Melanie MacGillivray

Scott Travis

B.Sc. (Hon) Psychology, University of New Brunswick, 2013
Master’s Student in Neuroscience
mcmacgil@ualberta.ca

 

I have had an interest in the brain and its inner workings for as long as I can remember. 

During my bachelor’s degree I completed a research project looking at memory for faces. We compared electrical brain activity across different conditions using event-related potentials. There was differential activation by participants for faces of well known vs unknown individuals.

After graduating I spent a year working at the Alzheimer Society of New Brunswick as a Regional Coordinator. I was responsible for fundraising, education and family support. In my time as Regional Coordinator I learned a lot about Dementia & Dementia care. My grandmother had Alzheimer’s disease so it was also a cause close to my heart. The experience altogether inspired me to do what I can for dementia patients, their families and the aging population.

Putting my interests together, graduate studies in Neuroscience was the best decision - researching the aging brain. When I came upon Dr. Nikolai Malykhin’s research I was very excited as it matched my interests completely. Currently, I am working on a project where I will be using fMRI to look at memory in the aging hippocampus.

Melanie Pic