing test and were flabbergasted by the optical illusions we showed them. 

Manu and Avery from Bruce Pike's lab. We introduced ourselves with our own MRI images and had the kids guess which brain is from whom. 

To show the kids how fragile their brains are, we brought a jello brain. Lots of  squealing when they touched it :)

Banff International Conferences on Behavioural Science - Autism in Transition

We're enjoying a wonderful conference at the Banff Centre, nestled in one of the most picturesque environments in North America. Even though the days are packed with inspiring talks and workshops, some of us went for a walk along the crystal-clear bow river while Signe ran up tunnel mountain!

Manu presented a poster about her work on "Striatal volumes in Autism Spectrum Disorders", a collaboration with Mallar Chakravarty, PhD, from the Douglas Institute, McGill University.

Unexpected guests showed up during one of the coffee breaks.

Society for Neuroscience (SfN) 2014

We are on our way to the SfN 2014 meeting in Washington DC where our lab will be giving two presentations about Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASDs). Join us for our talks!  

Manu Schuetze will be presenting the morning of Sunday November 16th

Dr. Bray will be presenting the afternoon of Monday November 17th 

New paper on brain network changes between resting and attentive states

Have you ever wondered how brain networks reconfigure when people are resting compared to paying attention to a movie? We did! The results of our study, a collaboration with Aiden Anold and Giuseppe Iaria of the NeuroLab at the University of Calgary, are now online, here.

NeuroDevNet / ISDN 2014

We are enjoying lovely sunny days in Montreal and excited to be be part of the 2014 International Society for Developmental Neuroscience and NeuroDevNet meeting. Lab member Sarah Vinette presents a poster in Monday evening's session!

Postdoctoral Scholar position available

We are thrilled to have the opportunity to recruit a post-doctoral scholar into our group, through the University of Calgary Eyes High program.

Please view the ad here and email Dr. Bray with any pre-application inquiries (slbray @ ucalgary.ca).

Some of us ran the AstraZeneca 5km run last Sunday

Join us on September 14, 2014 for the 15th Allies for Autism Run

CFI funding

The Bray, Lebel and MacMaster labs are delighted to be the recipients of a Canada Foundation for Innovation Leaders Opportunity Fund award. See the story in UToday here.

Paper accepted in Cerebral Cortex

We have a new study in press in Cerebral Cortex, using functional MRI to investigate how visuotopic regions along the intraparietal sulcus are involved in manipulating information in working memory. Abstract here.

Intraparietal Sulcus Activity and Functional Connectivity Supporting Spatial Working Memory Manipulation 
Signe Bray; Ramsha Almas; Aiden E. G. F. Arnold; Giuseppe Iaria; Glenda MacQueen
Cerebral Cortex 2013; doi: 10.1093/cercor/bht320

SickKids Foundation New Investigator Grant

Dr. Bray has been awarded a New Investigator Grant from the SickKids Foundation and CIHR Institute for Human Development, Child and Youth Health. 

This three year award will fund research into abnormalities in learning and reinforcement in adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders.