Inaugural Lecture of Professor Sarah MacPherson

Injuries and diseases affecting the brain and nervous system, as well as healthy aging, can affect the way individuals think, feel and behave. One of the roles of a neuropsychologist is to perform detailed assessments to evaluate an individual’s spared and impaired abilities to help determine a diagnosis of a cognitive or behavioural condition. These assessments typically involve administering a series of standardized tests and questionnaires that measure abilities such as attention, decision-making, problem-solving, memory and intelligence. In this talk, I will present some of my research examining what neuropsychological test performance in healthy aging and neurological conditions can inform us about the relationship between the brain and behaviour, the development of new computerised and immersive virtual reality assessment tools to better diagnose and evaluate cognitive disorders, as well as interventions that can support cognitive impairment. This work is relevant to research areas such as cognitive neuroscience, cognitive science, health, and technology.