Associate Professor David Copland

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Email: d.copland@uq.edu.au

Research Interests

The Language Neuroscience Laboratory (LNL) conducts research into the brain mechanisms underlying healthy language processing, language disorders, and language treatment and recovery. Language processing is investigated in the following populations: stroke, Parkinson's disease, dementia, schizophrenia, Huntington's disease, and children with developmental language and literacy disorders. Research themes centre on the neurocognition of language and include cortical versus subcortical language mechanisms, neuroplasticity, pharmacological modulation of language, interactions between cognition and language, and hemispheric contributions to language. Techniques employed include psycholinguistic behavioural tasks (including semantic priming and lexical decision), functional MRI, event-related potentials (EEG), pharmacological challenge, and divided visual paradigms. Our facilities include a 128 channel Geodesics EEG system, dedicated psycholinguistic testing facilities (for groups and individuals), and access to a 4 Tesla Bruker MRI scanner through our collaborations with Katie McMahon and Greig de Zubicaray at the Centre for Magnetic Resonance, UQ. Our group has obtained over $5.6 million in competitive research funding with colleagues, and our work on aphasia is part of the NHMRC CCRE in Aphasia Rehabilitation (Director: Prof Linda Worrall).

Research Projects

Neurorehabilitation and neuroplasticity - By using functional and structural neuroimaging to understand the brain mechanisms underlying language disorders and their recovery and treatment, diagnostic markers for recovery and response to treatment can be identified and more targeted and effective rehabilitation can be delivered. The effects of deep-brain stimulation treatment in Parkinson's disease are also being investigated.

Pharmacotherapy - Pharmacotherapy for neurogenic cognitive and communication disorders holds significant potential but is virtually untapped and its neurobiological basis is unknown. Our team has identified some of the neural mechanisms engaged during dopaminergic modulation of language and we have obtained preliminary evidence that certain drugs paired with behavioural treatment can significantly boost gains made above those seen when language treatment is given alone.

Developing new behavioural treatments of communication disorders - New treatments and management approaches are being developed utilising (1) hemispheric manipulations of attention and language in aphasia, and (2) new memory and communication training procedures for individuals with dementia and their carers.

Team Members

Professor Helen Chenery, Dr Tony Angwin , Dr Wendy Arnott , Dr Elizabeth Cardell , Dr Rosemary Baker, Dr Anna Holmes, Dr Erin Smith, Sam Siyambalapitiya, Shiree Heath, Carole-Ann Greig, Sophie Van Hees, Keely Harper-Hill, Kieran Flanagan.

Collaborators

Dr Katie McMahon, Dr Greig de Zubicaray, Professor Peter Silburn, A/Prof Ross Cunnington, Professor Mike Humphreys, Professor Cindy Gallois, A/Prof Nancy Pachana, Dr Andrew Bradley, Dr Paul Meehan, Dr Wayne Wilson, A/Professor Lyndsey Nickels (Macquarie University), Professor Bruce Crosson (University of Florida), Dr Brad McPherson (University of Hong Kong).

Potential PhD topics

A range of PhD topics are available including the following:

  • Pharmacotherapy for aphasia
  • Mapping the neural mechanisms of language treatment in aphasia
  • Neurophysiological markers of language recovery in acute stroke
  • Influence of deep brain stimulation on language in Parkinson's disease
  • Potential language markers of depression and dementia in Parkinson's disease
  • ERP indices of developmental reading and language disorders and treatment

Select Publications

Copland, D. A., McMahon, K. L., Silburn, P. A., & De Zubicaray, G. I. (2009). Dopaminergic neuromodulation of semantic processing: A 4-T fMRI study with levodopa. Cerebral Cortex, 19(11), 2651-2658.

Kelly, C., De Zubicaray, G., Di Martino, A., Copland, D. A., Reiss, P. T., Klein, D. F., Castellanos, F.X., Milham,M.P. & McMahon, K.(2009). L-dopa modulates functional connectivity in striatal cognitive and motor networks: A double-blind placebo-controlled study. Journal of Neuroscience, 29(22), 7364-7378.

Copland, D. (2003). The basal ganglia and semantic engagement: Potential insights from semantic priming in individuals with subcortical vascular lesions, Parkinson's disease, and cortical lesions. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 9, 1041-1052.

Copland, D., de Zubicaray, G., McMahon, K., Wilson, S., Eastburn, M., & Chenery, H. (2003). Brain activity during automatic semantic priming revealed by event-related fMRI. Neuroimage 20, 302-310.

Angwin, A., Chenery, H., Copland, D., Arnott, A., Murdoch, B., & Silburn, P. (2004). Dopamine and semantic activation: An investigation of masked direct and indirect priming. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 10, 15-25.

Angwin, A. J., Copland, D. A., Chenery, H. J., Murdoch, B. E., & Silburn, P. A. (2006) The influence of dopamine on semantic activation in Parkinson's disease. Neuropsychology. 20, 299-306.

Castner, J.E., Chenery, H.J., Copland, D.A., Coyne, T.J., Sinclair, F., and Silburn, P.A. (2007) Semantic and Affective Priming as a Function of Stimulation of the Subthalamic Nucleus in Parkinson's Disease. Brain, 130, 1395-1407.

Copland, D.A., de Zubicaray, G.I., McMahon, K., Eastburn, M. (2007). Neural correlates of semantic priming for ambiguous words: An event-related fMRI study. Brain Research, 1131, 163-172.

Whiting, E., Chenery, H.J., Chalk, J., & Copland, D. (2007) Dexamphetamine enhances explicit new word learning for novel objects. Int. Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 10, 805-816.

Whiting, E., Chenery, H.J., Chalk, J., and Copland, D. (2007) Dexamphetamine boosts naming treatment effects in chronic aphasia. Journal of International Neuropsychological Society, 13, 972-979.

Castner, J.E., Copland, D.A., Coyne, T.J., Sinclair, F., Silburn, P.A. Chenery, H.J. (2007) Lexical-semantic inhibitory mechanisms in Parkinson's disease: Stimulation of the subthalamic nucleus modulates behavioural inhibition but not interference control. Neuropsychologia, 45, 3167-3177

Gadsby, N., Arnott, W., & Copland, D. A. (2008) Lexical ambiguity resolution and working memory. Neuropsychology, 22, 209-216.

Whiting, E., Chenery, H.J., Chalk, J., Darnell, R. & Copland, D. (2008).The explicit learning of new names for known objects is improved by dexamphetamine. Brain & Language, 104, 254-61.

Castner, J.E., Chenery, H.J., Smith, E.R., Coyne, T.J., Sinclair, F., Silburn, P.A., and Copland, D.A. (2008). The effects of subthalamic deep brain stimulation on noun/verb generation and selection from competing alternatives in Parkinson's disease. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 79, 700-705.

Holmes, A., Chenery, H.J., & Copland, D.A. (2008). Transdermal nicotine modulates strategy-based attentional semantic processing in non-smokers. International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology, 11, 389-399.

Funding Acknowledgment

NHMRC, ARC, ANZ Trustees, UQ Foundation.