Anujan Poologaindran

Department of Psychiatry

Each year over 5000 people die in the UK from cancerous brain tumours. While neurosurgery improves survival, patients have unpredictable post-operative trajectories including impairments to speech, memory, and attention that diminish quality of life. In order to mitigate these issues, I use brain mapping and network science to track how the brain reorganises after tumour removal. Through this process, I discovered that early rehabilitation of cognitive processes is critical for full recovery and that we can distinguish individuals requiring more intensive rehabilitation early in their post-operative care. To advance this discovery with industry collaboration, we are now piloting brain stimulation technology to accelerate how the brain reorganises following surgery; this strategy is applicable to many other conditions, including traumatic brain injury and epilepsy.