Associate Professor Michael Saling

BA, MA, PhD. 

Associate Professor

Contact details:

Associate Professor Saling is the Convenor of Australia's first Professional Program in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Melbourne, having been appointed in 1988 as the successor to the Dr Kevin Walsh. He been responsible for the training of a  large number of Australia's clinical neuropsychologists. He is also Director of Neuropsychology at the Austin and Heidelberg Repatriation Hospitals). His current research interests include the functional neuroanatomy of memory and language in temporal lobe epilepsy, the early detection of dementia, and the relationship between stroke and dementia. He has served for a number of years on the Diagnostic Methods Commission of the International League Against Epilepsy.

Research Interests:

• Clinical Neuropsychology
  • Neuropsychology of language and memory
  • Cerebrovascular neuropsychology
  • History and systematics of clinical neuropsychology
  • Diagnostic models in clinical neuropsychology
  • Functional neuroimaging
  • Focal epilepsy
  • Early detection of dementia
  • Neurocognitive Group

Professional Associations, Memberships & Awards:

• Australian Psychological Society
• APS College of Clinical Neuropsychologists
• International Neuropsychological Society
• Australian Society for the Study of Brain Impairment

Recent Funded Research:

Wood, AG, Saling, MM, O'Shea, MF, Berkovic, SF, Jackson, GD. (2000). Components of verbal learning and hippocampal damage assessed by T2 relaxometry. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 6, 529-538.

Field, SJ, Saling, MM, & Berkovic, SF. (2000). Interictal discourse production in temporal lobe epilepsy. Brain and Language, 74, 213-222

Wilson, SJ, Bladin, PF, Saling, MM, McIntosh, AM, & Lawrence, J. (2001). The longitudinal course of adjustment after seisure surgery. Seisure, 10, 165-172

Wilson, SJ, Bladin, PF, Saling, MM. (2001). The "burden of normality": concepts of adjustment after seisure surgery. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 70, 649-656

Wood, AG, Saling, MM, Abbott, DF, & Jackson, GD. (2001). A neurocognitive account of frontal lobe involvement in orthographic lexical retrieval: Preliminary insights with fMRI. NeuroImage, 14 (1), 162-169

Saling, MM. (2001). Commentary "Is Cognition the Key?" Neuro-Psychoanalysis, 3, 32-33.

Matotek, K, Saling, M. M., Gates, P., & Sedal, L. (2001). Subjective complaints, verbal fluency, and working memory in mild multiple sclerosis. Applied Neuropsychology, 8, 204-210

Saling MM, MacCuspie-Moore CM, Anderson V, Chiu, E. (2002). "Clockness" in dementia: a semantic-conceptual effect. Brain and Cognition, 49, 205-207.

Savage, GR, Saling, MM, Davis, CW, & Berkovic, SF. (2002). Direct and indirect measures of verbal relational memory following anterior temporal lobectomy. Neuropsychologia, 40, 302-316

Fowler, KS, Saling, MM, Conway, EL, Semple, JM, & Louis, WJ. (2002). Paired associate performance in early detection of DAT. Journal of the International Neuropsychological Society, 8, 58-71.

Weintrob, DL, Saling, MM, Berkovic, SF, Berlangieri SU, Reutens, DC. (2002). Verbal memory in left temporal lobe epilepsy: Evidence for task-related localisation. Annals of Neurology, 51, 442-447

Baird AD, Wilson SJ, Bladin PF, Saling MM, and Reutens DC. (2002). Hypersexuality after temporal lobe resection. Epilepsy and Behaviour, 3, 173-181.

Anderson D, Harvey AS, Saling MM, Anderson V, Kean M, Jacobs R, Abbott DF, Wellard RM, Puce A, Jackson G. (2002). Differential fMRI language activation in twins discordant for a left frontal tumour. Journal of Child Neurology, 17, 766-769

Saling MM, O'Shea MF, Weintrob DL, Wood AG, Reutens DC & Berkovic SF (2002). Medial and lateral contributions to verbal memory: Evidence from temporal lobe epilepsy. In A Yamadori, R Kawashima, T Fujii, & K Suzuki (Eds.), Frontiers of Memory. Sendai: Tohoku University Press, pp. 151-158.

Baird AD, Wilson SJ, Bladin PF, Saling MM, & Reutens DC. (2003). Sexual outcome after epilepsy surgery. Epilepsy and Behaviour, 4, 268-278

Briellmann RS, Mitchell LA, Waites AB, Abbott DF, Pell GS, Saling MM, & Jackson GD. (2003). Correlation between language organisation and diffusion tensor abnormalities in refractory partial epilepsy. Epilepsia, 44, 1541-1545.

Srikanth VK, Thrift AG, Saling MM, Anderson JF, Dewey HM, Macdonell RAL, Donnan GA. (2003). Increased risk of cognitive impairment 3 months after mild to moderate first-ever stroke: A community-based prospective study of nonaphasic English-speaking survivors. Stroke, 34, 1136-1143

Bradshaw J, Saling MM, Hopwood M, Anderson V, & Brodtman A. Fluctuating cognition (FC) in dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) is qualitatively distinct. (2004). Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery, and Psychiatry, 75, 382-387.

Briellmann RS, Saling MM, Connell AB, Waites AB, Abbott DF, Jackson GD. (2004). A High-Field functional MRI study of quadri-lingual subjects. Brain and Language, 89, 531-542.

Wilson SJ, Bladin PB, Saling MM. (2004). Paradoxical results in the cure of chronic illness:  The 'burden of normality' as exemplified following seisure surgery. Epilepsy and Behaviour, 5, 13-21.

Baird AD, Wilson SJ, Bladin PF, Saling MM, Reutens DC. (2004). The amygdala and sexual drive: Insights from temporal lobe epilepsy. Annals of Neurology, 55, 87-96.

Kalnins RM, McIntosh AM, Saling MM, Berkovic SF, Jackson GD, Briellmann RS. (2004). Subtle microscopic abnormalities in hippocampal sclerosis do not predict clinical features of temporal lobe epilepsy. Epilepsia, 45, 940-947

Wood AG, Harvey AS, Wellard RM, Abbott DF, Anderson V, Kean M, Salingb MM, Jackson GD. (2004). Language cortex activation in normal children. Neurology, 63, 1035-1044

Srikanth VK, Anderson JFI, Donnan GA, Saling MM, Didus E, Alpitsis R, Dewey HM, Madonnell RAL, Thrift AG. (2004). Progressive dementia after a first ever stroke: A community-based follow-up study. Neurology, 63, 785-792

Saling, MM.Imaging and Neuropsychology. In R. Kuzniecky & GD Jackson (Eds). Magnetic Resonance in Epilepsy: Neuroimaging Techniques, Second Edition.  Academic Press (an imprint of Elsevier Science USA), 2005, pp. 271-280.

PhD Students under Supervision:

• David Weintrob
• Georgina Camplin
• Rubina Alpitsis
• Jennifer Bradshaw
• Yifat Glikmann
• Chris Benjamin
• Anna Ingram