Dr Daniel Blackburn

BSc, MBChB, MRCP, PhD

Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Population Health

Senior Lecturer

Honorary Consultant Neurologist

d.blackburn@sheffield.ac.uk
+44 114 215 9101

Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)

Full contact details

Dr Daniel Blackburn
Neuroscience, School of Medicine and Population Health
Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)
385a Glossop Road
Sheffield
S10 2HQ

Profile

I completed my undergraduate medical degree in Liverpool in 1998 and did my medical training in London. I have worked as a neurology SpR in Singapore and Nottingham prior to joining the University of Sheffield as a PhD student in 2005.

I worked as a clinical lecturer in Neurology from 2010-2013.I have been a senior lecturer since 2018. My main subspecialty interest is in dementia.

Research interests

My research interests are into developing non-invasive scalable diagnostic tests for early dementia or cognitive impairment. I am investigating novel mechanisms of diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, post-stroke dementia and other dementias using automated assessment of language & electroencephalography (EEG).

I co-lead the development of CognoSpeak^TM(cognospeak.com) with Heidi Christensen from UoS Department of Computer Science (https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/dcs). This is an automated assessment of Cognition that can be undertaken in people’s own homes. We have several on-going grants to develop this for use in Memory Assessment Pathways (MAP) and in the post-stroke population

I am working on novel resting state EEG processing approach to detect cognitive impairment.

I am investigating the utility of telematics to assess driving safety.

I also have a research interest in the role of astrocytes in neurodegeneration. My PhD investigated this in MND and I am part of a team investigating an in-vitro model of sporadic AD using inducible Neural Precursor Technology to grow astrocytes and neurones from people with sporadic AD and assay metabolic markers.

Current Projects

PI: University of Sheffield, Participatory Research. Feb-July 2023. Co-evaluation of partnership working to develop AI dementia detection health technology. £14,030

PI:INIHR i4i grant. CognoSpeak: a Cognitive Health Assessment Tool (CcHAT). £1.47M. 36 months. Start date 01.02.2022

COEN6011: Investigating neuronal hyperactivity as a link between amyloid-β and tau spreading in Alzheimer’s disease (NeurActAmy) Submitted Dec 2022- Successful

KE Funding application, £22,904 of EPSRC funding awarded to support project: ‘Establishing medical device regulatory appropriate software development at TUoS: Establish and trial an eQMS solution for CognoSpeak (CognoSpeak-eQMS)’. Dec 2022-June 2023.

Alzheimer Research UK Local Network grant, Investigating Barriers to Accessing Memory Pathways for people from South Asian background and exploring acceptability of CognoSpeak (automated cognitive assessment tool). Hina Khan, Dr Gregor Russell and Iftikhar Khan (Bradford District Care NHS Foundation Trust) & Dr Daniel Blackburn £5000. March 2023- Feb 2024

NIHR HSDR: Improving triadic decision making involving people with dementia. Led by Traci Walker (co-applicants Markus Reuber, Simon Bell, Alistair Wardrope). Start date 01.10.2022- 30.09.202. £525,092.89.

NIHR Three Schools: Dementia Research Programme. Improving the lives of people living with dementia and carers 2021-2024. Dementia Career Development Awards: Establishing a dementia related research career and writing a research funding proposal focused on developing a complex intervention to support the wellbeing of people with mild cognitive impairment, using a public health approach. Start date 01.06.2022- 31.06.2023; £36,145

Equal, diverse and inclusive primary care research delivery (EDI-PCR delivery). Jon Dickson, Professor Liddy Goyder, Professor Adewale Adebajo MBE, Jodie Keyworth, Dr Dan Blackburn, Steve Knight, Professor Simon Heller, Dr Dipak Patel, Professor Chris Newman, Karen French, Ian Baxter. Start date March 2022- End date July 2022. £30K

UKRI ISCF Healthy Ageing Catalyst Award 2020; Understanding elderly drivers' behaviour and fitness to drive. £62,500

Rosetrees Charity INTERDISCIPLINARY PRIZE 2019
MEDICINE WITH MATHEMATICS / COMPUTING / ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE COMPutational Assessment of Stroke Survivors (COMPASS) £250,000 (co-funded with Knowledge Exchange,(UoS), Clinical Research Network Yorkshire & Humber,

Health & Care Partnership, Sheffield. Remote monitoring people with Mild Cognitive Impairment using combined technology of the Digital Doctor and ViVA £24,774 2019-2021.

Health Education England/NIHR Integrated Clinical Academic Programme Internship Scheme 2019/20. £8000. Zoe Unwin, EEG physiologist.

Global Challenge Research Fund (GCRF) Pump Priming Award Notification (£7,000), 2018. Investigating potential of QEEG and digital doctor in memory assessment pathways in Kenya

Medical Research Council Confidence in Concept. COCOA (COmputerised Cognitive Assessment) – proof-of-concept. 2018-19. £49,513

4wardNorth Wellcome Academy PhD Training Fellowship to fund Dr Simon Bell’s PhD project- Characterising astrocyte metabolic deficits in sporadic and familial AD to identify new therapeutic targets. 2018-2020.

Neuroscience Research fund- Ryder Briggs (£32,000) March 2017-19. Developing qEEG as biomarker in fronto-temporal dementia.

ARUK: ARUK-PPG2018A-009: Neutrophil derived microvesicles: linking systemic inflammation and dementia. PI Julie Simpson. 2018-19.

Neuroscience small grant from Sheffield teaching Hospital’s- to fund Academic Clinical Fellow Ronan O’Malley develop the Avatar project to analyse semantic and letter fluency using Automatic Speech Recognition- 2018. (£3200)

Alzheimer research UK Preparatory Clinical Research Fellowship (ARUK-PCRF2016A-1: £69998- Jan 2016). Creating an Astrocyte model of Alzheimer’s disease using induced Neural Progenitor Cell Technology PI is Simon Bell who is my academic clinical fellow I am supervising. Collaboration with Professor Stephen Wharton, Drs Laura Ferraiuolo and Heather Mortiboys.

NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme. 14/140/80 Journeying through dementia; randomised controlled trial of clinical and cost effectiveness. 2015-2019. (£2,017,925). Collaboration with ScHARR and Sheffield Health and Social Care Trust

NIHR Research Design Service Yorkshire and Humber (RDS YH) public involvement in grant application to develop Public and patient acceptability and co-design input on the Avatar project (£480) 2018.

Medical Research Council Proximity to Discovery (MRC P2D: £4,988). Development of a novel biomarker for dementia diagnosis based on quantitative electroencephalography (qEEG). 2015-2016. Collaboration between neurophysiology and a commercial partner the BlackBox Toolkit company

Alzheimer’s Research United Kingdom (ARUK-PPG20114B-25) 2014-2016 (£29,805). Plus Yorkshire branch of the Alzheimer’s Research Trust Network. 2015 (£4000). Both ARUK grants are for ‘Developing a new biomarker for the early diagnosis of dementia; a novel non-linear signal processing approach using resting state EEG’

NIHR Research for Patient Benefit (RfPB) Programme: PB-PG-0211-24079 – Using Conversation Analysis in the Differential Diagnosis of Memory Problems: a pilot study. 2013-2015. (£230,000).

