NEUROSCIENCE RESEARCH LABORATORY
WITS NeuRL
CLINICAL NEUROSCIENCE
Licenciada en Psicología,
MA(Clin Psych), PhD
Neuropsychological Assessment; Huntington's Disease
DIVISION LEADER
Aline Ferreira-Correia
Dr. Ferreira-Correia is an alumni of the Central University of Venezuela (Universidad Central de Venezuela) where she graduated as a Clinical Psychologist. She started her career as a clinician in 2003 and went on to become a lecturer and academic in 2004. She obtained her Ph.D. at Wits University in 2019. Dr. Ferreira-Correia is currently a lecturer at Wits in the Psychology Department.
RESEARCH
Movement Disorders
Ferreira-Correia's primary research and clinical interests are focused in the neuropsychology of movement disorders, such as Huntington's Disease (HD), Huntington's Disease-Like 2 (HDL2) and Parkinson's Disease (PD).
HDL2 is a very rare genetic disease that has a very similar clinical presentation to HD despite being caused by mutations in different genes. Currently, Ferreira-Correia is part of a multidisciplinary team that is investigating HDL2. Her responsibility is to explore the cognitive profile of this disease and compare it with that of HD.
Parkinson's Disease
Ferreira-Correia is also part of a multidisciplinary team that is using Deep Brain Stimulation to treat Parkinson's Disease.
One of the aims of this project is to investigate what are the neuropsychological risk and protective factors associated with DBS, in order to improve the clinical care of patients opting for surgery.
Cognitive Testing
Lastly, Ferreira-Correia is interested in the neuropsychology of the healthy brain, and how everyday experiences, such as bi/multilingualism, shape our cognitive functions.
Within this area, and since psychometric assessment plays a significant role in my work, part of Ferreira-Correia's research is dedicated to understanding the potential and limitations of cognitive testing, as well as to the development of norms that ultimately facilitates the interpretation of cognitive profiles linked to brain changes.
B Soc Sci, B Soc Sci Honours in Psychology, MA in Neuropsychology (UCT)
Neuropsychology; dementia prevention; neurorehabilitation
Alexa Soule
Alexa Soule is a Lecturer in the Department of Psychology at the
University of the Witwatersrand and an HPCSA-registered
neuropsychologist. Her academic training began at the University of
Cape Town, where she completed a Bachelor of Social Science,
followed by an Honours degree in Psychology and then a Clinical
Master’s degree in Neuropsychology. She completed her clinical
internship at Groote Schuur Hospital and Red Cross War Memorial
Children’s Hospital (Western Cape), which strengthened her interests
in neuropsychological assessment, psychoeducation, and
neurorehabilitation. She is currently completing a PhD in the
Department of Psychiatry and Mental Health at the University of Cape
Town, where her research focuses on dementia prevention and
contextually relevant neurocognitive risk factors in Sub-Saharan
Africa.
R E S E A R C H
D e m e n t i a a n d C o g n i t i v e A g e i n g
Alexa’s research on dementia is centred on prevention, cognitive ageing, and neuropsychiatric symptoms, particularly within South African and broader Sub-Saharan African contexts. She is exploring how modifiable risk factors, social conditions, and clinical presentations interact to shape cognitive decline and functional impairment in later life. A major focus of her work is identifying contextually relevant pathways to prevention and care, especially in settings where existing dementia frameworks do not fully reflect local realities. She is also interested in the behavioural and psychiatric features that accompany cognitive disorders, and in how these influence everyday functioning, assessment, and support needs.
B r a i n I n j u r y a n d N e u r o r e h a b i l i t a t i o n
Alexa also has a strong interest in traumatic brain injury, neuropsychological rehabilitation, and access to care in low- and middle-income countries. This work has grown from both her clinical training and her broader research in how people understand, respond to, and recover from neurological injury in resource-constrained settings. She is interested in barriers and facilitators to help-seeking after brain injury, public understandings and misconceptions about brain injury, and the development of rehabilitation approaches that are accessible and contextually appropriate. More broadly, she is drawn to research that connects neuropsychology, rehabilitation, and lived experience in ways that can strengthen both clinical practice and health systems.
BA (honours), MA Clinical Neuropsychology, PhD Neuropsychology
Neurocognitive and neuropsychological rehabilitation
Shona Fraser
Fraser completed her PhD in Neuropsychology focusing on the rehabilitation of working memory deficits in children at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg. She currently works on the Wits Academic Hospital circuit as a joint appointee at the University. Fraser lectures on Neuropsychology and Neuropsychological Assessment to medical students and registrars. She specializes at a clinic in neuropsychological rehabilitation of various disabilities. The clinic is part of Tara Hospital and the majority of the patients struggle with mental illness as well as neurocognitive compromise. She is responsible for providing therapy, assessment, and neuropsychological rehabilitation for her patients. Fraser's work predominantly focuses on cognitive interventions for neurocognitive compromise in children. Her particular area of interest is in neurocognitive and neuropsychological rehabilitation of any kind of brain injury including TBIs, degenerative disorders, CVAs, and neurodevelopmental disorders.
RESEARCH
Neurorehabilitation
Fraser's research focus is in neurorehabilitation for acquired brain injury in adults and children with an interest in cognitive training for children with neurodevelopmental disorders. Her particular focus is developing tools and programs to facilitate neurocognitive functioning and investigate the stimulation of alternate neural networks to enhance cognitive functioning where there has been neurological compromise. Her overall interest is in neuroplasticity and an individual's capacity for neuropsychological rehabilitation in terms of their cognitive and emotional functioning.