• Question: What diseases have you studied as part of your work?

    Asked by anon-188268 to Pizza Ka Yee, Paul, Nadine, Alex on 15 Nov 2018.
    • Photo: Paul Matusz

      Paul Matusz answered on 15 Nov 2018:

      Hi,

      Nice question. To me I have researched infants born prematurely (that have many problems with their brain, cognitive and social development) and I continue to do so; I have worked with older children that have cerebral palsy – a disorder that is mainly visible in a lack of coordinated, smooth movements. Currently my work is focusing on new potential game based VR interventions for children with lazy eye, with us hoping with can substitute the long (years!) and non-effective one-eye patches (I’m sure you’ve seen them on other kids). If our idea works, we will also work very soon with children who have problems reading and doing basic maths.

    • Photo: Nadine Mirza

      Nadine Mirza answered on 16 Nov 2018:

      Awesome question!
      So during my undergraduate I studied psychosis, which is a collection of different kinds of symptoms, like hallucinations and delusions. The most well known disease that has symptoms of psychosis is schizophrenia, but psychosis can also happen in anxiety and depression. I have also studied anxiety and depression in placements that I’ve done in different hospitals.
      But the main focus of my studies, the disease that I am basing all my work and throwing all my efforts into is dementia- damage to brain cells. I am studying all the different types of dementia like Alzheimer’s Diseases which causes the break down of brain cells and creates plaques that prevent them from communicating. Or like frontotemporal dementia which causes the frontal and temporal lobes of the brain to shrink (atrophy). Or vascular dementia which happens when enough blood cannot reach the brain.

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