Lab Director: Jamie Reilly, PhD
The Memory, Concepts, and Cognition Laboratory is seeking new volunteers at Temple University. If you've got the moxy*, please contact Jamie Reilly.
*in addition to "moxy", we require six hours a week in the lab. Excellent organizational skills and computer programming ability are also considered components of moxy.
I have officially moved to Philadelphia. The lab will exist simultaneously at UF and Temple University over the next couple of years.
Looks like we have our first meeting scheduled for the Philadelphia Semantics Society. It will be at my house on Thursday, January 23 at 530pm. If you are interested in attending please RSVP me at reillyj@temple.edu
Below are the minutes from our monthly caregiver support group meeting. Meetings are free and open to the public. For more information click on the "Support Group" link.
FTD Support Group
Meeting Minutes- July 23, 2013
Announcement: Is there interest in the group having a guest speaker come talk about a new drug trial on tau? Tau Rx company wants to come chat. In the past, there have only a few clinical trials at Jax Mayo and USF. Previous trials have had some issues, hope with this for the future. (Consensus was yes, there is an interest).
Welcome to Dr. Dody
Question- how do navigate the SSI before FTD patient is normal retirement age?
First, must assume that your initial application will be rejected. Find out who your case manager is and meet with them about what is required on the application form. Give what you think are ridiculous examples, i.e. a company would have to hire two people to ensure that the job could be done with the person with FTD.
Can also get a good attorney who will help with wording. Dr. Dody can also offer help if you want to run a paragraph by her.
FTD is a special exempt condition that can get SSI 5 years before AD
FTLD Review
Question- how to deal with that as a caregiver?
Know ahead of time when things might come up and keep an arsenal of distractors (i.e when at home- wrapped snacks, going outside, inside activity; when out in the community- pictures to spark convos to allow the emotion to calm down), bring objects to allow her to squeeze and do exercises, get patient to help the caregiver, spark conversation with old family stories
Things that increase fatigue factor can make things worse
Driving is a major point of contention
Question- how to find a good primary doctor that understands and believes the problem?
Suggestions: Dr. William Rios, Dr. Alan Goldblatt
Question- when trying to find the right word, when as the caretaker to intervene?
Difficult to balance. Whatever system works with your family that keeps the family happy.
Question: correlation between FTD and night horrors?
Sleep does change with some people with FTD, and some meds should not be taken at bedtime (i.e. airicept should be taken in the morning after breakfast). Avoid fats and carbs late at night because sleep quality will be inferior. Sometimes there’s something in the room that can be bothersome when waking. Its also important to start winding down in the evening by avoiding stimulants (caffeine), watching the news, arguing, stimulating tv programs, no pets in the room.
Next month: Clinical trials speaker. Meet again at Milhopper library at 3pm. Date set for Tuesday, August 20th.
Pretty darn good news on the whole...
One wonders if spilling an entire can of Chunky soup into the front vents of my computer voids its warranty. Two positives --- the computer fan seems awesomely quiet now, and my office smells delicious. Dude, it's a Dell!
Google Analytics notes a hit on our website from the American Bar Association. My first thought is that someone out there is going to sue me. If this is the case, I must make that party aware of two things: 1) I might be innocent; 2) I am not the kind of doctor who makes any money.
We recently co-authored an article on the semantic clustering attributes of abstract words in the journal, Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Sebastian Crutch at University College London is the first author. There's something for everyone in this article -- mystery, suspense, murder, math, fine British sensibility... you name it.
A number of my very favorite authors have been impacted by Alzheimer's Disease or associated disease variants. Gabriel Garcia Marquez, W. Somerset Maugham, and Terry Pratchett are among the most prominent that come to mind. Dr. Peter Garrard wrote a brilliant article pubmed link here on the dissolution of narrative in the work of Dame Iris Murdoch, a renowned British author. As I revisit Dr. Garrard's work, I wonder if world class expertise in writing (or other creative pursuits) would respond uniquely to cognitive treatment or require a tailored approach. We have been working on a treatment targeting lexical preservation in progressive conditions like these (e.g., progressive nonfluent aphasia, semantic dementia). I wonder how this approach would work among high level writers -- perhaps pairing behavioral treatment with an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor. Email if you have any thoughts on this.
Here's a nice graphic of the TPJ from my upcoming chapter on Transcortical Sensory Aphasia in the Oxford Handbook of Language Disorders.
Here we have a 3d scatterplot representing the spread of a set of 400 abstract and concrete English nouns within a multi-dimensional space bounded by three broad cognitive domains (magnitude, sensation, emotion). Abstract words are reflected by the black bubbles, and concrete words are the red bubbles. Their positions in this x,y,z plane reflect ratings from almost 400 adults from Amazon's Mechanical Turk. It's interesting -- Abstract and concrete words cluster in unique ways in this space. We're arguing that a multi-dimensional 'topography' approach like this obviates the need for multiple semantic systems (e.g., verbal for abstract words, visual for concrete words). The other neat thing about this approach is that deficits in concrete or abstract word representation can be modeled in terms of dimensionality reduction (e.g., a sensory impairment might reduce the dimensions to only magnitude and emotion). We just submitted this article for review. Its recent ancestor was just also published in Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. Here's the R code for generating this 3d scatterplot using the rgl package:
We're pleased to announce that this semester we saw four of our very helpful seniors graduate with a major in Communication Sciences and Disorders. All will be continuing their studies at graduate school. Samantha Morrill will pursue her Doctor of Audiology here at UF. Melissa Salzberger will be heading back home to New York to Hunter College work toward her master's in Speech Language Pathology. Jayna Becker will be Temple University to obtain her master's in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Finally, Catherine Kadechka will remain at UF to pursue her master's in Communication Sciences and Disorders. Congratulations and good luck! We will miss you all.
I plan on starting a semantic society in a few months when I move to Philadelphia. I envision something akin to Paris in 1925 where a bunch of authors (e.g., Hemingway, Fitzgerald) lounged in cafes and waxed existential. My dream is to have the society meetings at my ramshackle house. We have an old manual typewriter upon which members will 'tweet' messages. I will then post the minutes online. Maybe we will eventually generate Proceedings of the Philadelphia Semantics Society. Wine and cheese served.