Peter J. Magill
Career Path
Director, MRC CoRE in Restorative Neural Dynamics
Led an internationally-recognised community of researchers at the University of Oxford engaged in experimental, clinical, and computational neuroscience.
Deputy Director, MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit
Significantly advanced understanding of the neural substrates of a fundamental division of labour within the external globus pallidus in health.
MRC Programme Leader, MRC Anatomical Neuropharmacology Unit
D.Phil. in Neuroscience, University of Oxford
Research Themes
Targeting motor learning & execution
We are recording neural dynamics at high resolution in the brains of behaving mice with intact function and in mouse models of Parkinson’s. We are defining disturbed dynamics and their relationship to movement impairments, and testing brain stimulation approaches designed to steer disturbed dynamics towards normative regimes for behavioural gains.
Understanding & Engineering sleeping brain
We are using mouse models to gain new insights into how disturbed neural dynamics underlie the sleep problems that commonly emerge in Parkinson’s. We aim to test whether longitudinal brain-stimulation interventions can restore normative sleep-related neural dynamics and alter the trajectories of behavioural impairment and cellular pathology.
Tools (devices, software, algorithms)
We are developing novel tools to deliver closed-loop stimulation to the brain across a range of applications.
Approaches
Empirical Neuroscience
To understand where, when and how neural dynamics arise in the brain and underpin behaviour, we use in vivo electrophysiological and photometric recording techniques, behavioural phenotyping, and a range of approaches for manipulating nerve cells and circuits in mice, including in models capturing specific features of human brain conditions.