Publications

Journal articles

Windeatt-Harrison IL, Walker T, Bell SM, Blackburn D, Dickson JM, Jones S, Wardrope A & Reuber M (2024) The First Step in Triadic Decision-Making Involving People with Dementia: Determining Who Talks When. Research on Language and Social Interaction, 57(4), 399-416.
Manzoni C, Kia DA, Ferrari R, Leonenko G, Costa B, Saba V, Jabbari E, Tan MMX, Albani D, Alvarez V , Alvarez I et al (2024) Genome-wide analyses reveal a potential role for the MAPT, MOBP, and APOE loci in sporadic frontotemporal dementia. The American Journal of Human Genetics.
Mirheidari B, Bell SM, Harkness K, Blackburn D & Christensen H (2024) Spoken language-based automatic cognitive assessment of stroke survivors. Language and Health.
Cao J, Yang L, Sarrigiannis PG, Blackburn D & Zhao Y (2024) Dementia classification using a graph neural network on imaging of effective brain connectivity. Computers in Biology and Medicine, 168, 107701-107701.
Blackburn DJ, Bell SM, Harkness K, O'Malley R, Chapman L, Lunn I, Mirheidari B & Christensen H (2023) Feasibility of longitudinal automated cognitive assessment in the stroke pathway. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 19(S14).
Blackburn DJ, Sproson L, Egbuta C, Bell SM, O'Malley R, Mirheidari B, Pevy N & Christensen H (2023) Developing an automated Cognitive assessment based on language; CognoSpeak‐ working with an ethnic minority group. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 19(S20).
Bell SM, Wareing H, Hamshaw A, De S, New E, Shaw P, De Marco M, Venneri A, Blackburn DJ, Ferraiuolo L & Mortiboys H (2023) Deficits in mitochondrial function and glucose metabolism seen in sporadic and familial Alzheimer’s disease derived Astrocytes are ameliorated by increasing hexokinase 1. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 19(S13).
Walker G, Walker T, O'Malley R, Mirheidari B, Christensen H, Reuber M & Blackburn D (2023) Features of answers to questions about recent events by people with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer’s disease, and healthy controls. Journal of Interactional Research in Communication Disorders, 14(3), 408-429. View this article in WRRO
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis P (2023) Adaptive Gated Graph Convolutional Network for Explainable Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease using EEG Data.. IEEE Trans Neural Syst Rehabil Eng, PP.
Walker G, Pevy N, O'Malley R, Mirheidari B, Reuber M, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2023) Speech patterns in responses to questions asked by an intelligent virtual agent can help to distinguish between people with early stage neurodegenerative disorders and healthy controls. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. View this article in WRRO
Marco MD, Blackburn DJ, O'Malley R & Venneri A (2023) Differences between healthy adults and mild cognitive impairment patients in Category Fluency performance: A scoring method based on words’ Serial Recall Order and item‐level features. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 19(S4).
Gunawardena R, Sarrigiannis PG, Blackburn DJ & He F (2023) Kernel-based Nonlinear Manifold Learning for EEG-based Functional Connectivity Analysis and Channel Selection with Application to Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuroscience.
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis PG (2023) Cross-Frequency Multilayer Network Analysis with Bispectrum-based Functional Connectivity: A Study of Alzheimer’s Disease. Neuroscience, 521, 77-88.
Mummery CJ, Börjesson-Hanson A, Blackburn DJ, Vijverberg EGB, De Deyn PP, Ducharme S, Jonsson M, Schneider A, Rinne JO, Ludolph AC , Bodenschatz R et al (2023) Tau-targeting antisense oligonucleotide MAPTRx in mild Alzheimer’s disease: a phase 1b, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Nature Medicine, 1-11.
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis P (2022) EEG-based graph neural network classification of Alzheimer’s disease: an empirical evaluation of functional connectivity methods. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering, 30, 2651-2660.
Bell S, Harkness K, Roman M, Gardner J, Richards E, Howe J, Sikaonga M, Mirheidari B, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2022) 050 Feasibility of an automated assessment to measure cognition and mood in the acute stroke setting. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 93(9), e2.246-e2.246.
Cao J, Zhao Y, Shan X, Blackburn D, Wei J, Erkoyuncu JA, Chen L & Sarrigiannis PG (2022) Ultra-high-resolution time-frequency analysis of EEG to characterise brain functional connectivity with the application in Alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Neural Engineering, 19(4), 046034-046034.
Sproson L, Mills N, Pryde L, Adebajo A, Coyle D, Preston J, Blackburn D, Christensen H & Lanfranchi V (2022) Keeping patient and public partnership at the heart of medical technology development during Covid-19 : examples of adaptive practice. Journal of Medical Engineering & Technology.
Manca R, De Marco M, Colston A, Raymont V, Amin J, Davies R, Kumar P, Russell G, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A (2022) The impact of social isolation due to COVID-19 on symptom progression in people with dementia : findings of the SOLITUDE study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 13.
Manca R, De Marco M, Blackburn DJ, Russell G, Evans K, Kirkland S, Amin J, Davies L, Firth C, Raymont V , Colston A et al (2021) Study protocol: SOcial LImitations Turn Up DEmentia (SOLITUDE)—Impact of COVID‐19 social isolation on patients’ cognition and mental health and on carers’ wellbeing. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 17(S7).
Brewer E, Mirheidari B, O'Malley R, Reuber M, Christensen H & Blackburn DJ (2021) Characterising spoken interactions of healthy ageing adults with CognoSpeak, a web‐based cognitive assessment tool. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 17(S5).
Manca R, De Marco M, Blackburn DJ, Russell G, Evans K, Kirkland S, Amin J, Davies L, Firth C, Raymont V , Colston A et al (2021) Study protocol: SOcial LImitations Turn Up DEmentia (SOLITUDE)—Impact of COVID‐19 social isolation on patients’ cognition and mental health and on carers’ wellbeing. Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association, 17(Suppl 7).
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, De Marco M, Blackburn D & Sarrigiannis PG (2021) Characterising Alzheimers Disease with EEG-based Energy Landscape Analysis. IEEE Journal of Biomedical and Health Informatics.
