Clinical Neuroscience MPhil

Overview

The Department of Clinical Neuroscience is one of the leading academic units for clinical neuroscience in the UK. Research in the Department is focused on neurodegenerative disorders, epilepsy, health services research, brain injury and stroke, and builds on collaborations with the Departments of Neuroscience, Neuroimaging and Psychology.

Research programmes within the Department include: Motor Neurone Disease (MND) and related disorders - The Department hosts the Kings MND Care and Research Centre, one of the world’s leading centres for MND research and the development of new treatments; Movement disorders (particularly atypical Parkinsonian syndromes such as PSP and MSA); Epileptology, with particular interest in developing new electrophysiological, neuroimaging and cognitive approaches to understanding epilepsy; Neurogenetics, particularly linkage studies and complex genetics in MND, Parkinsonian disorders and epilepsy; Acute brain injury.

Some current research projects:

• Genetic linkage and association studies on amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
• Biomarkers in the blood and CSF in ALS.
• Cellular and transgenic models of ALS.
• The functional anatomy of apathy: a functional MRI study in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy and Alzheimer's Disease;
• Is cortical excitability abnormal in Motor Neuron Disease (MND)?;
• Studies using Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI);
• Neural control of breathing and voluntary movements in Motor Neuron Disease (MND) patients;
• The role of plasticity of excitatory connections between pyramidal neurons and cortical map reorganisation;
• Identification of brain networks in epilepsy and how seizure activity emerges dynamically;
• Optimising approaches to management of epilepsy in primary care.