Resume

• 2006

  WAS

  Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

  Neuroscience

  Psychology Graduate Student Council

  The University of British Columbia

• 2002

  Master of Science (MSc)

  Neuroscience

  The University of Western Ontario

• 1997

  Bachelor of Arts (BA)

  Psychology

  University of Saskatchewan

• Psychology

  Experimental Design

  Neuroimaging

  Scientific Writing

  Public Speaking

  Data Analysis

  Science

  Research

  Cognition

  Research Design

  Teaching

  Higher Education

  SPSS

  Matlab

  Statistics

  Literature Reviews

  Neuroscience

  Cognitive processing of visual images in migraine populations in between headache attacks

  Todd C. Handy

  Christine M. Chapman

  People with migraine headache have altered interictal visual sensory-level processing in between headache attacks. Here we examined the extent to which these migraine abnormalities may extend into higher visual processing such as implicit evaluative analysis of visual images in between migraine events.\nMethods: Specifically

  we asked two groups of participants––migraineurs (N1⁄429) and non- migraine controls (N1⁄429)––to view a set of unfamiliar commercial logos in the context of a target identification task as the brain electrical responses to these objects were recorded via event-related potentials (ERPs). Following this task

  participants individually identified those logos that they most liked or disliked. We applied a between-groups comparison of how ERP responses to logos varied as a function of hedonic evaluation.\nResults: Our results suggest migraineurs have abnormal implicit evaluative processing of visual stimuli. Specifically

  migraineurs lacked a bias for disliked logos found in control subjects

  as measured via a late positive potential (LPP) ERP component.\nConclusions: These results suggest post-sensory consequences of migraine in between headache events

  specifically abnormal cognitive evaluative processing with a lack of normal categorical hedonic evaluation.

  Cognitive processing of visual images in migraine populations in between headache attacks

  Todd C. Handy

  Grace Truong

  Jeremy H.M. Chan

  Christine M. Chapman

  Research has established decreased sensory habituation as a defining feature in migraine

  while decreased cognitive habituation has only been found with regard to cognitive assessment of the relative probability of the occurrence of a stimulus event. Our study extended the investigation of interictal habituation in migraine to include cognitive processing when viewing of a series of visually-complex images

  similar to those we encounter on the internet everyday. We examined interictal neurocognitive function in migraine from a habituation perspective

  using a novel paradigm designed to assess how the response to a series of images changes over time. Two groups of participants--migraineurs (N = 25) and non-migraine controls (N = 25)--were asked to view a set of 232 unfamiliar logos in the context of a target identification task as their brain electrical responses were recorded via event-related potentials (ERPs). The set of logos was viewed serially in each of 10 separate trial blocks

  with data analysis focusing on how the ERP responses to the logos in frontal electrodes from 200-600 ms changed across time within each group. For the controls

  we found that the amplitude of the late positive potential (LPP) ERP component elicited by the logos had no significant change across trial blocks. In contrast

  in migraineurs we found that the LPP significantly increased in amplitude across trial blocks

  an effect consistent with a lack of habituation to visual stimuli seen in previous research. Our findings provide empirical support abnormal cognitive processing of complex visual images across time in migraineurs that goes beyond the sensory-level habituation found in previous research.

  Interictal Neurocognitive Processing of Visual Stimuli in Migraine: Evidence from Event-Related Potentials

  Mickleborough

  University of Saskatchewan

  University of Saskatchewan

  Assistant Professor

  Saskatoon

  Saskatchewan

  Postdoctoral Fellow in Cognitive Neuroimaging