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Meet the team

University of Nottingham

 

Sue Francis (Principal Investigator)

Professor of Physics at the Sir Peter Mansfield Imaging Centre (SPMIC) University of Nottingham (UoN). Sue has a research focus in the development of novel MRI techniques at 7 T, particularly high resolution fMRI for its use in somatosensory and visual systems. Her ongoing research also includes the development of quantitative MRI methods such as perfusion imaging using ASL (arterial spin labelling), EEG and MEG correlates of fMRI, as well as applying imaging methods outside of the brain, for example programmes of work to study both the liver and kidneys. 

Rosa Sanchez-Panchuelo

Rosa is a Leverhulme Fellow and has led the ground-breaking research being performed here in Nottingham, in high spatial resolution mapping somatosensory cortex at 7 T, including the mapping of the subdivision of primary somatosensory cortex areas using vibrotactile stimulation of digits. Her research focus on pushing the boundaries of 7 T for ultra-high spatial resolution fMRI and applications to neuroscience focus studies.

Denis Schluppeck

Associate Professor in Psychology (UoN). His research involves investigating the visual domain (visual object perception/decision-making) and somatosensory domain (topographic cortical mapping). He is as an expert in visual paradigm development (population receptive fields) and advanced fMRI analysis tools. The tools of his trade include fMRI, psychophysics and computational modelling.  

Paul Glover

Reader in Physics, with expertise in hardware and technological aspects of radiofrequency and gradient usage in MRI. He is also investigating safety legislation by quantifying and understanding the deleterious effects strong magnetic fields can have on the human body. He will be the lead in the design of a novel INMS (intraneural microstimulation) system for use in both the 7T and MEG systems.

Matthew Brookes

Associate Professor of Physics, with research centring on the development and application of multi-modal functional imaging, specifically using MEG (magnetoencephalography). He is an expert in the field of MEG, with pioneering work in analysis of MEG data including novel ways to measure brain connectivity (communication between spatially separate brain regions) via the measurement of neural oscillations.

Miles Humberstone

Consultant clinical neurologist at Queen’s Medical Centre in Nottingham. His clinical interest lies in movement disorders, such as dystonia. Dr Humberstone will recruit patients for the clinical studies of this project. 

Richard Bowtell

Professor of Physics and has been working with MRI for >25 years. He is an expert in MRI hardware development, with experience designing gradient and shim coils, for the application in biomedical sciences. He is also an expert in multimodal imaging, such as EEG-fMRI.

Robert Turner

Honorary professor at the University of Nottingham with honorary appointments at the University of Amsterdam and the Max Planck Institute for Human Cognitive and Brain Sciences in Leipzig. He is part of a distinguished group of pioneering physicists whose work led to the implementation of MRI, and the discovery of the BOLD (blood-oxygenation level dependent) contrast. He has a keen interest in in-vivo neuroanatomy, relating human cytoarchitecture (how neurons are organised in space) to myeloarchitecture (how neurons are connected) and assigning function to brain structures. He will advise in the cortical laminae studies. 

George O'Neill

George is a Postdoctoral Researcher, who specializes in developing novel analysis techniques for magnetoencephalographic (MEG) data. His PhD investigated the dynamics of electrophysiological functional networks in the human brain in task and rest.

Ayan Sengupta

Ayan is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the SPMIC. His research is centered on neuroimaging, with particular interest in Ultra-High Field human fMRI and the application of machine learning (multi-voxel pattern analysis - MVPA) and other computational modeling techniques, to understanding how visual and tactile information are represented in different parts of the brain. A proponent of open and reproducible science, he participates actively in the collaborative development of open-source neuroimaging software.

Liverpool John Moores University 

Francis McGlone

Professor in Cognitive Neuroscience and head of the Somatosensory and Affective Neuroscience Group (SomAffect) at Liverpool John Moores University, with special interest in the role of afferent human c-tactile fibres, which have been implicated in encoding affective or ‘pleasant’ touch. He has experience in the application of studies using a wide range of techniques, including INMS, functional neuroimaging (fMRI, EEG, PET) and pharmacological approaches (investigating the neurotransmitter serotonin in social touch).

