Michele Veldsman

Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Cognitive Neurology

Dr Michele Veldsman is a postdoctoral research scientist in the Memory Research Group. Her research looks at the impact of dementia syndromes and stroke on functional and structural networks in the human brain. She is coordinating the Oxford arm of the The Genetic Frontotemporal dementia Initiative which aims to find the earliest markers of frontotemporal dementia.

Biography

After graduating with a BSc (Hons.) in Experimental Psychology from the University of Bristol in the UK, she worked in the laboratory of Professor Michael Chee in Singapore. Here, she used functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Electroencephalography to investigate the effects of sleep deprivation on cognition and brain function. She went on to develop these techniques working with Professor Rhodri Cusack at the Medical Research Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, where she helped to develop a new form of real-time fMRI. She was awarded a highly competitive Medical Research Council Post-Graduate fellowship to fund her PhD at the University of Cambridge. Her PhD examined individual differences in the capacity and precision of visual memory for complex objects using behavioural experiments and fMRI. After her PhD she moved to The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health to investigate longitudinal brain connectivity changes in stroke patients with the aim of predicting post-stroke dementia.