ProfNiall Pender

Prof Pender's research focuses on the assessment and management of the cognitive, behavioural and emotional consequences of neurological and neurosurgical condition in addition to the impact of these difficulties on family caregivers. He has a particular interest in the neuropsychology of neurodegenerative diseases such as Motor Neurone Disease, Huntington's Disease, Parkinson's Disease and Multiple Sclerosis.

He is the Irish Principal Investigator for the international Huntington’s Disease observational trial, Enroll-HD (Enroll – Clinical Research Platform). This project is based in the RCSI/Beaumont Hospital Clinical Research Centre and involves the longitudinal assessment of people with Huntington's disease and their family members.

He is also the Principal Investigator for the HD-Cog and HD-Care programmes which aims to identify and monitor the cognitive and behavioural phenotypes of HD and their impact on family members and caregivers.

Prof Pender is currently co-PI with Prof Orla Hardiman in Trinity College Dublin on a €245,000 grant from the Irish Motor Neurone Disease Foundation examining the cognitive and behavioural presentations of patients with Motor Neurone Disease and developing resources to help professional and family caregivers manage these challenging difficulties.

Prof Pender's research also focuses on the cognitive and psychological impact of head injury, sports concussion and strokes. He is part of the Stroke-Cog team which is evaluating a structured evidence-based intervention for the management of post-stroke cognitive and psychological difficulties. In collaboration with Prof Mohsen Javadpour at Beaumont Hospital he is examining the cognitive impact of neurovascular conditions such as Sub-Arachnoid Haemorrhage and Arterio-Venous Malformations.

Prof. Pender's Neuropsychology Research Group is also focusing on the measurement of cognitive and behavioural difficulties following neurological events. He is co-author of the Beaumont Behavioural Inventory, a widely used measure of challenging behaviour in Motor Neurone Disease, and his research team have validated measures such as the Edinburgh Cognitive and Behavioural ALS Scale, the Multiple Sclerosis Neuropsychological Questionnaire and the Action Naming Test in the Irish population.