I visited Western University in London, Ontario during the middle of their snowy winter in February 2013. The purpose of my visit was to meet Dr. Adrian Owen, a neuroscientist and Canada Excellence Research Chair in Cognitive Neuroscience and Imaging, laid the groundwork for leading-edge research showing residual brain function in brain-injury patients who are unconscious. My first conversation with Dr. Owen was on the telephone when he was interviewing me as a candidate for my current postdoctoral fellow position. I work in close collaboration with Dr. Owen for my research on neuroimaging and disordered states of conscious at the National Core for Neuroethics in Vancouver. From my diligent background reading on Dr. Owen, I began to appreciate him for his accomplishments as an international (British) scholar and as a celebrity scientist. Needless to say, I went from feeling nervous planning my visit to being star struck at our first handshake. My anxiety dissolved when I saw how approachable and unassuming he was. Here I will share my conversation with Dr. Adrian Owen.

Can you describe the direction of your research from the beginning?

I started my academic life as a neuropsychologist. As an undergraduate, I was very fascinated by the whole idea that you could work out what a particular part of the brain does by examining a patient who has lost that function in that particular part of the brain and working out what they can’t do – and that is the central of neuropsychology. Read the rest of this entry »