Dr Daniel Blackburn

BSc, MBChB, MRCP, PhD

Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience (SITraN)

Senior Lecturer

Honorary Consultant Neurologist

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

+44 114 222 2262 (Administrator: Bethany Walker)

385a Glossop Road

Full contact details

Dr Daniel Blackburn
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 and have recently taken up a consultant neurology post. 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(https://cognospeak.github.io/website/) 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

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

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(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
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, 410-410. 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.
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.
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

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)
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)
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

Research group

I co-supervise Katy Barnes with Heather Mortiboys- investigating mitochondrial & metabolic dysfunction in Alzheimer’s disease.

I co-supervise Yilin Pan with Heidi Christensen on the development of the automated conversation analysis tool- Digital Doctor of Jenna Littlejohn

I co-supervise two Neurology Academic Clinical fellows; 1.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. 2. Dr Ronan O’Malley working on the Digital Doctor programme.

Teaching interests

I am co- module leader on two parts of the MSc in Clinical Neurology (Neurodegeneration and applied neuro-anatomy) and lead the research projects module. I helped set up this MSc and develop the curriculum and teaching components.

I teach undergraduate medical students and on the Foundations in Relationship-centred dementia care.

Professional activities

Secretary of the Special Interest Group in Cognitive Disorders – Association of British Neurologists
Member of the Training and Education Committee- Association of British Neurologists
Member of the Translational Neuropsychology Group, University of Sheffield led by Professor Annalena Venneri
Member of the South Yorkshire Interest Group in Dementia.
I am a module leader on two parts of the MSc in Clinical Neurology Neurodegeneration and applied neuro-anatomy.
I teach on the Foundations in Relationship-centred dementia care University of Sheffield.

Key collaborations

Dr Heidi Christensen- Senior Lecturer Computer Science
Dr Ptolemaios Sarrigiannis, Consultant Neurophysiologist
Professor Ananlena Venneri- Neuropsychology & Imaging
Dr Matteo De Marco- Neuropsychology & Imaging
Professor Markus Reuber- Neurology
Dr Traci Walker- Lecturer Department of Human Communication Sciences

Dr Daniel Blackburn

Current Projects

Journal articles

Conference proceedings papers

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