Signals & Synapses: From Stroke Recovery to Elephant Conversations

When you learn a new movement, whether it’s juggling or riding a bike, your brain isn’t growing whole new parts but instead rewiring what’s already there. After a stroke, the same processes help recovery where undamaged regions take on new roles, existing but quiet pathways are “unmasked”, and intensive task-specific practice helps the brain form useful new circuits. My research focusses in particular on the physiological processes which underly the learning of new motor skills and how we can recover motor function after a stroke. By having a better understanding of these brain circuit fundamentals, we hope to be able to develop novel therapies to improve function in a range of neurological disorders.

What if you could feel a conversation, or sense danger approaching, through your feet? Join Dr Alice Morrell on a ‘Seismic Safari’ to uncover the hidden signals animals are sending through the ground, and discover how scientists are using AI to transform wildlife conservation.
Drawing on Alice’s research at the University of Oxford Animal Vibration Lab, this talk explores how elephants generate and detect low-frequency vibrations, and how artificial intelligence is being used to identify, classify, and interpret these complex signals. Combining insights from biology, physics, and AI, this work is uncovering previously hidden patterns in animal communication and opening new possibilities for conservation, enabling wildlife monitoring that is remote, non-invasive, and scalable.