(Last update: Friday November 20, 2009
)
Associate Professor. Area: Cognitive Neuroscience
Research Interests: Recovery of function after traumatic brain injury, Spatial learning and memory, Virtual Environments
1. Goodrich-Hunsaker, N.J., Livingstone, S.A., Skelton, R.W. & Hopkins, R.O. (2009) Spatial Deficits in a Virtual Morris Water Maze Navigation Task in Amnesic Participants with Hippocampal Damage, DOI 10.1002/hipo.20651 PDF
2. Mueller, S.C., Jackson, C.P.T., Skelton, R.W. (2008) Gender differences in a virtual water maze: an eye tracking and pupillometry study. Behavioural Brain Research, 193(2), 209-215; DOI: 10.1016/j.bbr.2008.05.017.
3. Livingstone, S.A. & Skelton, R.W. (2007) Virtual environment navigation tasks and the assessment of cognitive deficits in individuals with brain injury. Behavioural Brain Research, 185, 21–31. DOI:10.1016/j.bbr.2007.07.015
4. Ross, S.P., Skelton, R.W. and Mueller, S. (2006) Gender differences in learning in virtual space: Implications when using virtual environments in instruction and assessment, Virtual Reality. Volume 10 (3-4), 175-184 Digital Object Identifier (DOI): 10.1007/s10055-006-0041-7
Traumatic Brain Injury and Navigation in a Virtual Arena Maze
Gender differences in spatial navigation.
Development of a Functional Outcome Profile to track changes in functional living status over the course of recovery from traumatic brain injury. For further information pleas see the 7-page FOP Prospectus.pdf
Eye-tracking and brain-activity analysis in research and business applications.
There is lots of information about traumatic brain injury on the web. Here are sites with lots of links and help in one form or another:
While you are waiting . . . "A Page Dedicated to You Who are Waiting While Someone is in a Coma". This provides a useful guide to traumatic brain injury and what to expect.
TRAUMATIC BRAIN INJURY SURVIVAL GUIDE a book by By Dr. Glen Johnson, Clinical Neuropsychologist Clinical Director of the Neuro-Recovery Head Injury Program
A course on Mild Traumatic Brain Injury with a very good page of links to other resources
A simple overview of brain injury facts from the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention - here
'Basic brain information' useful to people new to brain injury.
VIHIS: The Vancouver Island Head Injury Society /BIASVI: Brain Injury Association of South Vancouver Island. The brain injury association here in Victoria
Brain Injury Association of America has lots of good information and links
A good overview of TBI and its effects on the individual and the family: Middleton 2005 TBI.pdf
[Jul09] Here's Robby A page describing the problems faced by an institution dealing with the sexuality of people with brain injury. (Caution: frank language).
Learning Skills: Many students find that my course make demands that they have not encountered before. Part of this is due to the complexity of the material I teach and part is due to the importance I place on the development of academic skills - the ability to comprehend, analyze, synthesize, evaluate and apply knowledge. If you are finding that you are not doing as well as you would expect or like, one way to improve your scores (and your academic skills for all courses and your career) is to master some of the Learning Skills with the help of UVic Counselling Services and in particular, their downloadable Learning Skills Handouts which deal with such things as notes and exam taking.
How to Succeed in College (download version) Highly recommended. This 2-page article is written by the President of the American Psychological Society and consists of advice written by graduate students in a learning and memory course. Students were asked to advise younger siblings entering as freshmen on how to study and learn at University. It provides excellent advice on Taking Notes, Studying, and Preparing for and performing on an Exam. The advice is sometimes counter-intuitive, but it is extremely sound based on learning/memory research. Web version
Position on Cheating Unfortunately some students appear to be trying to gain unfair advantage in my courses by cheating. Here is an explanation of my position and my actions.
See also Teaching Philosophy below. Or funnier: Dave Barry on College (How not to teach.)
Assignment
Marking - Check your performance on assignments. (Last posting - Assignment 1
and 2)
Surveys - During the term you will be given the opportunity to tell me how you feel about my instructional methods and course content. They give you the opportunity to express yourself collectively (Agree/disagree etc) and individually (via comments). I see all the responses but no-one, including me, can tell who made the response.
Web resources
Textbook
website: Practice quizzes, other resources and demos.
Resting Membrane Potential 3 sites with good explanations.
