Newcastle University

Research Interests

Movement neuroscience, neurotechnology, neural prosthetics, Brain-Machine Interfaces

Current Work

A neural prosthesis to restore hand function following spinal cord injury and stroke - We are developing implantable electronic devices and surgical techniques for delivering electrical stimulation to the spinal cord, controlled in real-time from neural signals recorded in the brain.

Investigating mechanisms of learning and plasticity during operation of myoelectric-controlled interfaces and brain-machine interfaces - We use tasks requiring subjects to control computer cursors directly from electrophysiological signals in order to understand the brain mechanisms that underlie learning of abstract neuromotor mappings.

Postgraduate Supervision

Jonas Zimmermann
Harbaljit Sohal
Claire Schofield

Funding

Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship "Closed-Loop Neurostimulation of the Motor System"
EPSRC Project Grant "Ultra Low Power Implantable Platform for Next Generation Neural Interfaces"
MRC Project Grant "Optimal Feedback Control of a Neuromotor Interface"
MRC Milstein Award "Wearable Devices for Reprogramming the Nervous System"
EPSRC Cross-Disciplinary Account "NanoLAB"

• Radhakrishnan SM, Baker SN, Jackson A. Learning a novel myoelectric-controlled interface task. Journal of Neurophysiology 2008, 100(4), 2397-2408.
• Jackson A, Mavoori J, Fetz EE. Long-term motor cortex plasticity induced by an electronic neural implant. Nature 2006,444 7115 56-60.
• Jackson A, Moritz CT, Mavoori J, Lucas TH, Fetz EE. The Neurochip BCI: Towards a neural prosthesis for upper limb function. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering 2006,14 2 187-190.
• Jackson A, Gee VJ, Baker SN, Lemon RN. Synchrony between Neurons with Similar Muscle Fields in Monkey Motor Cortex. Neuron 2003,38 1 115-125.
• Jackson A, Fetz EE. Interfacing With the Computational Brain. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering 2011, 19(5), 534-541.
• Zimmermann JB, Seki K, Jackson A. Reanimating the arm and hand with intraspinal microstimulation. Journal of Neural Engineering 2011, 8(5), 054001.
• Sohal H, Jackson A, Jackson R, Vasilevskiy K, Clowry GJ, O'Neill A, Baker SN. A novel flexible sinusoidal electrode to enhance longevity of chronic neuronal recordings. In: 40th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience. 2010, San Diego, California, USA: Society for Neuroscience.
• Nazarpour K, Jackson A. Biomimetic and biofeedback approaches for brain machine interface. In: APSIPA Annual Summit and Conference 2010. 2010, Singapore: APSIPA.
• Curtis ARJ, Fey C, Morris CM, Bindoff LA, Ince PG, Chinnery PF, Coulthard A, Jackson MJ, Jackson AP, McHale DP, Hay D, Barker WA, Markham AF, Bates D, Curtis A, Burn J. Mutation in the gene encoding ferritin light polypeptide causes dominant adult-onset basal ganglia disease. Nature Genetics 2001, 28(4), 350-354.
• Burgess N, Jackson A, Hartley T, O'Keefe J. Predictions derived from modelling the hippocampal role in navigation. Biological Cybernetics 2000, 83(3), 301-312.