Ball HA, McWhirter L, Ballard C, Bhome R, Blackburn DJ, Edwards MJ, Fox NC, Howard R, Huntley J, Isaacs JD , Larner AJ et al (2021) Reply : Functional cognitive disorder : dementia's blind spot. Brain.
De Marco M, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A (2021) Serial recall order and semantic features of category fluency words to study semantic memory in normal ageing. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 13.
Mubarak Mohamed AS, Iqbal A, Prasad S, Hoggard N & Blackburn D (2021) Cushing’s disease presenting with psychosis. Practical Neurology, 21(4), 351-353.
Beavis L, O'Malley R, Mirheidari B, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2021) How can automated linguistic analysis help to discern functional cognitive disorder from healthy controls and mild cognitive impairment?. BJPsych open, 7(Suppl 1), S7-S7.
Beavis L, O'Malley R, Mirheidari B, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2021) How can automated linguistic analysis help to discern functional cognitive disorder from healthy controls and mild cognitive impairment?. BJPsych Open, 7(S1), S7-S7.
Cao J, Grajcar K, Shan X, Zhao Y, Zou J, Chen L, Li Z, Grunewald R, Zis P, De Marco M , Unwin Z et al (2021) Using interictal seizure-free EEG data to recognise patients with epilepsy based on machine learning of brain functional connectivity. Biomedical Signal Processing and Control, 67.
Bell SM, Barnes K, De Marco M, Shaw PJ, Ferraiuolo L, Blackburn DJ, Venneri A & Mortiboys H (2021) Mitochondrial dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease : a biomarker of the future?. Biomedicines, 9(1).
Courtney E, Blackburn D & Reuber M (2021) Neurologists’ perceptions of utilising tele-neurology to practice remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic. Patient Education and Counseling. View this article in WRRO
O'Malley RPD, Mirheidari B, Harkness K, Reuber M, Venneri A, Walker T, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2021) Fully automated cognitive screening tool based on assessment of speech and language. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 92(1), 12-15.
De Marco M, Manca R, Kirby J, Hautbergue G, Blackburn DJ, Wharton S & Venneri A (2020) The association between polygenic hazard scores and clinical markers of Alzheimer’s disease following stratification for APOE genotype. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 16(S4).
Bell SM, De Marco M, Barnes K, Shaw P, Ferraiuolo L, Blackburn DJ, Mortiboys H & Venneri A (2020) Do deficits in mitochondrial spare respiratory capacity contribute to neuropsychological changes seen in Alzheimer’s disease?. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 16(S6).
O'Malley R, Walker T, Mirheidari B, Christensen H, Reuber M, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A (2020) A fully automated cognitive screening tool based on assessment of speech and language. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 16(S6).
De Marco M, Manca R, Kirby J, Hautbergue GM, Blackburn DJ, Wharton SB & Venneri A (2020) The Association between Polygenic Hazard and Markers of Alzheimer’s Disease Following Stratification for APOE Genotype. Current Alzheimer Research, 17.
Costa B, Manzoni C, Bernal-Quiros M, Kia DA, Aguilar M, Alvarez I, Alvarez V, Andreassen O, Anfossi M, Bagnoli S , Benussi L et al (2020) C9orf72, age at onset, and ancestry help discriminate behavioral from language variants in FTLD cohorts. Neurology, 95(24), e3288-e3302.
Saxon JA, Thompson JC, Harris JM, Ealing J, Hamdalla H, Chaouch A, Young C, Blackburn D, Majeed T, Gall C , Richardson AMT et al (2020) The Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioral ALS Screen (ECAS) in frontotemporal dementia. Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis and Frontotemporal Degeneration.
Ball HA, McWhirter L, Ballard C, Bhome R, Blackburn DJ, Edwards MJ, Fleming SM, Fox NC, Howard R, Huntley J , Isaacs JD et al (2020) Functional cognitive disorder : dementia’s blind spot. Brain. View this article in WRRO
O’Malley R, Morris L-A, Longden C, Turner A, Walker T, Venneri A, Mirheidari B, Christensen H, Reuber M & Blackburn D (2020) 26 Can an automated assessment of language help distinguish between Functional Cognitive Disorder and early neurodegeneration?. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 91(8), e18.2-e19.
Walker G, Morris L-A, Christensen H, Mirheidari B, Reuber M & Blackburn DJ (2020) Characterising spoken responses to an intelligent virtual agent by persons with mild cognitive impairment. Clinical Linguistics & Phonetics. View this article in WRRO
Littlejohn J, Blackburn D & Venneri A (2020) Understanding the links between hearing impairment and dementia : development and validation of the social and emotional impact of hearing impairment (SEI-HI) questionnaire. Neurological Sciences. View this article in WRRO
Goldstein LH, Robinson EJ, Mellers JDC, Stone J, Carson A, Reuber M, Medford N, McCrone P, Murray J, Richardson MP , Pilecka I et al (2020) Cognitive behavioural therapy for adults with dissociative seizures (CODES): a pragmatic, multicentre, randomised controlled trial. The Lancet Psychiatry, 7(6), 491-505. View this article in WRRO
Bell SM, De Marco M, Barnes K, Shaw PJ, Ferraiuolo L, Blackburn DJ, Mortiboys H & Venneri A (2020) Deficits in mitochondrial spare respiratory capacity contribute to the neuropsychological changes of alzheimer’s disease. Journal of Personalized Medicine, 10(2). View this article in WRRO
Bell S, De Marco M, Barnes K, Shaw P, Ferraiuolo L, Blackburn D, Mortiboys H & Venneri A (2020) Do deficits in Mitochondrial Spare Respiratory Capacity contribute to Neuropsychological changes seen in Alzheimer’s disease? (798). Neurology, 94(15_supplement).
O’Malley R, Mirheidari B, Harkness K, Walker T, Reuber M, Venneri A, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2020) A fully automated cognitive screening tool based on assessment of speech and language (5548). Neurology, 94(15_supplement).
O’Malley R, Romanovsky C, Venneri A & Blackburn D (2019) 045 Food for thought: an unusual case of frontotemporal dementia. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(12), a21.
Cheesman A, Blackburn D, Carroll C, Cohen A, Coebergh J, Sokhi D, Wong SH & Woolmore J (2019) 11.39 Association of british neurologists sustainability special interest group (ABN sustainability SIG): formation, objectives and invitation. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(12), a2.
Sarrigiannis PG, Zis P, Unwin ZC, Blackburn DJ, Hoggard N, Zhao Y, Billings SA, Khan AA, Yianni J & Hadjivassiliou M (2019) Tremor after long term lithium treatment; is it cortical myoclonus?. Cerebellum & Ataxias, 6(5). View this article in WRRO
