Research summary

Experimental evidence repeatedly shows that there is abnormally synchronised oscillatory activity in the brains of people with Parkinson’s disease.   Whether or not this aberrant brain activity causes any of the familiar motor symptoms of Parkinson’s disease, or is simply a byproduct of the disease process is not known.  However, evidence is mounting to suggest that excessive oscillatory activity in the brain does cause a slowing of movement.  Much of the experimental evidence has come from the Experimental Neurology Group led by Professor Peter Brown.  The group takes a multidisciplinary approach combining experimental approaches with sophisticated signals analysis and modelling. The group’s goal is to define how activity in large populations of neurons is coordinated in healthy movement and how such coordination may go awry in diseases.  Accordingly the group’s ultimate aim is to translate their discoveries to improve treatment in Parkinson’s Disease and other illnesses where similar principles apply.   Accordingly, the Experimental Neurology Group works very closely with Oxford Functional Neurosurgery, and together forms the Functional Neurosurgery and Experimental Neurology (FNEN) Group. The latter is jointly led by Professor Tipu Aziz, Professor Peter Brown and Mr Alex Green.

Sources of Funding

• MRC 2010- 2015
• Wellcome Trust 2009- 2012
• NIHR 2012- 2017
• Oxford Biomedical Research Centre
• Parkinson's UK
• The Cure Parkinson's Trust
• The Rosetrees Fund

Professor Peter Brown obtained his medical degree from Cambridge University in 1984 and thereafter joined the Medical Research Council Human Movement and Balance Unit before moving to the Institute of Neurology, London.  He worked as a neurologist at the affiliated National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London, and within the Sobell Department of Movement Disorders and Motor Neurophysiology at the Institute of Neurology.  He moved to the University of Oxford as Professor of Experimental Neurology in 2010.