OxTalks is Changing
OxTalks will soon move to the new Halo platform and will become 'Oxford Events.' There will be a need for an OxTalks freeze. This was previously planned for Friday 14th November – a new date will be shared as soon as it is available (full details will be available on the Staff Gateway).
In the meantime, the OxTalks site will remain active and events will continue to be published.
If staff have any questions about the Oxford Events launch, please contact halo@digital.ox.ac.uk
GABA and gamma: Studying motor plasticity in vivo
How we learn new motor skills, such as learning to play the piano or play tennis, is a question of fundamental importance to everyday life. It also has direct relevance to how we might re-learn to move our hands after a brain injury such as a stroke. However, motor plasticity occurs across multiple spatial and temporal scales; from the synapse to the network and from effects lasting seconds to those lasting months or even years, making understanding these processes complex.
Here, I will discuss recent studies from my group studying the physiological basis of motor plasticity in vivo, in particular how changes across a wide range of spatial scales may interact to support functional improvements. To this end we have combined advanced neuroimaging, including MR Imaging, MR Spectroscopy and Magnetoencephalography, with non-invasive brain stimulation in humans; we have recently expanded into rodent models.
Taken together, these studies provide convergent evidence that changes in local and network-level inhibitory processing is a key component of motor learning. I will discuss how non-invasive brain stimulation may optimise motor learning in both healthy and clinical populations, and how optimising stimulation approaches may lead to enhanced behavioural gains.
Date:
12 November 2021, 16:00
Venue:
Sherrington Library, off Parks Road OX1 3PT
Speaker:
Dr Charlotte Stagg (University of Oxford)
Organising department:
University Club
Organiser:
Cortex Club (University of Oxford)
Organiser contact email address:
cortex.club@studentclubs.ox.ac.uk
Host:
Cortex Club (University of Oxford)
Booking required?:
Not required
Audience:
Public
Editor:
Antara Majumdar