O’Malley R, Mirhedari B, Harkness K, Reuber M, Venneri A, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2019) 055 The digital doctor : a fully automated stratification and monitoring system for patients with memory complaints. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(12). View this article in WRRO
O’Malley R, Brook E, Lewis A, Sonksen I, Mirhedari B, Venneri A, Christensen H & Blackburn D (2019) 056 Exploring the feasibility of automating verbal fluency tasks for cognitive assessment: data collection and analysis. Journal of Neurology Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 90(12). View this article in WRRO
Zhao Y, Zhao Y, Durongbhan P, Chen L, Liu J, Billings SA, Zis P, Unwin ZC, De Marco M, Venneri A , Blackburn DJ et al (2019) Imaging of nonlinear and dynamic functional brain connectivity based on EEG recordings with the application on the diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease. IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging. View this article in WRRO
Goldstein LH, Robinson EJ, Reuber M, Chalder T, Callaghan H, Eastwood C, Landau S, McCrone P, Medford N, Mellers JDC , Moore M et al (2019) Characteristics of 698 patients with dissociative seizures: A UK multicenter study. Epilepsia, 60(11), 2182-2193. View this article in WRRO
Jones SA, De Marco M, Manca R, Bell SM, Blackburn DJ, Wilkinson ID, Soininen H & Venneri A (2019) Altered frontal and insular functional connectivity as pivotal mechanisms for apathy in Alzheimer’s disease. Cortex, 119, 100-110. View this article in WRRO
Mullin E, Aristotelidou V, Blackburn D, Jenkins T & Hadjivassiliou M (2019) Cognitive deficits in vasculitis of the nervous system: a cross-sectional study. Postgraduate Medicine, 131(7), 546-549.
Al-Hameed S, Benaissa M, Christensen H, Mirheidari B, Blackburn D & Reuber M (2019) A new diagnostic approach for the identification of patients with neurodegenerative cognitive complaints. PLoS ONE, 14(5). View this article in WRRO
Durongbhan P, Zhao Y, Chen L, Zis P, De Marco M, Unwin ZC, Venneri A, He X, Li S, Zhao Y , Blackburn DJ et al (2019) A Dementia Classification Framework using Frequency and Time-frequency Features based on EEG signals.. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering. View this article in WRRO
Zis P, Shafique F, Hadjivassiliou M, Blackburn D, Venneri A, Iliodromiti S, Mitsikostas DD & Sarrigiannis PG (2019) Safety, Tolerability, and Nocebo Phenomena During Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: A Systematic Review and Meta‐Analysis of Placebo‐Controlled Clinical Trials. Neuromodulation: Technology at the Neural Interface. View this article in WRRO
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Walker T, Reuber M & Christensen H (2019) Dementia detection using automatic analysis of conversations. Computer Speech and Language, 53, 65-79. View this article in WRRO
Bell SM, Barnes K, Clemmens H, Al-Rafiah AR, Al-ofi EA, Leech V, Bandmann O, Shaw PJ, Blackburn DJ, Ferraiuolo L & Mortiboys H (2018) Ursodeoxycholic Acid Improves Mitochondrial Function and Redistributes Drp1 in Fibroblasts from Patients with either Sporadic or Familial Alzheimer's Disease. Journal of Molecular Biology, 430(21), 3942-3953. View this article in WRRO
Lee-Harris G, Blackburn D, Timmers R & Humberstone N (2018) Music for Relaxation: A Comparison Across Two Age Groups. Journal of Music Therapy, 55(4), 439-462. View this article in WRRO
Walker T, Christensen H, Mirheidari B, Swainston T, Rutten C, Mayer I, Blackburn D & Reuber M (2018) Developing an intelligent virtual agent to stratify people with cognitive complaints: A comparison of human-patient and intelligent virtual agent-patient interaction.. Dementia. View this article in WRRO
Alexander M, Blackburn D & Reuber M (2018) Patients’ accounts of memory lapses in interactions between neurologists and patients with functional memory disorders. Sociology of Health and Illness. View this article in WRRO
Blackburn DJ, Zhao Y, De Marco M, Bell SM, He F, Wei H, Lawrence S, Unwin ZC, Blyth M, Angel J , Baster K et al (2018) A Pilot Study Investigating a Novel Non-Linear Measure of Eyes Open versus Eyes Closed EEG Synchronization in People with Alzheimer’s Disease and Healthy Controls. Brain Sciences, 8(7), 134-134. View this article in WRRO
Meineke J, Wenzel F, De Marco M, Venneri A, Blackburn DJ, Teh K, Wilkinson ID & Katscher U (2018) Motion artifacts in standard clinical setting obscure disease-specific differences in quantitative susceptibility mapping.. Physics in Medicine and Biology, 63(14), 14nt01-14nt01. View this article in WRRO
Reuber M, Blackburn DJ, Elsey C, Wakefield S, Ardern KA, Harkness K, Venneri A, Jones D, Shaw C & Drew P (2018) An Interactional Profile to Assist the Differential Diagnosis of Neurodegenerative and Functional Memory Disorders. Alzheimer Disease and Associated Disorders, 32(3), 197-206. View this article in WRRO
Blackburn DJ, Forbes M, Unwin Z, Hoggard N, Hadjivassiliou M & Sarrigiannis PG (2018) Exaggerated startle in post-infectious opsoclonus myoclonus syndrome. Clinical Neurophysiology, 129(7), 1372-1373. View this article in WRRO
Bailey C, Poole N & Blackburn DJ (2018) Identifying patterns of communication in patients attending memory clinics: A systematic review of observations and signs with potential diagnostic utility. British Journal of General Practice, 68(667), e123-e138. View this article in WRRO
Skrobot OA, Black SE, Chen C, DeCarli C, Erkinjuntti T, Ford GA, Kalaria RN, O'Brien J, Pantoni L, Pasquier F , Roman GC et al (2018) Progress toward standardized diagnosis of vascular cognitive impairment: Guidelines from the Vascular Impairment of Cognition Classification Consensus Study. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 14(3), 280-292.
Blackburn D, Mirheidari BM, Rutten C, Mayer I, Walker T, Christensen H & Rueber M (2017) PO029 An avatar aid in memory clinic. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 88(Suppl 1), A19.4-A20.
O’Malley R, Igra M, Romanowski C, Sarrigiannis P & Blackburn D (2017) PO017 Seeing the wood for the trees: a challenging case of altered consciousness. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 88(Suppl 1), A17.1-A17.
Wakefield SJ, Blackburn DJ, Harkness K, Khan A, Reuber M & Venneri A (2017) Distinctive neuropsychological profiles differentiate patients with functional memory disorder from patients with amnestic-mild cognitive impairment. Acta Neuropsychiatrica. View this article in WRRO
