Contact information
Sources of Funding
- Medical Research Council
- British Medical Association
- HDH Wills 1965 Charitable Trust
D.Phil PROJECTS / RESEARCH PLACEMENTS
Learn more about D.Phil projects available here.
Thank you for your interest in our research group. I am sorry we are unable to offer research internships, shadowing, or other work experience placements due to limited space.
News and updates
Due to COVID-19, we are not currently actively recruiting for any studies.
Come and learn about Clinical FMRI in our workshop at the Organisation for Human Brain Mapping, 2019.
Natalie Voets
MA (Oxon), D.Phil
Associate Professor
- Principal Investigator, FMRIB Centre/WIN
- Awake Intraoperative Neurosurgery Technician, OUH NHS Foundation Trust
Our research uses neuroimaging techniques to understand how the brain adapts to pathology, injury and treatment in order to improve neurosurgical approaches, outcomes and recovery.
Research Summary
Our translational research uses non-invasive MRI brain imaging techniques to understand how disease and damage affects brain function. Our main area of research is patients who are undergoing brain surgery to treat a brain tumour or drug-resistant epilepsy.
Our hope is that by developing a better understanding of the mechanisms that drive brain plasticity we may be able to identify patterns of brain activity predictive of risks and recovery after treatment. This multidisciplinary research, based at the FMRIB Centre, is conducted in close collaboration with the Oxford Epilepsy Surgery Programme and Neuro-Oncology Surgery service as well as neuroscientists at the Oxford Centre for Human Brain Activity.
Additional translational interests include the effects of head trauma on the brain's structural and functional networks, a project spearheaded by one of my D.Phil students, consultant neurosurgeon Tim Lawrence.
Biography
I am a Research Fellow / Principal Investigator at the FMRIB Centre (now part of the new Wellcome Centre for Integrative Neuroimaging).
I studied Experimental Psychology at Oxford (1999-2002) before completing a D.Phil at the FMRIB Centre (2002-2005) under the supervision of Prof. Paul Matthews focused on Temporal Lobe Epilepsy. Following a post-doctoral position with Prof. Tipu Aziz’s Deep Brain Stimulation research group, I spent 3 years as imaging scientist at the GlaxoSmithKline Clinical Imaging Centre (now Imanova), assessing the sensitivity of multi-modal neuroimaging measures as early markers of efficacy for drugs targeting memory impairment among others. In 2009, I moved to the MNI to work in the NeuroImaging of Epilepsy laboratory before returning to the Oxford FMRIB Centre on a MRC Fellowship later that year.
Key publications
-
Characterising neural plasticity at the single patient level using connectivity fingerprints.
Journal article
Voets NL. et al, (2019), Neuroimage Clin, 24
-
Brain white matter fibre tracts: a review of functional neuro-oncological relevance
Journal article
Voets NL. et al, (2017), Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry, 88, 1017 - 1025
-
Aberrant Functional Connectivity in Dissociable Hippocampal Networks Is Associated with Deficits in Memory
Journal article
Voets NL. et al, (2014), The Journal of Neuroscience, 34, 4920 - 4928
-
Resting connectivity predicts task activation in pre-surgical populations
Journal article
Parker Jones O. et al, (2017), NeuroImage: Clinical, 13, 378 - 385
-
Thalamo-Cortical Disruption Contributes to Short-Term Memory Deficits in Patients with Medial Temporal Lobe Damage
Journal article
Voets NL. et al, (2015), Cerebral Cortex, 25, 4584 - 4595
Recent publications
-
Presurgical Localization of the Primary Sensorimotor Cortex in Gliomas
Journal article
Voets NL. et al, (2020), Clinical Neuroradiology
-
The white matter connectome as an individualized biomarker of language impairment in temporal lobe epilepsy
Journal article
Kaestner E. et al, (2020), NeuroImage: Clinical, 25, 102125 - 102125
-
Unsilencing the right hemisphere: new insights from awake neurosurgery.
Journal article
Voets NL. and Plaha P., (2019), Brain, 142, 2176 - 2178
-
Corrigendum to 'Minimally Invasive Endoscopic Resection of Intraparenchymal Brain Tumors' [World Neurosurgery 82 (2014) 1198-1208].
Journal article
Plaha P. et al, (2019), World neurosurgery, 127, 736 - 736
-
MRS and DTI evidence of progressive posterior cingulate cortex and corpus callosum injury in the hyper-acute phase after Traumatic Brain Injury
Journal article
(2019), Brain Injury
-
Mapping the Neural Basis of Declarative Verbal Memory: Evidence from Mesial Temporal Lobe Lesions
Conference paper
Gleichgerrcht EL. et al, (2019), NEUROLOGY, 92