Sharott Group

The Sharott Group is based at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, University of Oxford.

Research Themes

Targeting motor learning & execution

We use high-density electrophysiological recordings across forebrain circuits to define neural substrates of goal-directed movements. We develop closed-loop stimulation approaches to provide novel treatments for Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor.

Understanding & Engineering sleeping brain

With the aim of improving sleep across brain disorders, we will use the closed-loop auditory and electrical stimulation to reinforce oscillatory activities that control forebrain activity during sleep. In addition, we will develop methods of delivering these interventions in specific sleep stages and points in the diurnal cycle.

Tools (devices, software, algorithms)

We develop software and hardware to deliver closed loop auditory, electrical and optogenetic stimulation across a range of applications in experimental animals and humans. 

Approaches

Empirical Neuroscience

We make high-density electrophysiological recordings from behaving rodents. We use these recordings to define circuit-wide responses to novel-closed-loop stimulation, to define neural signatures of specific disease processes and to elucidate the neural substrates of underpinning motor control and cognition.

Experimental Medicine

We collaborate with several clinical teams in order to provide proof-of-principle evidence that closed-loop stimulation approaches, often developed in preclincal settings,  can alter neuronal activity and/or behavior in humans.

Biomedical Engineering

We develop novel devices to deliver closed-loop stimulation approaches in preclincal and clinical settings.