Students: Hailey Vecchiarelli

Type of project: Nutraceutical, Mind and Body, Basic, Translational

Grant Type: PhD

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Mathew Hill

Institutions Affiliated: University of Calgary

Description: The endocanabinoid signaling system (what Cannabis has effects on) is involved in the generation and regulation of stress responses and emotional behaviours.  New evidence has suggested that it might have a role in inflammation as well, making it a potential therapeutic target for conditions such as colitis. This project seeks to explore endocanabinoid signalling as a mediator of stress behaviours and inflammation and evaluate the possibility of using cananinoids (both endogenous and exogenous) to treat the dysfunctions of these processes in a mouse model of colitis.

Student: Kaeli Knudsen

Type of project: Basic, Mind and Body

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Carvahlo

Institutions Affiliated: University of Saskatchewan

Description: Epigenetics is a relativity new field that explores the interaction between genes and their environment on an organism. Many mind and body neuroCAM interventions could be operating through epigenetic changes, though an understanding of epigenetics in pathological states is limited. This project seeks to address this gap by exploring the epigenetic changes in a worm model of addiction. By better understanding the gene and environment interactions, scientists might be able to better understand mind and body modalities and improve them.

Student: Jillian Caton

Type of project: Basic, Mind and Body

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Howland

Institutions Affiliated: University of Saskatchewan

Description: A number of disorders (schizophrenia, autism, etc.) have been linked to prenatal infections. This study seeks to explore a possible mechanism of this link by infecting pregnant rats and performing cognitive testing on her offspring when they grow up. The results of this study could illuminate possible preventative and intervention strategies to minimize the effects of prenatal infection on neural development.

Students: Isabel Hedayat

Type of project: Mind and Body, Translational, Clinical Trial

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015, 2016

Supervisor: Dr. Oates

Institutions Affiliated: University of Saskatchewan

Description: Gait and mobility issues are prevalent not only in movement disorders like Parkinsons, but in normal aging populations. This project seeks to evaluate a novel physical therapy intervention, haptic anchoring, against the current standard practice, both quantitatively (gait improvement measures) but also qualitatively (to understand how people responded to haptic anchoring). This project could act as a precursor for a full scale clinical trial of haptic anchoring (which involves using balls on strings that dangle near the floor to provide additional sensory feedback when walking). 

Students: Brandon Hauer

Type of project: Basic, Translational, Mind and Body

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015

Supervisor: Dr. Dickson

Institutions Affiliated: University of Alberta

Description: There is considerable evidence that sleep impacts memory consolidation for a number of skills and the retention of knowledge. There has been interest in using electrical stimulation on the head as a way to influence this consolidation process, despite an adequate understanding of how this impacts brain processes. This project seeks to address this concern by “testing” this intervention strategy in rats, as this will not only translate into a better understanding of transcranial stimulation, but illuminate how the brain consolidates memories under normal conditions, which go awry in  disorders such as Alzheimer’s and depression.

Student: Wesley Vuong

Type of project: Basic, Translational, Mind and Body

Grant Type: Undergraduate

Year of Award: 2015, 2016

Supervisor: Dr. Dickson

Institutions Affiliated: University of Alberta

Description: Oxygen is used during, before and after surgery in an attempt to regulate and minimize damage from anesthetics. Additionally, hyperoxic conditions have been associated with elevated cognitive abilities, however these effects have yet to be related to brain activity. This project seeks to address this gap by using EEG recordings in tandem with cognitive assessments under hyper, hypo, and normal oxygen conditions. The implications of this project apply to both clinical use of oxygen in surgical settings as well as using oxygen as its own neuroCAM therapy.

Type of project: Basic, Mind and Body

Principal Investigator: Dr. Silvia Pagliardini

Institutions Affiliated: University of Alberta

Student: Sudi Duan (UGRAD):

Awards funded to project: 1

Background: Sleep apnea is a disorder characterized by loss of muscle tone in the tongue and airway, resulting in short periods of suffocation in sleep. Little is known about the neuromodulatory aspects of normal muscle tone in sleep, let alone abnormal conditions like sleep apnea. This project uses state of the art Optogenetics technology to explore the neural circuitry in sleep breathing.

Findings: This project is a currently funded project pending results.

Implications: Sleep apnea is currently treated with a bulky mechanical respirator that has limited success. The findings from this project could identify targets that would allow for the development of less-invasive treatments.

Type of project: Translational, Personalized Medicine and Mind and Body

Principal Investigator: Dr. Signe Bray

Institutions Affiliated: University of Calgary

Student: Andrea Civitarese (UGRAD)

Awards funded to project: 1

Background: Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) is a common psychiatric condition that is poorly understood despite a wealth of research. One common finding in MDD is reduced volume of the hippocampus, the brain structure that allows memories to be formed, thought to be attributed to reduced birth of new neurons in this region. Physical exercise has been shown to stimulate the birthing of new neurons as well as reduce the severity of MDD symptoms. This project explores the link between these two findings.

Findings: Awaiting final report

Implications: Awaiting final report

Type of project: Translational, Mind and Body

Principal Investigator: Dr. Dawne E. Clarke

Institutions Affiliated: Mount Royal University

Student: Jane Richardson (UGRAD)

Awards funded to project: 1

Background: Early childhood is an important time for cognitive and emotional development which can have lifelong effects. NeuroCAM utilizing behavioural and psychological principles could aid in this development or buffer against harmful detriments to emotional development. This project explores this hypothesis using “Kid Yoga,” drumming, massage, and dance.

Findings: Reports from the children themselves, their parents and their caregivers qualitatively reported positive outcomes from the CAM practices. These results were further supported by a quantitative assessment of emotional development (ASQ-SE).

Implications: This project shows that incorporation of these activities into child care programs can be beneficial to psychological development. Further exploration is required to precisely define these effects in both the mind and the brain.

Type of project: Translational, Mind and Body and Personalized Medicine

Principal Investigator: Dr. Sean Maw

Institutions Affiliated: Mount Royal University

Student: Amy Varner (UGRAD)

Awards funded to project: 1

Background: Mild traumatic brain injuries (concussions) are a common injury, yet there is little effective diagnostic tools available as most rely on self-reported symptoms or clinician judgement. Electroencephalography (EEG) is the technique that measures “brainwaves” and offers a potential diagnostic option explored in this project.

Findings: An extensive literature review reveals that an EEG based approach to concussion diagnosis would not only be feasible, but potentially superior to physician judgement. The next phase of this project is to initiate a clinical trial to explore the diagnostic utility of EEG based concussion detection.

Implications: Neurology and psychiatry are both seeking biomarkers for various disorders. This project could establish EEG based measures as a biomarker for concussions and open the door for other EEG based biomarkers for other disorders.