Junheng Li
Project title: Investigation of the falling asleep brain dynamics and its closed-loop augmentation strategy
Supervisor: Dr Nir Grossman
Location: Level 5, Burlington Danes Building, Hammersmith Campus, Du Cane Road, W12 0NN
About Me
I am a PhD student in the Grossman lab in the Department of Brain Sciences at Imperial College London. I graduated from Xidian University in 2017, and then received an MSc with distinction from Imperial in 2018, specialising in engineering and signal processing. Now, I am very eagerly applying my engineering expertise into the neuroscience research, looking to better understand brain signals and machine learning techniques.
Publications
- Schreglmann S, Wang D, Peach R, Li J, Zhang X, Latorre A, Rhodes E, Panella E, Boyden E, Barahona M, Santaniello S, Bhatia K, Rothwell J, Grossman N. (2021). Non-invasive amelioration of essential tremor via phase-locked disruption of its temporal coherence, Nature Communications, Vol: 12, ISSN: 2041-1723
- Vinao-Carl M, Gal-Shohet Y, Rhodes E, Li J, Hampshire A, Sharp D, & Grossman N. (2024). Just a phase? Causal probing reveals spurious phasic dependence of sustained attention. NeuroImage,285, 120477.
- Tang J, Huang H, Muirhead R, Zhou Y, Li J, DeFelice J, Kopanitsa M, Serneels L, Davey K, Tilley B, Gentleman S, Matthews P, Associations of amyloid-β oligomers and plaques with neuropathology in the AppNL-G-Fmouse, Brain Communications, 2024.
Qualifications
- 2014-2017: BEng. in Telecommunications Engineering, Xidian University
- 2017-2018: MSc in Communications and Signal Processing (Distinction), Imperial College London
Research Interests
My PhD focuses on using novel feature-based signal processing technique combined with machine learning to better understand brain signals and exploring mechanisms. Specifically, we are trying to use neuro-modulation techniques to intervene brain activities and facilitate restorative sleep in dementia patients. Novel feature-based analysis approach will be implemented in such brain activity analysis (normally spatio-temporal EEG), and machine learning algorithms are used to find out mechanisms in neuro-intervention, which in turn directs us to optimise the stimulation for better outcomes.
Conferences
- Presentation in ECR day at Connectome 2021: "The brain dynamics during falling asleep"
- Poster presentation at Computational Neuroscience Society (CNS) conference 2023
Contact details
Email: junheng.li17@imperial.ac.uk
How temperature and circadian rhythms intersect to regulate a protein shown to protect against neurodegeneration
A new study led by Dr Marco Brancaccio (UK DRI at Imperial) and Dr Marieke Hoekstra (former UK DRI at Imperial, now VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research) offers a deeper insight into how a neuroprotective pathway is regulated both by temperature and the body clock. This research, published in the journal PNAS, could open up new therapeutic avenues for neurodegenerative disease. Read more on the UK DRI website
Introducing Cynthia Sandor: Pioneering earlier detection of Parkinson’s
Dr Cynthia Sandor, former Emerging Leader at the UK DRI at Cardiff, joins the UK DRI at Imperial as a Group Leader, where she will be tackling early diagnosis of Parkinson’s.
With a background in genetics, Dr Sandor uses computational methods to bring greater understanding to the underlying molecular mechanisms of Parkinson’s. Read more about Cynthia's work on the UK DRI website.
