Rewiring the brain | Professor Heidi Johansen-Berg FMedSci

acmedsci published this video item, entitled “Rewiring the brain | Professor Heidi Johansen-Berg FMedSci” – below is their description.

Professor Johansen-Berg outlines her research into brain plasticity – how the brain changes with learning, experience and damage. She studies the biological mechanisms behind skill learning and long-term memory consolidation, to try and understand the human ability to learn throughout life.

It is well established that synaptic plasticity supports learning and memory in the brain. This talk considers whether the myelinated axon offers an alternative site for brain plasticity, using evidence from both humans and rodents to suggest that plasticity is not limited to the synapse and offer complementary routes by which experience can shape brain structure.

Her research explores learning, experience, and damage plasticity and recovery in the brain’s sensorimotor system, with particular focus on white matter plasticity and activity-dependent myelination. As well as shedding light on how the healthy brain responds to change, her work also has implications for understanding and treating disease. For example, her group are testing new methods for rehabilitation after stroke and assessing whether taking up physical exercise could slow the effects of age on the brain or promote healthy brain development during adolescence. The group’s research uses a variety of neuroimaging and stimulation tools in healthy human volunteers across the lifespan, individuals with brain damage, and rodents.

Professor Heidi Johansen-Berg is a Wellcome Principal Research Fellow and Director of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford.

She gave this presentation as part of the Academy of Medical Sciences New Fellow’s Admissions Day 2021, held virtually in July 2021.

Read more about Professor Johansen-Berg’s work

https://www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/heidi-johansen-berg

Find her on Twitter

https://twitter.com/heidijoberg?lang=en

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The Academy of Medical Sciences (Acmedsci) is an independent body in the UK representing the diversity of medical science. Their mission is to advance biomedical and health research and its translation into benefits for society.

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