Prof Karen Caeyenberghs

Professor Karen Caeyenberghs is a psychologist and neuroscientist. Her research interests are focused on mechanisms underlying neuroplasticity in brain-injured patients using a multidisciplinary approach, spanning the behavioural sciences and the cognitive neurosciences with a specific focus on the study of brain structure and connectivity using medical imaging technologies. Her contributions include publishing the first studies using diffusion MRI in children with TBI; developing novel home-based training programs for brain injured populations (BrainGames and CogMo); providing the first evidence of chronic cognitive impairments from a disconnection syndrome perspective; and publishing some of the first brain-wide maps of dynamic structural connectivity changes with training and disease progression. She holds an NHMRC Career Development Fellowship, with a focus on the underlying mechanisms of secondary injury of traumatic brain injury.   Professor Caeyenberghs is the Program Leader for Microstructural Imaging and Rehabilitative Plasticity at the Cognitive Neuroscience Unit and she leads the paediatric moderate-severe TBI consortium (enigma.ini.usc.edu/ongoing/enigma-tbi/) examining the impact of brain injury on the developing brain. She has previously worked at the Australian Catholic University, University of Ghent, Cardiff University Brain Research Imaging Center, and Catholic University of Leuven. Professor Caeyenberghs has authored over 90 scientific articles in high-impact international peer-reviewed journals (e.g., Brain, Neuroimage, Developmental Science, Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, Journal of Neuroscience) and she has acted as a reviewer for over 20 academic journals. She has received over $2.5million in research funding. Bodies that have funded her research include the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the Flanders Fund for Scientific Research (FWO).