Bell SM, Clemmens H, Blackburn DJ, Bandmann O, Ferraiuolo L & Mortiboys H (2017) [P4-034]: MITOCHONDRIAL ABNORMALITIES ARE FOUND IN FIBROBLASTS FROM SPORADIC ALZHEIMER's DISEASE PATIENTS: RECOVERY WITH URSODOXYCHOLIC ACID TREATMENT. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 13(7S_Part_26), P1269-P1269.
Littlejohn JL, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A (2017) [P3-260]: CENTRAL AUDITORY DYSFUNCTION AS A MARKER OF NEURODEGENERATION. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 13(7S_Part_21), P1042-P1043.
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Harkness K, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2017) Toward the Automation of Diagnostic Conversation Analysis in Patients with Memory Complaints. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 58(2), 373-387. View this article in WRRO
Bailey C, Bell SM & Blackburn DM (2017) How the UK describes functional memory symptoms. Psychogeriatrics. View this article in WRRO
Bath PM, Scutt P, Blackburn DJ, Ankolekar S, Krishnan K, Ballard C, Burns A, Mant J, Passmore P, Pocock S , Reckless J et al (2017) Intensive versus Guideline Blood Pressure and Lipid Lowering in Patients with Previous Stroke: Main Results from the Pilot ‘Prevention of Decline in Cognition after Stroke Trial’ (PODCAST) Randomised Controlled Trial. PLOS ONE, 12(1). View this article in WRRO
Skrobot OA, O'Brien J, Black S, Chen C, DeCarli C, Erkinjuntti T, Ford GA, Kalaria RN, Pantoni L, Pasquier F , Roman GC et al (2017) The Vascular Impairment of Cognition Classification Consensus Study. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 13(6), 624-633.
Bell SM, Maniam R, Patel A, Harkness K & Blackburn D (2017) Patients who are not driving 6 weeks after transient ischaemic attack have higher levels of anxiety. Psychogeriatrics, 17(2), 146-146.
Littlejohn JL, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A (2016) P2-307: Is Social Handicap the Link Between Hearing Loss and Cognitive Decline? Development and Validation of a New Tool: The Social and Emotional Associations of Hearing Loss (SEAH). Alzheimer's & Dementia, 12, P753-P754.
Blackburn DJ, Elsey C, Wakefield S, Harkness K, Venneri A, Drew P & Reuber M (2016) P2-188: CONVERSATION ANALYSIS IN THE MEMORY CLINIC TO DISTINGUISH DEMENTIA FROM FUNCTIONAL MEMORY DISORDER. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 12, P691-P691.
Michel L, Blackburn DJ & Donckier J (2016) Papillary Thyroid Cancer in Subjects Who Were Children at the time of the Chernobyl Nuclear Accident: Some Lessons for The Management of Fukushima’s Aftermaths. Jacobs Journal of Radiation Oncology, 3(2).
Lewis R, Jenkins T, Wharton S, Lorenz E, Rao G, Stevens R, Hadjivassiliou M & Blackburn D (2016) A wolf in sheep's clothing. Practical Neurology, 16(2), 153-156.
Jones D, Drew P, Elsey C, Blackburn D, Wakefield S, Harkness K & Reuber M (2016) Conversational assessment in memory clinic encounters: Interactional profiling for differentiating dementia from functional memory disorders. Aging and Mental Health, 20(5), 500-509. View this article in WRRO
Sprange K, Mountain GA, Shortland K, Craig C, Blackburn DJ, Bowie P, Harkness K & Spencer M (2015) Journeying through Dementia, a community-based self-management intervention for people aged 65 years and over: a feasibility study to inform a future trial. Pilot and Feasibility Studies, 1. View this article in WRRO
Baker DJ, Blackburn DJ, Keatinge M, Sokhi D, Viskaitis P, Heath PR, Ferraiuolo L, Kirby J & Shaw PJ (2015) Lysosomal and phagocytic activity is increased in astrocytes during disease progression in the SOD1 G93A mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. FRONTIERS IN CELLULAR NEUROSCIENCE, 9. View this article in WRRO
Stone J, Pal S, Blackburn D, Reuber M, Thekkumpurath P & Carson A (2015) Functional (Psychogenic) Cognitive Disorders: A Perspective from the Neurology Clinic. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease, 48(s1), S5-S17.
Elsey C, Drew P, Jones D, Blackburn D, Wakefield S, Harkness K, Venneri A & Reuber M (2015) Towards diagnostic conversational profiles of patients presenting with dementia or functional memory disorders to memory clinics. Patient Education and Counseling, 98(9), 1071-1077. View this article in WRRO
Coates R, Bell SM, Coley S & Blackburn DJ (2015) Cerebral amyloid angiopathy: amyloid spells and cortical superficial siderosis. Practical Neurology, 15(2), 124-126.
Bell S, Harkness K, Dickson JM & Blackburn D (2015) A diagnosis for £55: what is the cost of government initiatives in dementia case finding. Age and Ageing, 44(2), 344-345.
Scutt P, Blackburn D, Krishnan K, Ballard C, Burns A, Ford GA, Mant J, Passmore P, Pocock S, Reckless J , Sprigg N et al (2015) Baseline characteristics, analysis plan and report on feasibility for the Prevention Of Decline in Cognition After Stroke Trial (PODCAST). Trials, 16. View this article in WRRO
Blackburn DJ (2014) A Diagnosis for £55: what is the cost of government initiatives in dementia case finding?. Age and Ageing, 43(eLetters Supplement).
Blackburn DJ, Wakefield S, Shanks MF, Harkness K, Reuber M & Venneri A (2014) Memory difficulties are not always a sign of incipient dementia: a review of the possible causes of loss of memory efficiency. British Medical Bulletin, 112(1), 71-81.
Wakefield SJ, Blackburn D, Harkness K, Khan A, Reuber M & Venneri A (2014) P3-243: COMPARING THE NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL PROFILES OF PATIENTS WITH MEMORY DISORDERS OF DIFFERENT AETIOLOGY. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 10, P721-P721.
Blackburn DJ, Krishnan K, Fox L, Ballard C, Burns A, Ford GA, Mant J, Passmore P, Pocock S, Reckless J , Sprigg N et al (2013) Prevention of Decline in Cognition after Stroke Trial (PODCAST): a study protocol for a factorial randomised controlled trial of intensive versus guideline lowering of blood pressure and lipids. Trials, 14. View this article in WRRO
Blackburn D, Wakefield S, Walpole P, Harkness K, Reuber M & Venneri A (2013) P2-364: The changing face of the memory clinic in Sheffield, United Kingdom. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 9, P493-P493.
Khan K, Wakefield S, Blackburn D & Venneri A (2013) O3-04-06: Faster forgetting: Distinguishing Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia with delayed recall measures. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 9, P526-P526.
Blackburn DJ, Alix JJP, Sarrigiannis P, Hoggard N & Bandmann O (2013) Delayed toxic–hypoxic encephalopathy. Practical Neurology, 13(2), 114-119.
Iqbal AM, Blackburn D, Rafiq M & Sharrack B (2013) Wegener's granulomatosis presenting with multiple cranial nerve palsies and pachymeningitis. Practical Neurology, 13(3), 193-195.
