Event ANT Neuromeeting 2025 - Berlin starts on Jan 16, 2025, 9:00:00 AM (Europe/Berlin)
Novel Brain Stimulation Approaches to Studying Human Movement
Set Favorite
Location: Festsaal - 1/17/25, 10:30 AM - 1/17/25, 11:00 AM (Europe/Berlin) (30 minutes)

Novel Brain Stimulation Approaches to Studying Human Movement
Prof. Charlotte Stagg
Professor of Human Neurophysiology, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging & MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at University of Oxford
Professor of Human Neurophysiology, Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging & MRC Brain Network Dynamics Unit, Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences at University of Oxford

Dr. Charlotte (Charlie) Stagg is Professor of Human Neurophysiology in the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and the Beale Fellow in Medicine at St Hilda’s College, within the University of Oxford, UK.

Charlie initially trained in Physiology and Medicine at the University of Bristol. She completed her DPhil at the Oxford Centre for Functional MRI of the Brain (FMRIB), University of Oxford, where she used advanced neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation approaches to study how the brain learns new motor skills. She was then awarded a Junior Research Fellowship at St Edmund Hall in Oxford, continuing to be based at FMRIB for her post-doctoral work, with research periods at University College London and the University of Miami, USA.

Charlie’s inter-disciplinary group was founded in 2014 and uses multi-modal neuroimaging and brain stimulation approaches to understand motor plasticity, both in the context of learning new motor skills and regaining function after a stroke. Her work has two overarching themes: to understand the mechanisms underpinning human motor learning, and to use that understanding to develop novel therapeutic approaches for acquired brain injuries. Her group’s work is funded by awards from the MRC, BBSRC, EPSRC and the Wellcome Trust.


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, the neuroplastic mechanisms supporting learning occur 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 MEG, with non-invasive brain stimulation in humans.

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 we can use the information gained to optimise non-invasive brain stimulation approaches with the ultimate aim of enhancing functional improvements post-stroke.