Synaptic transmission:
www.williams.edu:803/imput/index: Synaptic transmission: Complex but complete, with animations/video
http://faculty.washington.edu/chudler/synapse.html says it is “Neuroscience for Kids” but its quite advanced (and good)
http://www.ablongman.com/html/psychplace_acts/synapse/intro.html A very good review of the synapse and synaptic function.
Receptive Fields Good tutorial
Announcements: (none yet)
Extras
Syllabus for PSYC 323 (pdf) and Probable Timetable and Schedule of Lectures and Readings (updated 09 Sep 2009)
Announcements: Will be posted here, or alternatively, in Moodle.
Course Materials (Lecture notes and homework will be posted here, or alternatively, in Moodle) Last update (November 20, 2009 )
Marks: Posted for Midterms 1 & 2 and all other scores to date. Updated 17 Nov 2009 (with 2 Midterms (corrected + makeups), 2 Multiple Choice tests and 2 bonus quizzes)
Surveys - During the term you will be given the opportunity to tell me how you feel about my instructional methods and course content. They give you the opportunity to express yourself collectively (Agree/disagree etc) and individually (via comments). I see all the responses but no-one, including me, can tell who made the response.
Extras
Note: This is a difficult and demanding course and you will definitely need the PREQs. In the first half we will be covering the textbook at the rate of one chapter per week, and there will be two assignments each week. After the 3-part midterm, each student prepares a poster, a 15-minute talk for the class, and a 10-page term paper. There is a final exam in the exam period. Please do not enroll unless you are really serious about taking the course and doing the work.
Office Hours: After class Monday and Thursday - 1:00 - 2:00 before the midterm, and before class 10:30-11:30 after the midterm..
Address for course assignments: PSYC415B@UVic.ca
Syllabus (Course Outline) Spring 2008 (19 Dec 07) (pdf):
Assignments and Materials: Specifications of assignments and materials (e.g. PDF's) that you might need to complete them. Will includes posting of paper and final exam specifications. (Last update: 28 Feb 08 ) includes Materials for Midterm
Lectures (May or may not always be posted) (Last update: 3 Mar 08 - Tips for presenting) (Includes definitions of behaviour)
Completed Assignments (last update: 15 Feb 08) Key points etc. in electronic format. Chapters 1-8.
Records: Marks on assignments and midterms. (Last update: 14 March 08) Material to post Feb 7
Extra Readings: 5 Readings about brain injury and recovery. Recommended background. 2 articles are required reading (14-Jan)
Presentation Schedule and Grade Basis The weights that will be given components of your course. Updated after class discussions.
Tips on Posters and Presentations. (Lecture notes from Thursday March 8, since I won't have time to go through them all.. Includes notes from Monday's class that I said I would post.)
Movie night: ?
Additional Materials
WebAardvark sample poster in PDF format (a modest 55
kB)
(in colour) for funny rendition of Neuroscience poster format.Teaching Philosophy: A page giving some of the principles I use and aspirations I have for my teaching. Philosophy and Techniques of University Teaching
IN DEFENSE OF THE COLLEGE LECTURE (Good lectures take good lecturing, and good listening).
THE ILLUSION OF COMPREHENSION "I studied so hard for the test. I was sure that I had it down cold. And I still got a C! How is that possible?" This essay contains some thoughts on why students think this and how testing methods contributes to this illusion, and to poor learning strategies.
TEACHING TO THE TEST "The tests didn't match the material." "Some of the material on the tests was barely mentioned in class." One of the hazards of teaching is "teaching to the test", where students are given only the material that is on the tests. Although this leads to superior performance on tests, the value of this knowledge in other arenas is negligible.
Last Revised: November 20, 2009 .