Blackburn D, Randall MS, Hoggard N, Highley R & Harkness K (2013) Trigeminal neuralgia: no laughing matter. Practical Neurology, 13(4), 263-267.
Blackburn DJ, Fox L, Mangoyana M & Bath PMW (2013) Repeat cognitive screening (MoCA, MMSE & ACE-R, IQCODE) in a high risk post-stroke population: data from the 'Prevention Of Decline in Cognition After Stroke Trial' (POD-CAST). CEREBROVASCULAR DISEASES, 35, 519-519.
Alix JJP, Blackburn DJ, Sokhi D, Craven I, Sharrack B & Snowden JA (2013) Autologous hematopoietic stem cell transplantation following pulsed cyclophosphamide in a severely disabled patient with malignant multiple sclerosis. Journal of Neurology, 260(3), 914-916.
Blackburn DJ, Bafadhel L, Randall M & Harkness KA (2013) Cognitive screening in the acute stroke setting. Age and Ageing, 42(1), 113-116.
Alix JJP, Blackburn DJ, Bhattacharyya D & Ponnusamy A (2012) Breathing arms. The Spine Journal, 12(7), 629-630.
Sargsyan SA, Blackburn DJ, Barber SC, Grosskreutz J, De Vos KJ, Monk PN & Shaw PJ (2011) A comparison of in vitro properties of resting SOD1 transgenic microglia reveals evidence of reduced neuroprotective function. BMC Neuroscience, 12(1). View this article in WRRO
Blackburn DJ, Walters S & Harkness K (2011) Letter by Blackburn et al Regarding Article, “Is the Montreal Cognitive Assessment Superior to the Mini-Mental State Examination to Detect Poststroke Cognitive Impairment? A Study With Neuropsychological Evaluation”. Stroke, 42(11).
Bosnell R, Alty JE, Blackburn DJ, Burness CE, Chowdhury R, Gosh BCP & Stanton BR (2011) PO.11 How is stroke thrombolysis affecting neurology training?. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 82(9), e4-e4.
Blackburn D, Chavada G, Dunleavy D, Hoggard N, Sharrack B, Ponnusamy S & Price S (2011) PO.18 Guillain-Barre syndrome (GBS) presenting with posterior reversible encephalopathy syndrome. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 82(9), e4-e4.
Sargsyan SA, Blackburn DJ, Barber SC, Monk PN & Shaw PJ (2009) Mutant SOD1 G93A microglia have an inflammatory phenotype and elevated production of MCP-1. NeuroReport, 20(16), 1450-1455.
BLACKBURN D, HIGHLEY JR, WHARTON S, ROMANOWSKI C, BOWEN J & SHARRACK B (2009) Antibody-negative neuromyelitis optica with heavy B-cell infiltration. APMIS, 117(10), 768-772.
Blackburn D, Sargsyan S, Monk PN & Shaw PJ (2009) Astrocyte function and role in motor neuron disease: A future therapeutic target?. Glia, 57(12), 1251-1264.
Blackburn D & Pengiran Tengah DS (2007) Why bother with research when training to be a neurologist?. Practical Neurology, 7(5), 282-284.
Bell SM, Wareing H, Capriglia F, Hughes R, Barnes K, Hamshaw A, Adair L, Shaw A, Olejnik A, De S , New E et al () Increasing hexokinase 1 expression improves mitochondrial and glycolytic functional deficits seen in sporadic Alzheimer’s disease astrocytes. Molecular Psychiatry.
Littlejohn J, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A () Testing central auditory processing abilities in older adults with and without dementia using the consonant-vowel dichotic listening task. Frontiers in Dementia, 2, 1207546.
Mummery CJ, Börjesson-Hanson A, Blackburn DJ, Vijverberg EGB, De Deyn PP, Ducharme S, Jonsson M, Schneider A, Rinne JO, Ludolph AC , Bodenschatz R et al () Author Correction: Tau-targeting antisense oligonucleotide MAPTRx in mild Alzheimer’s disease: a phase 1b, randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Nature Medicine.
Hadjivassiliou M, Blackburn D, O’Malley R & Hoggard N () IgG4 Disease-Related Ataxia. The Cerebellum.
Wardrope A, Bell S, Blackburn D, Dickson J, Reuber M & Walker T () Understanding the autonomy of adults with impaired capacity through dialogue. Journal of Medical Ethics.
Vázquez-Villaseñor I, Smith CI, Thang YJR, Heath PR, Wharton SB, Blackburn DJ, Ridger VC & Simpson JE () RNA-Seq Profiling of Neutrophil-Derived Microvesicles in Alzheimer’s Disease Patients Identifies a miRNA Signature That May Impact Blood–Brain Barrier Integrity. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 23(11), 5913-5913.
Manca R, De Marco M, Colston A, Raymont V, Amin J, Davies R, Kumar P, Russell G, Blackburn DJ & Venneri A () The impact of social isolation due to the COVID-19 pandemic on patients with dementia and caregivers. Acta Neuropsychiatrica, 1-19.
Aftab A, Sidhom E, Forrest A, Judge N, Underwood BR, Harkness K & Blackburn DJ () Patient and clinician experience of providing remote memory assessment services. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.
Gunawardena SRAS, Sarrigiannis PG, Blackburn DJ & He F () A Kernel-based Nonlinear Manifold Learning for EEG Channel Selection with Application to Alzheimer’s Disease.
Dake MD, De Marco M, Blackburn DJ, Wilkinson ID, Remes A, Liu Y, Pikkarainen M, Hallikainen M, Soininen H & Venneri A () Obesity and Brain Vulnerability in Normal and Abnormal Aging: A Multimodal MRI Study. Journal of Alzheimer's Disease Reports, 1-13.
Bell SM, Burgess T, Lee J, Blackburn DJ, Allen SP & Mortiboys H () Peripheral Glycolysis in Neurodegenerative Diseases. International Journal of Molecular Sciences, 21(23), 8924-8924.
Aitchison C, Blackburn DJ, Khan A, Grünewald RA & Jenkins TM () Diagnostic and investigative approach of consultant neurologists in a real‐world clinical setting: a pilot study. International Journal of Clinical Practice.
Saxon JA, Thompson JC, Harris JM, Richardson AM, Langheinrich T, Rollinson S, Pickering-Brown S, Chaouch A, Ealing J, Hamdalla H , Young CA et al () Cognition and behaviour in frontotemporal dementia with and without amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry.
Pattrick M, Sarrigiannis PG, Kruger S, Davies B, Hoggard N, Irani SR, Unwin Z, Zis P, Blackburn DJ & Hadjivassiliou M () Brain hyper-excitability in DPPX ataxia. Journal of Neurology.
Gunawardena SRAS, He F, Sarrigiannis P & Blackburn DJ () Nonlinear Classification of EEG recordings from patients with Alzheimer's Disease using Gaussian Process Latent Variable Model.
Sokhi DS, Oxenham C, Coates R, Forbes M, Gupta NK & Blackburn DJ () Four-Stage Audit Demonstrating Increased Uptake of HIV Testing in Acute Neurology Admissions Using Staged Practical Interventions. PLOS ONE, 10(9), e0134574-e0134574. View this article in WRRO
Hughes HC () Blindness in a case of tetanus. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 77(3), 420-421.
Simon M Bell, Rejina Maniam, Alisha Patel, Kirsty Harkness, and Daniel Blackburn () Patients who are not driving 6 weeks after TIA have higher levels of anxiety. Psychogeriatrics..

