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Friends of BrainHealth 2014 Award Updates

Dan Krawczyk and Leanne Young reading the computer together.

Center for BrainHealth

Priming the Minds of Elementary Students for Middle School Lori Cook, PhD, director of pediatric brain injury programs, completed her post-doctoral work under the direction of Sandra Chapman, Ph.D. With the 2014 Sapphire Foundation Distinguished New Scientist Award, Dr. Cook is investigating how to use a strategy-based training developed at the Center for BrainHealth® called Strategic Memory Advanced Reasoning Tactics, or SMART™, to prime the minds of elementary-aged children for more complex learning in middle school.She is currently working with typically-developing participants ages 7 to 11 for the pilot study and plans to complete data collection by the end of 2016. If proven effective, the program could be tailored to help not only typically-developing children but also those with learning differences, ADHD, and/or traumatic brain injury and bears potential as a future service to be offered through the Center’s Brain Performance Institute.Using the Virtual World to Understand and Improve the Real World of Brain InjuriesLeanne Young, MA, a doctoral student and research assistant under the direction of Daniel Krawczyk, Ph.D., received the 2014 Friends of BrainHealth Linda and Joel Robuck Visionary Award. Using a virtual reality platform that mimics real-life cognitive tasks, Leanne utilized the funding to develop a protocol for taxing frontal lobe functions, including the ability to distraction inhibition and goal execution to be used for individualized, comprehensive treatments for those with traumatic brain injuries.The data collected will be reflected in a U.S. Army proposal to develop a virtual reality-based therapeutic intervention for chronic-phase traumatic brain injury patients. 

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Lori Cook, PhD, CCC-SLP

Director of Clinical Research Head of Research, The BrainHealth Project Adjunct Assistant Professor, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences

Sandra Bond Chapman, PhD

Chief Director Dee Wyly Distinguished Professor, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences Co-Leader, The BrainHealth Project

Daniel Krawczyk, PhD

Deputy Director of Research Debbie and Jim Francis Chair and Professor, School of Behavioral and Brain Sciences

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