2025 Conference

Jessica Andrew is a Ph.D. student in Cognitive Neuroscience at Lancaster University, supervised by Dr. Helen Nuttall, Dr. Christopher Gaffney, and Prof. Christopher Plack, also supported by a CASE studentship in partnership with Brainbox Initiative.

Her research investigates how repeated exposure to sub-concussive head impacts in contact sports affects auditory processing in the brain. Using EEG, she examines both subcortical and cortical auditory evoked potentials in athletes from contact and non-contact sports.

Her work aims to better understand the neural consequences of repetitive sub-concussive impacts, with the long-term goal of identifying early neural markers of head impact exposure and contributing to safer sporting practices.

Gabriel is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the University of Geneva and Geneva University Hospitals, Switzerland, working on a phase II clinical trial investigating a pharmaceutical intervention for post-stroke recovery and learning.

His work involves varying forms of neuroimaging to measure the influence of CCR5 antagonism on motor recovery and plasticity, including microstructure/DWI, whole-brain MRS, and fMRI.

He received his PhD from Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, working under Prof. Sven Vanneste to study the effects of occipital nerve stimulation on motor learning, attention, and auditory perception with EEG, TMS, and physiological recording.

Gabriel’s research focus is understanding motor learning processes under normal and pathological conditions, and how brain imaging and stimulation can be used to quantify and alter these processes.

Anna is pursuing her PhD in Prof. Daria Antonenko's lab at the University of Greifswald, Germany. She has a Master’s in Psychology.

Her research focuses on the neurobiological aspects of brain plasticity and cognitive aging, specifically examining how transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) impacts these areas.

By utilizing multimodal MRI, Anna studies the impact of tDCS on structural and functional brain alterations during the learning process, with the goal of identifying indicators of individual response variability and the effectiveness of the stimulation.

Jade Jackson is a research associate at the MRC Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, University of Cambridge.

She uses multimodal neuroimaging and neurostimulation techniques, both stand-alone and concurrently, to study the human capacity for flexible cognition.

She develops and tests novel brain stimulation paradigms to:

1. Investigate the selection, representation and exchange of task-relevant information in the brain
2. Discern whether the information we read out from the brain with neuroimaging is meaningful for cognition and behaviour and
3. Improve the practical application of concurrent neurostimulation and neuroimaging techniques.

Currently a Research Radiographer employed by the University of Oxford at OxCIN formerly FMRIB.

Michael Sanders has been a radiographer since 1987 working in a variety of roles within both the NHS and the private sector, with approximately 15 years of this being in neurological and neurovascular imaging, including preoperative planning, clinical trial and interventional case imaging. 

He has been a site training specialist responsible for delivering medical imaging training across different imaging modalities for clinical trial sites, delivering training in Europe, the USA and South Africa.

Prior to this he was a clinical specialist in endovascular product support, providing technical training for clinicians and support staff,  also responsible for Sales and Technical Staff training. 

In addition to a radiographic qualification, he has an MSc in Functional Neuroimaging from Brunel University, London

Charlotte Smets is a PhD student in the Neuromodulation Research Lab of Prof. Myles Mc Laughlin at KU Leuven.

She holds a Master’s degree in Biomedical Sciences and was awarded a doctoral fellowship from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO) to support her PhD research on the use of low-intensity transcranial ultrasound stimulation (TUS) in rodent models.

Currently, she is investigating the effects of TUS on the somatosensory cortex of rats, with a particular focus on the variability and reliability of these effects.

By using in vivo electrophysiological recordings to assess neural responses, her work contributes to a deeper understanding of the potential and limitations of TUS as a non-invasive neuromodulation technique.