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Current Research Projects
Functional recovery after stroke
Patterns of brain activity change after stroke. It has been suggested that these changes represent adaptive reorganisation that mediates functional recovery. We have tested the functional significance of such changes by serial brain imaging studies of patients undergoing rehabilitation or motor training and by testing the functional consequences of disrupting potentially adaptive brain activity. We have also tested how factors such as attention influence patterns of brain activity following stroke.
Investigators: Heidi Johansen-Berg, Charlie Stagg, Andrea Dennis
Collaborators: Helen Dawes, Udo Kischka, Jonathan Crofts, Des Higham
Funders: Wellcome Trust; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford; Stroke Assocaition; Dr. Hadwen Trust
Brain stimulation for stroke rehabilitation
Non-invasive transcranial brain stimulation offers exciting potential as a therapeutic tool in stroke. We are testing whether repeated stimulation can improve motor function in chronic stroke patients and we use brain imaging to help us understand how this brain stimulation might lead to clinical improvements.
Investigators: Charlie Stagg, Claire Allman, Ugwechi Amedi, Heidi Johansen-Berg
Collaborators: Udo Kischka
Funders: Wellcome Trust; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford; Dunhill Medical Trust
Pathology and cortical reorganization in multiple sclerosis and other demyelinating diseases
We use structural and spectroscopic MR techniques to characterise brain pathology at different stages of disease. In projects invovling MS, we have shown using fMRI and motor practice that, despite the progression of disease, adaptive plasticity underlying functional recovery is preserved in MS patients even at higher levels of disease burden. In other projects we are contrasting patterns of pathology in MS with those in other demyelinating diseases with the aim to identify novel imaging biomarkers.
Investigators: Valentina Tomassini, Lucy Matthews, Shannon Kolind, Jackie Palace, Mark Jenkinson, Jon Brooks
Funders: MRC; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford; MS Societies of UK, Italy and Canada
Learning and plasticity of the motor system
Normal motor learning provides a useful framework for understanding plastic changes that may be important in disease. Our work has shown that short-term learning of a novel movement skill is associated with changes in brain activity and levels of the inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA. We have shown that variation in short-term motor skill learning is associated with variation in functional responses and structural properties of brain areas for motor control. Prolonged practice of a motor task over a period of weeks produces further changes in brain activation.
Investigators: Charlie Stagg, Heidi Johansen-Berg, Valentina Tomassini
Funders: Wellcome Trust; NIHR Biomedical Research Centre, Oxford
Effects of motor training on brain structure
The healthy brain changes as a result of experience and learning. For example, we previously showed that when healthy adults learn to juggle, this changes the structure of white matter pathways in their brains. We are now testing whether factors such as performance level or amount of practice influence brain changes. Additionally, the combination of MRI and histology in model systems will allow us to specifically explore cellular mechanisms in white matter that underlie changes detected by MRI.
Investigators: Cassandra Sampaio, Heidi Johansen-Berg
Collaborators: Jan Scholz, David Bannerman, Niki Sibson, Alexandr Krapichev, Gabriele De Luca, Paul Bolam
Funders: Wellcome Trust
Effects of physical activity on brain structure and function
Cardiovascular exercise has been demonstrated as a potent stimulus for producing structural changes in the brain. Our project seeks to better understand the nature and time course of the brain changes induced by exercise and to use exercise as a tool to gain a greater understanding of how brain plasticity can be studied using magnetic resonance imaging.
Investigators: Adam Thomas, Andrea Dennis, Nancy Rawlings, Claire Sexton, Jill Betts, Heidi Johansen-Berg
Collaborators: Helen Dawes, Klaus Ebmeier, Cameron Holloway
Anatomical and functional plasticity in the human brain following limb amputation
Following amputation of the hand, the brain will undergo extensive organisational changes both due to loss of multisensory input from the absent hand, and as a result of picking up new skills with the intact hand or prosthesis. Some of these neural changes might be advantageous for the amputee but other changes will be damaging, and might even result in chronic pain that is felt in the amputated hand (i.e., ''phantom' limb pain). We are interested in identifying structural and functional plasticity in the brains of amputees using a range of neuroimaging techniques. We are particularly interested in neuronal changes that might be relevant for the rehabilitation process (e.g. prothesis usage, phantom pain). Using stimulation techniques, we aim to attenuate maladaptive plasticity and enhance adaptive plasticity.
Investigators: Tamar Makin, Nancy Rawlings, Irene Tracey, Heidi Johansen-Berg
Collaborators: Jan Scholz, David Henderson-Slater
Funders: Royal Society, European Commission
Mapping brain networks for surgical planning
The ability to measure the contribution of specific brain areas to behavioural performance is fundamentally important to assess risks to individual patients undergoing brain surgery. By combining different brain imaging methods (such as structural, functional and resting fMRI with magnetoencephalography), our research aims to understand how different types of brain pathology alter functional networks in the brain to improve prediction of behavioural outcomes following surgery.
Investigators: Natalie Voets
Funders: MRC
Individual differences in brain anatomy
Individual differences in brain structure will influence brain function and behaviour. We have found that variation in performance of specific behavioural tasks correlates with individual differences in structural features of both grey and white matter in task-relevant brain areas. Behavioural variation can therefore be used as a probe to identify regions and pathways that constrain performance for a given task.
Investigators: Heidi Johansen-Berg, Valentina Tomassini
Collaborators: Jan Scholz, Virginia Penhune, Andy Lee, Sarah Rudebeck, Valeria Della-Maggiore, Agnes Floel
Funders: Wellcome Trust, Oxford-McGill Neuroscience Partnership
Postdoctoral MR Physicist Position
Plasticity Lab Meeting