Brains in Motion: Learning, Damage, and the Data that Tracks Us

Your brain is constantly changing. Every time you learn a skill, have a new experience, or recover from injury, your brain adapts - a process known as plasticity.
In this talk, I’ll explore how plasticity operates at different levels - from rapid changes in brain activity to slower, structural changes in the brain’s “wiring” as we learn new skills. I’ll also discuss how these same processes support recovery after damage and how we might use that understanding to enhance learning or accelerate recovery.
Finally, I’ll ask: to what extent do artificial intelligence systems learn in the same way as the brain?

What if your activity watch could help us understand how to keep minds sharp and hearts healthy as we age? My research introduces wearables into large epidemiological cohorts to measure people’s 24-hour movement behaviours – including physical activity, sedentary time, and sleep. This work moves beyond questionnaires, which are often inaccurate and unreliable, by using objective, real-world, around-the-clock data to identify movement behaviours linked to faster memory decline – a possible early sign of dementia – and higher risk of cardiovascular disease. It also recognises the interplay between movement behaviours across the 24-hour day: more time spent in one behaviour necessarily means less time spent in other behaviours. By examining these behaviours together, rather than in isolation, this research aims to better understand how daily movement patterns influence healthy ageing.