University of Gothenburg 

Johan Wessberg

Professor of Neurophysiology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. He is one of the few world experts in recording single-unit recordings of individual neurons using microneurography (working for >30 years). His current research topics include: discovery of C-tactile fibres in hairy skin, and its relationship with pleasant touch; construction of artificial touch devices to simulate human touch; investigating tactile directional sensibility; and using machine learning analysis tools in fMRI and EEG. He has long-term collaborations with pioneers in the field of touch including Hakan Olausson, Roland Johansson, Ake Vallbo and Line Loken.

Rochelle Ackerley

Lecturer at the University of Gothenburg and visiting EU fellow at the Aix-Marseille University. Trained in Prof Wessberg’s lab, she also one of the few world experts in identifying, stimulating, and recording from single mechanoreceptive afferents. She has a keen interest in combining the recording and stimulation of single tactile afferents with brain imaging (fMRI, EEG, MEG). 

Key publications

1. Francis, S. T. et al. fMRI of the responses to vibratory stimulation of digit tips. Neuroimage 11, 188–202 (2000).

2. McGlone, F. et al. Discriminative touch and emotional touch. Can. J. Exp. Psychol. 61, 173–183 (2007).

3. Mcglone, F. et al. Touching and feeling: Differences in pleasant touch processing between glabrous and hairy skin in humans. Eur. J. Neurosci. 35, 1782–1788 (2012).

4. Francis, S. et al. The representation of pleasant touch in the brain and its relationship with taste and olfactory areas. Neuroreport 10, 453–459 (1999).

5. Besle, J., Sánchez-Panchuelo, R.-M., Bowtell, R., Francis, S. & Schluppeck, D. Single-subject fMRI mapping at 7 T of the representation of fingertips in S1: a comparison of event-related and phase-encoding designs. J. Neurophysiol. 109, 2293–305 (2013).

6. Besle, J., Sánchez-Panchuelo, R.-M., Bowtell, R., Francis, S. & Schluppeck, D. Event-related fMRI at 7T reveals overlapping cortical representations for adjacent fingertips in S1 of individual subjects. Hum. Brain Mapp. 35, 2027–43 (2014).

7. Sanchez-Panchuelo, R. M. et al. Within-Digit Functional Parcellation of Brodmann Areas of the Human Primary Somatosensory Cortex Using Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging at 7 Tesla. J. Neurosci. 32, 15815–15822 (2012).

8. Francis, S. & Panchuelo, R. S. Physiological measurements using ultra-high field fMRI: a review. Physiol. Meas. 35, R167–R185 (2014).

9. Sanchez-Panchuelo, R. M., Francis, S., Bowtell, R. & Schluppeck, D. Mapping human somatosensory cortex in individual subjects with 7T functional MRI. J. Neurophysiol. 103, 2544–2556 (2010).

10. Sánchez-Panchuelo, R.-M. et al. Regional structural differences across functionally parcellated Brodmann areas of human primary somatosensory cortex. Neuroimage 93, 221–230 (2014).

11. Vallbo,  a B., Olausson, H. & Wessberg, J. Unmyelinated afferents constitute a second system coding tactile stimuli of the human hairy skin. J. Neurophysiol. 81, 2753–2763 (1999).

12. Löken, L. S., Wessberg, J., Morrison, I., McGlone, F. & Olausson, H. Coding of pleasant touch by unmyelinated afferents in humans. Nat. Neurosci. 12, 547–548 (2009).

13. Ackerley, R. et al. Human C-Tactile Afferents Are Tuned to the Temperature of a Skin-Stroking Caress. J. Neurosci. 34, 2879–2883 (2014).

14. Tommerdahl, M., Simons, S., Chiu, J., Favorov, O. & Whitsel, B. Response of S1 cortex to ipsilateral, contralateral and bilateral flutter stimulation in the cat. BMC Neurosci. 6, 1–10 (2005).