Conference proceedings papers

Mirheidari B, Malley RO, Blackburn D & Christensen H (2023) Identifying People with Mild Cognitive Impairment at Risk of Developing Dementia using Speech Analysis. 2023 IEEE Automatic Speech Recognition and Understanding Workshop (ASRU), 16 December 2023 - 20 December 2023.
Goerttler S, He F, Wu M, Blackburn D & Sarrigiannis P (2023) Comparing Spatial and Spectral Graph Filtering for Preprocessing Neurophysiological Signals. 2023 IEEE Signal Processing in Medicine and Biology Symposium (SPMB), 2 December 2023 - 2 December 2023.
Lanfranchi V, Fadlian M, Koilpillai SGA, Sproson L, Burke M, Chapman S & Blackburn D (2023) Understanding Driving Behaviour in Individuals with Mild Cognitive Impairments: A Naturalistic Study (pp 263-274)
Alzahrani F, Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Maddock S & Christensen H (2023) Investigating Visual Features for Cognitive Impairment Detection Using In-the-wild Data. 2023 IEEE 17th International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition (FG), 5 January 2023 - 8 January 2023.
Gunawardena R, Sarrigiannis PG, Blackburn DJ & He F (2022) Kernel-based Nonlinear Manifold Learning for EEG Functional Connectivity Analysis with Application to Alzheimer's Disease. 2022 IEEE Signal Processing in Medicine and Biology Symposium (SPMB), 3 December 2022 - 3 December 2022.
Klepl D, He F, Min W, Blackburn D & Sarrigiannis P (2022) Bispectrum-based Cross-frequency Functional Connectivity: Classification of Alzheimer's disease. 2022 44th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC), 11 July 2022 - 15 July 2022.
Pan Y, Nallanthighal VS, Blackburn D, Christensen H & Harma A (2021) Multi-Task Estimation of Age and Cognitive Decline from Speech. ICASSP 2021 - 2021 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 6 June 2021 - 11 June 2021.
Attas D, Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Venneri A, Walker T, Harkness K, Reuber M, Blackmore C & Christensen H (2021) Predicting Levels of Depression and Anxiety in People with Neurodegenerative Memory Complaints Presenting with Confounding Symptoms. Lecture Notes in Networks and Systems, Vol. 285 (pp 58-69)
Alzahrani F, Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Maddock S & Christensen H (2021) Eye Blink Rate Based Detection of Cognitive Impairment Using In-the-wild Data. 2021 9th International Conference on Affective Computing and Intelligent Interaction, ACII 2021
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, OrMalley R, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2019) Computational Cognitive Assessment: Investigating the Use of an Intelligent Virtual Agent for the Detection of Early Signs of Dementia. ICASSP 2019 - 2019 IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP), 12 May 2019 - 17 May 2019.
Blackburn D, Sarrigiannis P, Yifan Z, De Marco M, Bell S, Venneri A, Billings S, Farrow T, Fei H, Unwin Z , Blythe M et al (2017) A novel quantitative EEG approach to distiguish Alzheimer’s disease from fronto tempura dementia and healthy controls. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, Vol. 381 (pp 319-319)
Blackburn D, Reuber M, Christensen H, Mayer I, Rutten C, Venneri A, chirs E & Mirheidari B (2017) An avatar to screen for cognitive impairment. Journal of the Neurological Sciences, Vol. 381 (pp 319-319)
Mirheidari B, Blackburn DJ, Harkness K, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2017) An Avatar-based system for identifying individuals likely to develop dementia. Interspeech 2017 (pp 3147-3151) View this article in WRRO
Jones D, Reuber M, Elsey C, Blackburn D, Wakefield S, Ardern KA, Harkness K, Venneri A, Shaw C & Drew P (2017) CONVERSATIONAL ASSESSMENT IN MEMORY CLINIC ENCOUNTERS: CREATING A DIAGNOSTIC SCORING AID FOR DIFFERENTIAL DIAGNOSIS OF DEMENTIA AND FUNCTIONAL MEMORY DISORDERS. Alzheimer's & Dementia, Vol. 13(7) (pp P1238-P1238), 15 July 2017 - 20 July 2017. View this article in WRRO
Blackburn D, Yifan Z, Bell S, Marco MD, He F, Wilkinson I, Farrow T, Venneri A & Sarrigiannis P (2016) QEEG CAN DISTINGUISH PATIENTS WITH AD AND VOLUNTEERS. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 87(12) (pp e1.192-e1)
Blackburn D, Elsey C, Harkness K, Wakefield S, Venneri A, Drew P & Reuber M (2016) CONVERSATION ANALYSIS IN THE MEMORY CLINIC. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 87(12) (pp e1.191-e1)
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Reuber M, Walker T & Christensen H (2016) Diagnosing people with dementia using automatic conversation analysis. Proceedings of Interspeech 2016 (pp 1220-1224) View this article in WRRO
Blackburn DJ, Zhou Y, Bell S, De Marco M, Wilkinson I, He F, Wei HL, Farrow T, Venneri A & Sarrigiannis P (2016) O4-09-02: Quantitative Eeg Can Identify Difference Between Patients with Alzheimer's Disease and Healthy Volunteers on an Individual Level. Alzheimer's & Dementia, Vol. 12 (pp P353-P354)
Rohrer JD, Devine H, Foulkes A, Johnston A, Mallam B, Marshall C, Stanton B, Thomas R & Blackburn D (2014) DEVELOPING A NEUROLOGY MENTORING PROGRAMME FOR TRAINEES. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 85(10) (pp e4.162-e4)
Blackburn D, Wakefield S, Bell S, Harkness K, Venneri A & Reuber M (2014) FUNCTIONAL MEMORY DISORDER; REVIEW FROM A MEMORY CLINIC. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 85(10) (pp e4.137-e4)
LittleJohn J, Dennis G, Bianchi S, Harkness K, Thiyagesh S & Blackburn D (2014) PREVALENCE OF SLEEP DISORDERS IN A MEMORY CLINIC POPULATION. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 85(10) (pp e4.171-e4)
Blackburn D, Alix JP & Bandmann O (2012) A NIGHT TO REMEMBER: ALL WHITE THEN, ALL RIGHT NOW?. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, Vol. 83(Suppl 2) (pp A16.2-A16)
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D & Christensen H () Automatic cognitive assessment: Combining sparse datasets with disparate cognitive scores. Interspeech 2022
Hollands S, Blackburn D & Christensen H () Evaluating the Performance of State-of-the-Art ASR Systems on Non-Native English using Corpora with Extensive Language Background Variation. Interspeech 2022
Pan Y, Mirheidari B, Harris JM, Thompson JC, Jones M, Snowden JS, Blackburn D & Christensen H () Using the Outputs of Different Automatic Speech Recognition Paradigms for Acoustic- and BERT-Based Alzheimer’s Dementia Detection Through Spontaneous Speech. Interspeech 2021
Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Blackburn D, O’Malley R & Christensen H () Identifying Cognitive Impairment Using Sentence Representation Vectors. Interspeech 2021
Cummins N, Pan Y, Ren Z, Fritsch J, Nallanthighal VS, Christensen H, Blackburn D, Schuller BW, Magimai-Doss M, Strik H & Härmä A () A Comparison of Acoustic and Linguistics Methodologies for Alzheimer’s Dementia Recognition. Interspeech 2020
Pan Y, Mirheidari B, Reuber M, Venneri A, Blackburn D & Christensen H () Improving Detection of Alzheimer’s Disease Using Automatic Speech Recognition to Identify High-Quality Segments for More Robust Feature Extraction. Interspeech 2020
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, O’Malley R, Venneri A, Walker T, Reuber M & Christensen H () Improving Cognitive Impairment Classification by Generative Neural Network-Based Feature Augmentation. Interspeech 2020
Pan Y, Mirheidari B, Tu Z, O’Malley R, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M, Blackburn D & Christensen H () Acoustic Feature Extraction with Interpretable Deep Neural Network for Neurodegenerative Related Disorder Classification. Interspeech 2020
Pan Y, Mirheidari B, Reuber M, Venneri A, Blackburn D & Christensen H () Automatic Hierarchical Attention Neural Network for Detecting AD. Interspeech 2019
Mirheidari B, Blackburn D, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H () Detecting Signs of Dementia Using Word Vector Representations. Interspeech 2018

