MIG People

Sara Calzolari, MSc

I did my BSc in Cognitive Psychology and Psychobiology, and MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience and Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Padova, Italy. I joined the Erasmus+Traineeship program and spent six months working in Dr Damian Cruse’s lab. There, I carried out a project aimed at looking for EEG markers of semantic embodiment to be used as prognostic tool for acute comatose patients, and assisted in a work on the EEG signal improvement for the motor imagery paradigm. I have now obtained a BBSRC MIBTP PhD studentship, supervised by Dr Davinia Fernández-Espejo and Professor Andrew P. Bagshaw. As a PhD student, I intend to investigate the functional architecture of consciousness by means of fMRI, pupillometry and neurostimulation. I will focus on looking at the anticorrelated pattern of DMN and attentional network during internal and external awareness processes, and investigating the influence of the thalamus in such behavioural and neural dynamics. 

Email
SXC1127@student.bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@Sara__CN
LinkedIn
www.linkedin.com/in/sara-calzolari-466536134

Brandon Ingram, MSc

I completed my BSc in Applied Psychology at Durham University and my MSc in Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of York. During my BSc I worked as a research assistant for Dr Holger Wiese investigating ERPs associated with familiar face recognition, which I later carried on in my dissertation, researching the impact of attentional modulation on these ERPs. My MSc project was supervised by Dr Alex Wade and Dr Tony Morland, and employed fMRI and psychophysics to investigate the neural correlates of conscious colour perception. Currently, I am completing a PhD supervised by Professor Andrew Bagshaw and Dr Steven Mayhew, funded by the BBSRC MIBTP program. The project aims to investigate the temporal dynamics of neuroimaging data by employing methods such as Hidden Markov Models onto multi-modal (e.g. fMRI-EEG) data sets in order to define dynamic brain states. 

Email
BTI967@student.bham.ac.uk
Twitter
@BrandonIngram97
ResearchGate
www.researchgate.net/profile/Brandon_Ingram
Orcid
orcid.org/0000-0002-8377-9245

Sophie Lauren Mason, MSci

After completing my MSci in Mathematics at the University of Birmingham I  decided to further my interest in Applied Mathematics by researching  neuroscience and chronobiology as part of my PhD funded by the School of Mathematics Alumni Scholarship. This research area means I have an active role in the School of Mathematics, the Centre for Systems Modelling and Quantitative Biomedicine as well as the Centre for Human Brain Health. Under the supervision of Professor John Terry and my co-supervisor Professor Andrew Bagshaw I have been focusing upon how functional networks inferred from fMRI data are affected by an individual having an early or late chronotype. In addition, I intend to consider the  effect of sleep deprivation on the excitability of the brain network  within intermediate chronotypes.

Email
slm585@student.bham.ac.uk

Rory O’Sullivan, BSc

Whilst completing my BSc in Psychology at Loughborough University, I worked as an Honorary Research Assistant at Richards Lab, University of Birmingham. Over 11 months, I assisted with a project investigating sleep in children with tuberous sclerosis complex, and the impact of sleep on their behaviour and functioning. During this time I developed an interest in sleep research exploring at-risk groups, so after completing my BSc I returned to thee Richards Lab to undertake a PhD. Under the supervision of Dr Caroline Richards, Professor Andrew Bagshaw and Dr Stacey Bissell, the project aims to identify the behavioural, emotional and functional consequences of disturbed sleep in children with rare genetic syndromes, using techniques such as actigraphy. 

Email
RXO165@student.bham.ac.uk
Orcid
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3463-9633
LinkedIn
https://www.linkedin.com/in/rory-o-sullivan-6251aa216

Danny Smullen, MSc

I completed my undergraduate degree in Psychology at Swansea University in 2019 before completing my Master’s degree in Brain Imaging and Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Birmingham in 2020. As part of my Masters, I investigated fronto-parietal connectivity in ADHD in relation to impaired response inhibition. Under the supervision of Dr Carmel Mevorach and Professor Andrew Bagshaw, I am currently completing a PhD which aims to investigate the neural underpinnings of sleep issues in ADHD, and the relationship between sleep issues and other cognitive symptoms of the disorder.

Email
DJS916@student.bham.ac.uk

Grace Treadwell

I am currently in my third year at Keele University, studying for my BSc in Psychology. For my placement year I have joined both the MIG and Richard’s Lab as a Research Assistant. During the year, I am working on a study supervised by Professor Andrew Bagshaw, which is looking into the mechanisms and impact of sleep disruption in children with Rolandic epilepsy, and a study supervised by both Dr Caroline Richards and Georgie Agar, which aims to establish sleep-impulsivity-behaviour (SIB) outcomes in children with Autism and intellectual disabilities.

Email
g.treadwell@bham.ac.uk
x1e81@students.keele.ac.uk