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Dr Tobias Bast
No more applications being accepted
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide)
About the Project
Industrial partner Neupulse
Human brain imaging studies have linked activity of the insula brain region to action/movement control and motor tics – repetitive movements that resemble normal movements but are produced outside the normal context of these movements and are characteristic of Tourette’s.
However, such studies cannot tell us if insula activity causes tics.
In rats, the insula is similarly organised to humans and we can study tic-like movements and other Tourette’s-related behaviours. Therefore, studies in rats, where we can combine experimental brain manipulations with behavioural and neurophysiological measurements, allow us to determine if changes in insula activity cause Tourette’s-related behavioural changes.
In this project, the student will combine manipulations of insula activity in rats, using intracerebral drug microinfusions, with behavioural, electrophysiological and translational neuroimaging measurements in rats.
The project will reveal insula contributions to movement control and other behaviours relevant to Tourette’s and inform the development of new treatments, including non-invasive neuromodulation approaches. The student will spend 3 months with Neupulse, a neurotechnology start-up focusing on neuromodulation devices, where they will learn about translating and commercialising research findings. The translational neuroimaging studies in rats will be completed with our collaborators at the Leibniz Institute of Neurobiology (Magdeburg, Germany).
Funding Notes
Competition Funded PhD Project (Students Worldwide) Closing date 10 January 2025 midday GMT
This is a fully funded Medical Research Council (MRC) studentship. Stipend and tuition fees are paid for 4 years at UKRI rates as well as there being a budget for project consumables, travel and a laptop to be purchased. The funder, UKRI, allows us to appoint up to 30% overseas students.
Projects with an industry partner (iCASE projects) offer a unique opportunity to undertake translational research.
https://more.bham.ac.uk/mrc-aim/
Enquiries
Project to [Email Address Removed]
Programme enquiries to [Email Address Removed]
To apply please refer to https://more.bham.ac.uk/mrc-aim/phd-opportunities/ for project opportunities and application form
References
1. Jackson SR, Loayza J, Crighton M, Sigurdsson HP, Dyke K, Jackson GM. The role of the insula in the generation of motor tics and the experience of the premonitory urge-to-tic in Tourette syndrome. Cortex. 2020;126:119-133.
2. Jackson SR, Parkinson A, Kim SY, Schuermann M, Eickhoff SB. On the functional anatomy of the urge-for-action. Cogn Neurosci. 2011;2(3-4):227-243.
3. Houlgreave MS, Urunuela E, Caballero-Gaudes C, Gowland PA, Dyke K, Brandt V, Mohammed I, Sanchez Panchuelo RM, Jackson SR (2024) Uncovering the Neural Correlates of the Urge-to-Blink: A Study Utilising Subjective Urge Ratings and Paradigm Free Mapping. bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.19.603913
4. Centanni SW, Janes AC, Haggerty DL, Atwood B, Hopf FW. Better living through understanding the insula: Why subregions can make all the difference. Neuropharmacology. 2021;198:108765.
5. Jezzini A, Caruana F, Stoianov I, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G. Functional organization of the insula and inner perisylvian regions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(25):10077- 10082.
6. Hirschtritt ME, Lee PC, Pauls DL, et al. Lifetime Prevalence, Age of Risk, and Genetic Relationships of Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders in Tourette Syndrome. JAMA Psychiatry. 2015;72(4):325–333. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.2650
7. Swerdlow NR (2013) Update: Studies of prepulse inhibition of startle, with particular relevance to the pathophysiology or treatment of Tourette Syndrome. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 37(6), 1150–1156. 10
8. Zebardast N, Crowley MJ, Bloch MH, et al. Brain mechanisms for prepulse inhibition in adults with Tourette syndrome: initial findings. Psychiatry Res. 2013;214(1):33-41.
9. Bronfeld M, Yael D, Belelovsky K, Bar-Gad I. Motor tics evoked by striatal disinhibition in the rat. Front Syst Neurosci. 2013;7:50.
10. Loayza J. Further studies in rat models of neural disinhibition: behavioural, in vivo electrophysiological, and translational imaging studies. PhD thesis. 2023: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/74442/.
11. McGarrity S, Mason R, Fone KC, Pezze M, Bast T. Hippocampal Neural Disinhibition Causes Attentional and Memory Deficits. Cereb Cortex. 2017;27(9):4447-4462.
12. Pezze M, McGarrity S, Mason R, Fone KC, Bast T. Too little and too much: hypoactivation and disinhibition of medial prefrontal cortex cause attentional deficits. J Neurosci. 2014;34(23):7931-7946.
13. Oelschlegel AM, Goldschmidt J. Functional neuroimaging in rodents using cerebral blood flow SPECT. Frontiers in Physics. 2020 Jun 12;8:152.
2. Jackson SR, Parkinson A, Kim SY, Schuermann M, Eickhoff SB. On the functional anatomy of the urge-for-action. Cogn Neurosci. 2011;2(3-4):227-243.
3. Houlgreave MS, Urunuela E, Caballero-Gaudes C, Gowland PA, Dyke K, Brandt V, Mohammed I, Sanchez Panchuelo RM, Jackson SR (2024) Uncovering the Neural Correlates of the Urge-to-Blink: A Study Utilising Subjective Urge Ratings and Paradigm Free Mapping. bioRxiv, https://doi.org/10.1101/2024.07.19.603913
4. Centanni SW, Janes AC, Haggerty DL, Atwood B, Hopf FW. Better living through understanding the insula: Why subregions can make all the difference. Neuropharmacology. 2021;198:108765.
5. Jezzini A, Caruana F, Stoianov I, Gallese V, Rizzolatti G. Functional organization of the insula and inner perisylvian regions. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012;109(25):10077- 10082.
6. Hirschtritt ME, Lee PC, Pauls DL, et al. Lifetime Prevalence, Age of Risk, and Genetic Relationships of Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders in Tourette Syndrome. JAMA Psychiatry. 2015;72(4):325–333. https://doi.org/10.1001/jamapsychiatry.2014.2650
7. Swerdlow NR (2013) Update: Studies of prepulse inhibition of startle, with particular relevance to the pathophysiology or treatment of Tourette Syndrome. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 37(6), 1150–1156. 10
8. Zebardast N, Crowley MJ, Bloch MH, et al. Brain mechanisms for prepulse inhibition in adults with Tourette syndrome: initial findings. Psychiatry Res. 2013;214(1):33-41.
9. Bronfeld M, Yael D, Belelovsky K, Bar-Gad I. Motor tics evoked by striatal disinhibition in the rat. Front Syst Neurosci. 2013;7:50.
10. Loayza J. Further studies in rat models of neural disinhibition: behavioural, in vivo electrophysiological, and translational imaging studies. PhD thesis. 2023: http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/74442/.
11. McGarrity S, Mason R, Fone KC, Pezze M, Bast T. Hippocampal Neural Disinhibition Causes Attentional and Memory Deficits. Cereb Cortex. 2017;27(9):4447-4462.
12. Pezze M, McGarrity S, Mason R, Fone KC, Bast T. Too little and too much: hypoactivation and disinhibition of medial prefrontal cortex cause attentional deficits. J Neurosci. 2014;34(23):7931-7946.
13. Oelschlegel AM, Goldschmidt J. Functional neuroimaging in rodents using cerebral blood flow SPECT. Frontiers in Physics. 2020 Jun 12;8:152.
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