Charlotte Stagg Explained

Charlotte Stagg
Thesis Title:Modulation of motor cortical plasticity by transcranial stimulation.
Thesis Url:http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/757134628
Thesis Year:2008
Alma Mater:University of Bristol
University of Oxford
Workplaces:University of Oxford

Charlotte Stagg is a British neurophysiologist who is a professor at the University of Oxford. She leads the Physiological Neuroimaging Group.

Early life and education

Stagg studied physiology and medicine at the University of Bristol, graduating with pre-clinical and clinical honours and the Physiological Society prize.[1] For her doctoral degree, she moved to the University of Oxford and worked at the Oxford Centre for Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the Brain (FMRIB) under the supervision of Paul Matthews and Heidi Johansen-Berg.[2] During her DPhil, she looked to understand how people acquire new motor skills. She joined the Neuroplasticity group for her first postdoctoral position. In 2010 she moved to the Sobell Department of Motor Neuroscience and Movement Disorders, where she worked with John Rothwell for half a year, before joining Andrew Maudsley at the University of Miami.[3] There she became interested in in vivo magnetic resonance spectroscopy.[4]

Research and career

After returning from Miami, Stagg started a GlaxoSmithKline Junior Research Fellowship at St Edmund Hall, Oxford.[1] She returned to the FMRIB, where she worked with Heidi Johansen-Berg. In 2014 Stagg was awarded a Sir Henry Dale Fellowship by the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society. Her research is focused on the neurophysiological processes associated with learning motor skills.[5] Her early work looked to understand why particular people struggled with dance and piano lessons. In a clinical study Stagg taught volunteers a sequence of finger motions and monitored the levels of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), the brain's main inhibitory neurotransmitter. She showed that in people who quickly learned the finger motions, the levels of GABA fell quickly, which allowed neurons to create new circuitry.

Stagg demonstrated that ipsilesional anodal transcranial direct-current stimulation (tDCS)[6] can support patients in recovery after stroke.[7] In this form of tDCS, a positive current is applied to the damaged area of the brain.[8] They used MRI scans to better understand brain activity before and after the tDCS, and showed that the stimulated regions were more active in the regions relevant to motor skills.[9] Stagg has worked on magnetic resonance spectroscopy as a means to understand neuronal activity in vivo, through the measurement of glutamate and GABA.[10]

Stagg was promoted to Professor of Human Neurophysiology in 2018.

Awards and honours

Selected publications

Notes and References

  1. Web site: Charlotte Stagg Fellow by Special Election in Neuroscience. 2020-07-29. St Edmund Hall. en-GB.
  2. Web site: Prof. Charlotte Stagg mrcbndu. 2020-06-27. www.mrcbndu.ox.ac.uk.
  3. Web site: Professor Charlotte Stagg. 2020-06-27. Brainbox Initiative. en-GB.
  4. Stagg. Charlotte J.. Knight. Steven. Talbot. Kevin. Jenkinson. Mark. Maudsley. Andrew A.. Turner. Martin R.. 2013-02-12. Whole-brain magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging measures are related to disability in ALS. Neurology. 80. 7. 610–615. 10.1212/WNL.0b013e318281ccec. 0028-3878. 3590062. 23325907.
  5. Web site: Professor Charlotte Stagg University of Oxford. 2020-06-27. www.ox.ac.uk.
  6. News: 2014-10-30. Unexpected ways to wake up your brain. en-GB. BBC News. 2020-06-27.
  7. Web site: Electrical brain stimulation could support stroke recovery — Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences. 2020-06-27. www.ndcn.ox.ac.uk.
  8. News: Mundasad. Smitha. 2016-03-17. Electric therapy 'aids stroke recovery'. en-GB. BBC News. 2020-06-27.
  9. Web site: Scutti. Susan. 2016-03-17. An Electric Zap Could Help Stroke-Damaged Brains Recover. 2020-06-27. Medical Daily. en.
  10. Stagg. Charlotte J.. 2014-02-01. Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy as a tool to study the role of GABA in motor-cortical plasticity. NeuroImage. 86. 19–27. 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.01.009. 1095-9572. 23333699. 5203174.
  11. Web site: Dr. Charlotte Stagg - AcademiaNet. 2020-06-27. www.academia-net.org.
  12. Web site: Dr Charlotte Stagg receives Early Career Researcher's Prize. 2020-06-27. St Edmund Hall. en-GB.
  13. Web site: The 2017 winners of the Sieratzki UK-Israel Prize for Advances in Neuroscience - Israel Society for Neuroscience (ISFN). 2020-06-27. www.isfn.org.il.

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