About
Lisa Saksida’s research focuses on memory and perception, using several converging methods of inquiry including localized pharmacological methods, transgenic and knock- out mice and computational modelling.
She also has a particular interest in the development of translational methods for cognitive assessment, and 20 years’ experience in the assessment and analysis of high-level cognition in animal models including mouse, rat and rhesus macaque. Since 2000, Saksida has worked on the development of a touchscreen-based cognitive assessment system specifically for mouse models. This system allows for a comprehensive cognitive phenotyping of mouse models, assessing multiple aspects of cognition using tasks that are highly translatable to human patients.
Awards
- Sir James Lougheed Award of Distinction, 1998
- Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute Scholarship, 1994
- NATO Advanced Study Institute Scholarship, 1993
Relevant Publications
Nithianantharajah, J., McKechanie, A.G., Stewart, T.J.,…Saksida, L.M. (2015). Bridging the translational divide: identical cognitive touchscreen testing in mice and humans carrying mutations in a disease-relevant homologous gene. Scientific Reports, 5(14613). DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/srep14613
Nithianantharajah, J., Komiyama, N. H., McKechanie, A.,…Saksida, L., et al. (2013). Synaptic scaffold evolution generated components of vertebrate cognitive complexity. Nature Neuroscience, 16(1), 16–24. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3276
Barense, M.D., Groen, I., Lee, A.C.,… Saksida, L., et al. (2012). Intact memory for irrelevant information impairs perception in amnesia. Neuron, 75(1), 157–67. DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2012.05.014.
McTighe, S.M., Cowell, R.A., Winters, B.D., Bussey, T.J., Saksida, L.M. (2010). Paradoxical false memory for objects after brain damage. Science, 330(6009), 1408–1410. DOI: 10.1126/science.1194780
Cowell, R., Bussey, T., Saksida, L. (2010). Functional dissociations within the ventral object processing pathway: cognitive modules or a hierarchical continuum? Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 22(11), 2460–2479. DOI: 10.1162/jocn.2009.21373.
Support Us
CIFAR is a registered charitable organization supported by the governments of Canada, Alberta and Quebec, as well as foundations, individuals, corporations and Canadian and international partner organizations.