Preprints

Klepl D, He F, Wu M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis PG (2023) Adaptive Gated Graph Convolutional Network for Explainable Diagnosis of Alzheimer's Disease using EEG Data, arXiv.
Bell SM, Wareing H, Hamshaw A, De S, New E, Shaw PJ, De Marco M, Venneri A, Blackburn DJ, Ferraiuolo L & Mortiboys H (2023) Deficits in mitochondrial function and glucose metabolism seen in sporadic and familial Alzheimer’s disease derived Astrocytes are ameliorated by increasing hexokinase 1 expression, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis PG (2022) Bispectrum-based Cross-frequency Functional Connectivity: Classification of Alzheimer's disease, arXiv.
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, De Marco M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis P (2021) Characterising Alzheimer's Disease with EEG-based Energy Landscape Analysis, arXiv.
Aitchison C, Blackburn D, Khan A, newald RG & Jenkins T (2020) Diagnostic & investigative approach of consultant neurologists in a real-world clinical setting, Authorea.
Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Blackburn D, O'Malley R, Walker T, Venneri A, Reuber M & Christensen H (2020) Data augmentation using generative networks to identify dementia, arXiv.
Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Walker T, Reuber M, Venneri A, Blackburn D & Christensen H (2019) Detecting Alzheimer's Disease by estimating attention and elicitation path through the alignment of spoken picture descriptions with the picture prompt. View this article in WRRO
Mirheidari B, Pan Y, Walker T, Reuber M, Venneri A, Blackburn D & Christensen H (2019) Detecting Alzheimer's Disease by estimating attention and elicitation path through the alignment of spoken picture descriptions with the picture prompt, arXiv.
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis PG () EEG-based Graph Neural Network Classification of Alzheimer’s Disease: An Empirical Evaluation of Functional Connectivity Methods, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.
Klepl D, He F, Wu M, Blackburn DJ & Sarrigiannis PG () Bispectrum-based Cross-frequency Functional Connectivity: A Study of Alzheimer’s Disease, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory.

Research group

I co-supervise the following students

1^st Supervisor PhD

Dr Ronan O’Malley is working on the digital doctor project to explore how linguistic analysis of semantic dysfunction can be combined with imaging and AD biomarkers to best manage MCI and predict conversion to AD.
Dr Leslie Ing: Developing CognoMND and automated assessment of Cognition based on language for people with MND (Y2). Co-supervisor Prof Chris McDermott and Prof Heidi Christensen
Labhpreet Kaur investigating automated assessment of collateral history form acre-partners to aid detection and diagnosis of cognitive impairment (Y1) Co-supervisor Prof Heidi Christensen

2^nd Supervisor PhD

Sam Hollands “Early onset cognitive impairment detection from speech and language signals” 1^st supervise Heidi Christensen Funding Computer Science Doctoral Training Centre
Meg Thomas- Roe of dysfuencies in cognitive impairment. 1^st Supervisor Traci Walker. Computer Science Doctoral Training Centre
Jin Ni- Individualised Adaptive P300-based Brain-computer Interface for TreatincCognitive Impairment Symptoms after Stroke. 1^st supervisor Mahnaz Arvanah
Mian Kou is the student's name.: Multimodal Intelligent Neural Interfaces for Early Detection and Treatment of Post-stroke Dementia. 1^st supervisor Mahnaz Arvanah. Funding DiMEM.

Academic Clinical Lecturers

Dr Simon Bell – has been funded by ARUK, NIHR Sheffield BRC and now Wellcome 4ward north Academy investigating models of sporadic AD using i-astrocytes created using INPC
Dr Richard Bevan Jones. -investigating FTD and cognitive and behavioural disturbance in atypical Parkinsons’s disease.

Clinical Fellow

Dr Hina Khan, Investigating feasibility of cognitive assessment using CognoSpeak in South Asian communities

Teaching interests

I helped set up the Clinical Neurology MSc course. I was the course lead for 12 months and have led two modules . I provide lectures and supervise research projects and CNELM students.

I teach on Neurodegeneration to MSc, UG medical students and PG students

I am a faculty member of the Neurology Academy, (The Edge, Sheffield) which provides masterclass teaching on Dementia for clinicians

Professional activities and memberships

Chair of the Special Interest Group in Cognitive Disorders – Association of British Neurologists
ARUK Clinical Policy Advisory Panel member
I am co-lead for dementia, for the Yorkshire and Humber regional Clincial Research Network.
Member of the South Yorkshire Interest Group in Dementia
Member of UoS Senate Research and Innovation Committee
I sit on the Dementia Translational Research Collaboration panel
I am the lead for long term neurological conditions for Devices for Dignity NIHR MTC.

Collaborators

Professor Robert Perneckzy, Psychaity, UoS
Professor Heidi Christensen- Professor of Spoken Language Technology, Computer Science, UoS
Professor Markus Reuber- Neurology UoS
Professor Oliver Bandmann, Professor of Movement disorders, UoS
Dr Traci Walker- Lecturer Department of Human Communication Sciences, Uo
Professor Chris McDermott, Professor of Translational Neurology
Dr Mahnaz Arvaneh, Senior Lecturer, Department of Automatic Control and Systems Engineering
Dr Jon Dickson, Academic GP, UoS
Dr Sam Creaven, Academic GP, University of Bristol
Dr Ptolemaios Sarrigiannis, Consultant Neurophysiologist
Professor Ananlena Venneri- Neuropsychology & Imaging, Brunel University
Dr Matteo De Marco- Neuropsychology & Imaging, Brunel University
Professor Vanessa Raymond, University of Oxford
Professor Paresh Malhotra, Imperial College London