Heidi Johansen-Berg

Heidi Johansen-Berg
Born1974 (age 50–51)
Liverpool
NationalityBritish
EducationDPhil, Oxford University
Alma materOxford University
SpouseMatthew Rushworth
AwardsOHBM Young Investigator Award
Scientific career
FieldsCognitive neuroscience
InstitutionsWellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging, Oxford University
ThesisReorganisation and modulation of the human sensorimotor system: implications for recovery of motor function after stroke (2001)
Doctoral advisorPaul Matthews
Websitewww.ndcn.ox.ac.uk/team/heidi-johansen-berg

Heidi Johansen-Berg FRS is a Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience and Director of the Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging at the University of Oxford. She studies brain plasticity in the context of stroke rehabilitation and aging.[1]

Education and training

Johansen-Berg went to Waseley Hills High School in Rubery, Birmingham. She later received an undergraduate degree in experimental psychology and philosophy from St Edmund Hall at the University of Oxford, where she is now a fellow. She then stayed at Oxford to complete a 4-year DPhil in Neuroscience funded by the Wellcome Trust.

Personal life

Heidi Johansen-Berg was born in Liverpool UK in 1974 from parents John and Joan Johansen-Berg. She has 2 brothers - Mark and Jake Johansen-Berg, and is married to Matthew Rushworth with whom they have two daughters.

Achievements and awards

Johansen-Berg was the Chair of Organization for Human Brain Mapping[2] in 2010–2011. In 2016 Johansen-Berg received a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship[3] to support her work on neuroplasticity. She was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 2024.[4]

Research

Johansen-Berg has contributed to understanding of how stroke impacts the human brain and what rehabilitation strategies can help stroke patients. She published one of the first longitudinal fMRI stroke rehabilitation studies, showing that successful outcomes are associated with increased recruitment of specific motor areas.[5][6] She also made early contributions to methods for tracing white matter pathways in the brain based on diffusion MRI, in particular developing the concept of a 'connectivity fingerprint' to parcellate neighbouring brain areas based upon their connections to other brain regions.[7] She has been influential in the implementation of these methods in the FMRIB Software Library (FSL). Her current research focuses on white matter plasticity. Her group provided the first demonstration of white matter plasticity in the human brain;[8] more recently, she has investigated the microstructural basis of this plasticity in rodent models.[9]

References

Scholia has a profile for Heidi Johansen-Berg (Q21260835).
  1. ^ "Heidi Johansen-Berg". Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience.
  2. ^ "Past Officers of OHBM - Organization for Human Brain Mapping". humanbrainmapping.org. Retrieved 2019-09-08.
  3. ^ "Wellcome Trust Award for work on plasticity". Nuffield Department of Clinical Neuroscience.
  4. ^ "Professor Heidi Johansen Berg FRS". Royal Society. Retrieved 2024-05-20.
  5. ^ Johansen-Berg H, Rushworth MF, Bogdanovic MD, Kischka U, Wimalaratna S, Matthews PM (October 2002). "The role of ipsilateral premotor cortex in hand movement after stroke". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 99 (22): 14518–23. Bibcode:2002PNAS...9914518J. doi:10.1073/pnas.222536799. PMC 137915. PMID 12376621.
  6. ^ Johansen-Berg H, Dawes H, Guy C, Smith SM, Wade DT, Matthews PM (December 2002). "Correlation between motor improvements and altered fMRI activity after rehabilitative therapy". Brain. 125 (Pt 12): 2731–42. doi:10.1093/brain/awf282. PMID 12429600.
  7. ^ Johansen-Berg H, Behrens TE, Robson MD, Drobnjak I, Rushworth MF, Brady JM, Smith SM, Higham DJ, Matthews PM (September 2004). "Changes in connectivity profiles define functionally distinct regions in human medial frontal cortex". Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 101 (36): 13335–40. Bibcode:2004PNAS..10113335J. doi:10.1073/pnas.0403743101. PMC 516567. PMID 15340158.
  8. ^ Scholz J, Klein MC, Behrens TE, Johansen-Berg H (November 2009). "Training induces changes in white-matter architecture". Nat. Neurosci. 12 (11): 1370–1. doi:10.1038/nn.2412. PMC 2770457. PMID 19820707.
  9. ^ Sampaio-Baptista C, Khrapitchev AA, Foxley S, Schlagheck T, Scholz J, Jbabdi S, DeLuca GC, Miller KL, Taylor A, Thomas N, Kleim J, Sibson NR, Bannerman D, Johansen-Berg H (December 2013). "Motor skill learning induces changes in white matter microstructure and myelination". J. Neurosci. 33 (50): 19499–503. doi:10.1523/JNEUROSCI.3048-13.2013. PMC 3858622. PMID 24336716.