April 8, 2026
We are pleased to present the list of Douglas Research Centre trainees who have been awarded CIHR Postdoctoral Research Awards. The Canada Postdoctoral Research Award (CPRA) program recognizes and supports the next generation of outstanding innovators, knowledge workers, creative thinkers and researchers at a pivotal time in their careers. The program provides funding and flexibility, empowering Canadian and international leaders in innovation and scholarship of tomorrow to develop the skills to build world-class research and drive Canadian prosperity and competitiveness.
Arabella Bouzigues (Montembeault & Ducharme Labs)
Digital speech and language features, their cross linguistic validity and neural correlates in frontotemporal dementia
Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a group of brain diseases affecting behaviour and language due to damage to the frontal and temporal lobes. Around 30% of cases are caused by inherited genetic mutations, allowing researchers to study individuals before symptoms appear. Language problems, particularly speech difficulties, are a core feature of FTD and have traditionally been assessed using structured tests such as object naming or reading. New digital speech analysis tools can now automatically record and analyse everyday speech, capturing subtle features that may indicate very early disease-related changes. This study uses these tools to identify early speech markers in people with genetic FTD, including individuals who have not yet developed symptoms. We will examine which speech changes are shared across languages and which are language specific. Speech data are combined with brain MRI scans and cognitive assessments to identify the brain regions associated with these changes and to track how disease-related damage spreads over time. The study includes multilingual participants and over 700 speech recordings from patients with FTD, presymptomatic mutation carriers and healthy controls. Participants complete three speech tasks: reciting the days of the week, describing a picture and discussing a recent holiday. By comparing groups, we aim to detect early speech changes that predict future clinical profiles and cognitive decline, supporting earlier diagnosis and better-targeted interventions for FTD.
Axel Constant Pruvost (Palaniyappan Lab)
Integrating digital and computational phenotyping in precision psychiatry
Precision medicine is changing healthcare by giving patients treatments tailored to their unique biology, using measurable signs called biomarkers. This approach is expected to greatly improve care and is projected to become a global market worth over $650 billion by 2034. But in psychiatry, this approach has limits. Mental health problems are not only biological, they are also influenced by people’s experiences, emotions, and social environment. Precision medicine as applied to psychiatry often reduces all these complex conditions to brain factors, leaving out the bigger picture. To address this, researchers are turning to an approach to biomarker research called Digital phenotyping. Digital phenotyping is the use of data from smartphones and wearables to develop “digital” markers that track subtle signs of mental health, like changes in sleep, movement, communication, or social activity. Building on this, the Causal Dynamic Markers for Precision Psychiatry project is producing fundamental research on a new class of digital markers, called Causal Dynamic Digital Markers (CDDMs). Using advanced computational modelling methods, CDDMs do not simply capture static data; they model how biological, psychological, or social factors interact and change over time to shape illness trajectories.
Saige Power (Tritsch Lab)
Devising a novel dopamine-replacement therapy for Parkinson’s disease
Parkinson’s disease (PD), characterized by loss of dopamine neurons, has no cure. In advanced PD, current standard of care treatments lose their therapeutic benefit, causing motor complications that severely lower quality of life. This change occurs when the brain is severely deprived of dopamine. Preventing this maladaptive change would be clinically powerful in extending the therapeutic window of PD treatments. We propose a strategy to prevent this change by tricking the brain into believing dopamine is still around. In light of recent work from our lab, this strategy may not only mitigate motor complications late in disease, but may alleviate motor impairments altogether, providing a novel therapy for PD at all stages. Here, we propose to test both of these hypotheses. Since motor deficits arise from brain dysfunctions secondary to dopamine loss, we aim to maintain healthy brain activity by mimicking dopamine. We hypothesize that introducing engineered receptors that engage a “dopamine-like” signal will (Aim 1) prevent the maladaptive changes that arise when the brain is severely deprived of dopamine, and (Aim 2) protect against motor complications and movement deficits. We will deliver a gene therapy to introduce the engineered replacement receptor into two preclinical mouse models of PD and test its effectiveness in preventing brain activity dysfunctions and motor impairments. The proposed work aims to identify a completely novel therapeutic strategy for PD, bypassing the limitations of current treatments that focus on supplying dopamine. Exploring this novel therapeutic mechanism may be a powerful strategy not only for PD but may also be applied to combatting other neurodegenerative conditions.
Tiana Wei (Palaniyappan Lab)
Brain Rhythms Behind Disorganized Speech in Schizophrenia
Schizophrenia affects about 300,000 Canadians, and up to 80% live with thought disorder, a symptom that can make speech disorganized, vague, or hard to follow. This communication difficulty disrupts relationships, daily functioning, and recovery, yet there are no reliable tools to measure it or guide treatment. New advances in computer analysis of language, known as natural language processing (NLP), can now detect subtle changes in speech, offering a powerful way to track thought disorder. What we do not yet know is what is happening in the brain to cause these speech changes. Our brains work through rhythmic activity called neural oscillations. Beta oscillations, in particular, can help us keep track of context and avoid going off-topic when speaking. When beta activity is disrupted, people may lose their conversational focus. This project will measure brain activity in people with and without schizophrenia using magnetoencephalography (MEG), a non-invasive brain imaging method, while they listen to and produce speech. We will also record natural conversation and analyze it with NLP tools. We expect to find that changes in beta oscillations are linked to more severe speech symptoms. Understanding the brain basis of thought disorder will open the door to new treatments, including brain stimulation approaches targeted to restore healthy oscillations. This research will improve the lives of individuals, ease the burden on families, and help the healthcare system deliver more effective, symptom-focused care.
Congratulations to the recipients of this prestigious award!