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John Stein

MA MSc BM BCh FRCP FMedSci


Emeritus Professor of Physiology

  • Trustee & Chair of Science Advisory Council, Inst. for Food, Brain & Behaviour
  • Trustee & Chair, Dyslexia Research Trust
  • Scientific Adviser, British Dyslexia Association
  • President, Oxfordshire Dyslexia Association
  • Scientific Advisor, Pedunculopontine Nucleus Stimulation Standards Working Party

After preclinical studies at New College, I trained as a clinical neurologist at St Thomas’s Hospital, London, Leicester and Oxford. I was appointed Fellow and Tutor in Medicine at Magdalen College in 1970. Now Emeritus, I still teach neuroscience a bit, and I lecture frequently to Schools and Societies on why neuroscience is so interesting. 

My research focuses on how vision controls movement in animals, patients with movement disorders, dyslexic children and antisocial offenders. I collaborate with neurosurgeon, Prof Tipu Aziz, on deep brain stimulation for movement disorders and pain, with Dr Sue Fowler on visual dyslexia, and with the Institute of Food, Brain & Behaviour on the influence of nutrition on behaviour. These studies have led to novel approaches to treatment, such as deep brain stimulation of the pedunculopontine nucleus for Parkinsonian freezing and falling, blue and yellow filters for visual dyslexia and omega 3 fatty acid supplements for antisocial behaviour. 

Key publications

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