I have set up a page to help me communicate with a colleague. It should be of no interest or use to anyone else. Arena Page
Building on my background in the neural basis of learning and memory, I am presently studying recovery of cognitive function after traumatic brain injury. I continue to be interested in hippocampal mechanisms of memory and spatial cognition, but now study human cognitive processes, seeking new ways to assess recovery from cognitive losses after brain injury. My current research uses a simulation of the Morris Water Maze in virtual space to study place learning after traumatic brain injury. A recent publication in this area is:
Skelton, R.W., C. Bukach, H.E. Laurance, K.G.F. Thomas, & W. Jake Jacobs (2000) Humans with traumatic brain injuries show place learning deficits in computer-generated virtual space. Journal of Clinical and Experimental Neuropsychology, 22, 157-175
I am also involved in developing an interview-based outcome measure for brain injury. This Functional Outcome Profile explores over 60 areas of a survivor's life, quantifying the impact of the brain injury on their everyday functioning at home and in the community and getting them to rate their satisfaction with different aspects of their family, social and spiritual life. The profile also examines the impact of the injury on people involved in the survivors life and care, obtaining a second view of the frequency of problems and a new perspective of the impact of the injury on other peoples' lives. A recent conference presentation on this is:
Skelton, R.W., Joschko, M.J. and Kodalen, K.M. (2001) Brain
Injury: The Impact on Survivors and Families as Assessed by the Functional
Outcome Profile (FOP).
"Men ought to know that from nothing else but thence [from the brain] come joys, delights, laughter and sports, and sorrows, griefs, despondency, and lamentations. And by this, in an special manner, we acquire wisdom and knowledge, and see and hear, and know what are foul and what are fair, what are bad and what are good, what are sweet and what unsavory. . . . And by the same organ we become mad and delirious, and fears and terrors assail us, . . . . All these things we endure from the brain, when it is not healthy . . . In these ways I am of opinion that the brain exercises the greatest power in the man." Hippocrates, On the Sacred Disease, 4th Century, B.C.E.
Virtual Reality Brain Project: Interesting site. Rotatable dissections of the brain, with labeled Hot spots. As the site says, "Using QuickTime Virtual Reality Technology, you will be able to interact with several human brain dissections. These "VR Brains" can be resized, rotated in all directions, and certain areas can be selected allowing you to identify structures of particular interest."
3-D Brain Anatomy From PBS.org. A fun and simple overview of brain anatomy and function. See also The Secret Life of the Brain for episodes on brain development.
'Basic brain information' useful to people new to brain injury or students new to the brain.
Neuroscience
for Kids: Information here is simple and fun.
There are some neat FAQs answered
here, including, "Do
we use only 10% of our brains?"
The Digital Anatomist: This site describes a really neat product (that I use in my lectures) in which a brain has been digitized and rendered into 3D. There are lots of interesting things to explore, but one of the best are the Movies of the the parts of the brain and the limbic system, which you can access quickly from the page listing the available movies or the movie of Explode Brain. (Note: these movies are 3-7Mb so you should have a decent connection to download and a decent system to view them.)
Parts of the Brain, by "Pinky and The Brain"
(Cartoon Movie) or Pinky and the Brain's "Brainstem"
on the Web. The Words.
Fun and reasonably accurate but
too fast to learn from. You can check your knowledge against it.
Neuroanatomy Tutorials Interactive tutorial using sheep brain sections (photographic) and multiple-choice questions. Good and basic.
About Brain Injury: A site built for people who have a loved one in a coma. Lots of basic information about comas and brain injury. A very good introduction to Brain Anatomy. (If you know someone in a coma, you may want to start at their home page, "While you are waiting".)
There are also sites from the brain injury associations local to Victoria. These sites have some general information plus lots of links to other brain injury sites. There's the Brain (Injury) Associations of BC and the Brain Injury Association of South Vancouver Island (Formerly Vancouver Island Head Injury Association).
There are lots of other sites. One, Neuroanatomy/pathology on the Internet, has dozens of links to anatomy sites. Brainlinks from University of Bergen (in German, but mostly English Links) has atlases, images, tutorials, and more. Neuropsychology central has links to anatomy as well as to neuropsychological tests and other items of interest to neuropsychologists. The University of Utah medical School has an Internet Pathology Course with a Tutorial on Neuroanatomy that shows anatomical locations on real (dead) tissue (not for the squeamish). More detail than most people need, but it can be helpful as self test. The Human Brain: Dissections of the Real Brain provides many detailed views of the brain with drawings beside them labeling may parts.
BRAIN
MAP. This article describes some of the common effects of damage to specific
areas of the brain. Basic anatomy but comprehensive in terms of disorders that
result from Brain injury.
THE
WHOLE BRAIN ATLAS. Various brain scans - Real (2D) images. Tremendous brain
atlas, visuals are terrific, the depth is superb. From Harvard, and it is worthy
of Harvard. This is the web at its best; very technical but you can learn at
your own pace, through text and visuals.
