Christopher Kennard PhD, FRCP, FMed Sci

Oculomotor Research Group
My research interests include cortical disorders of vision and cognitive neuroscience particularly using eye movements to understand brain function and as biomarkers for neurodegenerative diseases.
Email
Tel 01865 234637
Fax 01865 231534
PA Ms Toria McNeile
Email (PA)
Fax (PA) 01865 234637
Contact address Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences, Level 6 West Wing, John Radcliffe Hospital, Oxford, OX3 9DU, United Kingdom

Research summary

Prof Chistopher Kennard

My research group has researched widely in cognitive neuroscience and visual sciences, particularly using the analysis of abnormalities of visual perception and eye movements in human neurological disease to further understanding of brain function.

Currently we are particularly interested in the cognitive control of movement using saccadic (fast conjugate) eye movements as the exemplar. In patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s disease and Huntington’s disease we are studying self-initiated action, the control of action when we suddenly have to stop or change our movements and the role of short-term working memory.

We are also studying the utility of saccadic eye movements as a biomarker for the recognition of early neuronal dysfunction in pre-symptomatic patients with the genetic mutation for Huntington's disease and in patients with early Parkinson’s disease and motor neurone disease.

On a different theme we study implicit sequence learning in normal subjects and patient with hippocampal lesions using fMRI to analyse the brains areas involved.

Our research on simulating prosthetic vision has led us to try to develop a low-cost non-invasive visual prosthetic for partially sighted and blind individuals to assist them in navigating their environment.

Sources of Funding

Biography

Christopher Kennard is a medical graduate of the University of London and he obtained a PhD at the MRC’s National Institute of Medical Research, London. After training posts in neurology in London and Oxford he was appointed Consultant Neurologist at the Royal London Hospital, subsequently moving to Imperial College London as Professor of Clinical Neurology.  Whilst there he was Head of the Department of Clinical Neurosciences and subsequently Deputy Principal of the Faculty of Medicine.  He moved to his current position in the University of Oxford in 2008.

He was editor of the Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry from 1997-2003, and is currently Chairman of the Medical Research Council’s Neuroscience and Mental Health Board and a member of the MRC Strategy Board.

Awards Training and Qualifications

  • 1964- 1970 B.Sc.(Hons),Anatomy, Charing Cross Hospital Medical School
  • - 1970 MBBS, University of London
  • - 1986 FRCP (UK), Royal College of Physicians
  • - 1978 PhD, University of London
  • - 2001 FMedSci, Academy of Medical Sciences

Collaborators

  • Dr Chrystalina Antoniades, Research Associate
  • Dr Dario Cazzoli, Research Associate
  • Dr Stephen Hicks, Research Associate
  • Dr Clive Rosenthal, Research Associate
  • Iain Wilson, Engineer
  • Dr Sara Ajina, Wellcome Trust Clinical Training Fellow
  • Dr Maria Sangeetha, DPhil Student
  • Rebecca Millington, DPhil Student
  • Dr Parashkev C Nachev , Institute of Neurology, UCL
  • Professor Masud Husain , Institute of Neurology, UCL
  • Professor Sarah Tabrizi , Institute of Neurology, UCL
  • Professor Quentin Pankhurst , Royal Institution/UCL
  • Mr Geoffry Rose , Moorfields Eye Hospital