THE
ANATOMY OF A HEAD INJURY. This article describes what happens to the brain
as a result of trauma. (All text, no pictures)
MCH
NEUROLOGY WEB FORUM. This is an attempt to start an interactive, online
discussion about various Neurology-related topics. On going, unscheduled chats
on a number of neurology related topics. User friendly page. (You'll need to
click the link on the first page that pops up.)
1. Directions
and Planes of Section (From Neuroscience for Kids) (Good basic
info. Game is good for name recognition, not for understanding)
2. Neuroanatomy
lecture (PDF) A different lecture (PDF) on anatomy (By Dawei Dong). Good
info at good level.
Roots of Neuroscience Terms Knowing where the terms come from can help you remember what they mean.
Memory Loss and the Brain Newsletter An informative newsletter published 2-3 times a year with practical news and tips for improving memory or preventing its decline. Valuable for students, people with brain injuries, and people who are aging. (Like who isn't!)
Can Neurobiology Teach us Anything about Consciousness- An essay by "Neuro-Philosopher" Patricia Smith Churchland about why it is worth studying the nervous system to understand behaviour, cognition and even consciousness.
CORTEX: SPECIAL ISSUE ON: CONSCIOUSNESS, MIND AND THE BRAIN October, 2005.
"We only use 10% of our brains" myth. For information on this myth, click here.
UF SCIENTIST: “BRAIN” IN A DISH ACTS AS AUTOPILOT, LIVING COMPUTER Story here
Is
That a Pilot in Your Pocket? (Same story but with cool links to other
stories)
(25,000 neurons in a dish control a flight simulator)
Transforming Thoughts Into Deeds
Changing Dogma: New Tricks for the Old Brain (Neurogenesis in Adult Humans) Neuroscience for kids site. Good explanations, with links to more complex material.
(Nov '07) A Hypothesis About the Role of Adult Neurogenesis in Hippocampal Function (2004 review)
(Aug '05) Halle Berry and Jennifer Aniston cells in the human hippocampus. Nature, June 2005 Adds new spice to the debate about "grandmother" cells.
(Jan 2006) How media depictions of Coma recovery mislead the public: Newspaper article "Little sign of brain activity in soap-opera coma cases" or
(without the cleavage) the scientific publication "Epidemiology and prognosis of coma in daytime television dramas" (British Medical Journal).
(May 06) The Brain from Top to Bottom Click the picture of Da Vinci's "Man" and choose your level of knowledge (beginner, intermediate or advanced) and the organizational level you are interested in (5 levels from molecular to social).
(May 06) Brain Functions and Map. Click here for a more detailed look at functional anatomy. Good for 215A, 323, 415B and others)
(Feb 07) www.wiredtowinthemovie.com/
(May 07) Bike Helmets save Lives (or the CNN link)
(April 08) Internet Stroke Center, with several interesting subsections including
(April
2008) Jill
Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight:
A description of what it felt like to have a stroke by a neuroanatomist.
Very interesting (though I'm not sure that someone who studies left-brain,
right-brain would agree with her description of their relative functions)
(Note: Does not work with Firefox)
(April
2008) Michael
Shermer: Why people believe strange things This is a general discussion of
the difference between science and pseudo-science (like crop circles and
intelligent design). Good for any scientist - established or in-training.
Note:
Does not work with Firefox)
(October 2008) How Comas Work Good overview of comas, the brain and how they are rated, for non-scientists.
(October 2008) Memories aren't made of this: amnesia at the movies How Hollywood misrepresents traumatically induced amnesia.
E-mail: skelton @ UVic . ca (remove spaces, eh?)
Web address: You are here already! To come back, come to http://web.uvic.ca/psyc/skelton
Office phone: 250-721-8711 Fax: 250-721-8929
Office Hours:
Mailing Address:
Department of Psychology
University of Victoria
Box 3050
Victoria, BC
V8W 3P5
I am married with 2
children. I have a number of hobbies and
interests, including tennis, computer.jpg)
games, camping, and have been known to
coach my son or daughter's soccer teams.
I have also been know to be hairier.
I am past president of the Vancouver Island Head Injury
Society - now called the Victoria Brain Injury Society (VBIS)
The
following link is for the benefit of our Board. Introduction to Volunteer Sector Knowledge Network
Last Revised: 11/20/2009 . For corrections please contact skelton @ uvic.ca (remove spaces)
So far there have been this many visits to this site:
