Professor Chris Miall BSc, DIC, PhD, ARCS

Chris Miall

School of Psychology
Emeritus Professor of Motor Neuroscience

Contact details

Telephone
+44 (0)121 41 42867
Email
r.c.miall@bham.ac.uk
View my research portal
Address
School of Psychology
University of Birmingham
Edgbaston
Birmingham
B15 2TT
UK

Professor Miall has been studying sensorimotor control for about 35 years, from his PhD in locusts, to crayfish, primates and for about 20 years he has been working exclusively on human sensory and motor systems. He is particularly interested in the role of the cerebellum, in sensory motor learning and in predictive control, and the impact of somatosensory loss on movement and cognition.

His research team website is: http://prism.bham.ac.uk

Qualifications

  • B.Sc. (Imperial, London, 1977)
  • Ph.D. (Imperial, London, 1980)

Teaching

Professor Miall has recently taught a first year module, Introduction to Learning, a second year course on the Neural Control of Movement, and he teaches on the MSc courses in Brain Imaging and Cognitive Neuroscience and in Computational Neuroscience and Cognitive Robotics.

Postgraduate supervision

Chris Miall is interested in supervising doctoral researchers in topics related to sensory-motor control, motor learning and the function of the cerebellum. Suitable candidates should be knowledgeable about neuroscience and interested in quantitative analysis of behaviour.

Other activities

Professor Miall has served on the board of the Society for the Neural Control of Movement for three terms, is a member of the Society for Research on the Cerebellum, of the British Neuroscience Association, and the Society for Neuroscience.

He has held Research Fellowships from the MRC, Wolfson College Oxford, Kings College Cambridge, the Wellcome Trust and the Royal Society-Leverhulme Trust (2017-2018). In 2011 he was elected a Fellow of the British Psychological Society.

He will hold a Leverhulme Emeritus Fellowship in 2021.

He served on the MRC Neuroscience and Mental Health Board (NMHB) from 2015-2019.

Publications

Recent publications

Article

Kitchen, NM & Miall, RC 2021, 'Adaptation of reach action to a novel force-field is not predicted by acuity of dynamic proprioception in either older or younger adults', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 239, no. 2, pp. 557-574. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-020-05997-3

Weightman, M, Brittain, J-S, Miall, RC & Jenkinson, N 2021, 'Direct and indirect effects of cathodal cerebellar TDCS on visuomotor adaptation of hand and arm movements', Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 4464. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-83656-5

Gilbert, M & Miall, C 2021, 'Gating by Functionally Indivisible Cerebellar Circuits: a Hypothesis', The Cerebellum. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12311-020-01223-6

Gilbert, M & Chris Miall, R 2021, 'How and Why the Cerebellum Recodes Input Signals: An Alternative to Machine Learning', The Neuroscientist. https://doi.org/10.1177/1073858420986795

Miall, RC, Afanasyeva, D, Cole, JD & Mason, P 2021, 'Perception of body shape and size without touch or proprioception: evidence from individuals with congenital and acquired neuropathy', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 239, no. 4, pp. 1203-1221. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06037-4

Miall, RC, Afanasyeva, D, Cole, JD & Mason, P 2021, 'The role of somatosensation in automatic visuo-motor control: a comparison of congenital and acquired sensory loss', Experimental Brain Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-021-06110-y

Coulborn, S, Bowman, H, Miall, RC & Fernández-Espejo, D 2020, 'Effect of tDCS Over the Right Inferior Parietal Lobule on Mind-Wandering Propensity', Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 14, 230. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnhum.2020.00230

Weightman, M, Brittain, JS, Punt, D, Miall, RC & Jenkinson, N 2020, 'Targeted tDCS selectively improves motor adaptation with the proximal and distal upper limb', Brain stimulation, vol. 13, no. 3, pp. 707-716. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.brs.2020.02.013

Rosenthal, O, Wing, A, Wyatt, J, Punt, T, Brownless, B, Koko, C & Miall, R 2019, 'Boosting robot-assisted rehabilitation of stroke hemiparesis by individualized selection of upper limb movements: a pilot study', J Neuroeng Rehabil, vol. 16, no. 1, 42. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-019-0513-0

Miall, RC, Rosenthal, O, Ørstavik, K, Cole, JD & Sarlegna, FR 2019, 'Loss of haptic feedback impairs control of hand posture: a study in chronically deafferented individuals when grasping and lifting objects', Experimental Brain Research, vol. 237, no. 9, pp. 2167-2184. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00221-019-05583-2

Lin, C-H, Tierney, TM, Holmes, N, Boto, E, Leggett, J, Bestmann, S, Bowtell, R, Brookes, MJ, Barnes, GR & Miall, RC 2019, 'Using optically-pumped magnetometers to measure magnetoencephalographic signals in the human cerebellum', The Journal of Physiology, vol. 597, no. 16, pp. 4309-4324. https://doi.org/10.1113/JP277899

Renault, AG, Auvray, M, Parseihian, G, Miall, RC, Cole, J & Sarlegna, FR 2018, 'Does Proprioception Influence Human Spatial Cognition? A Study on Individuals With Massive Deafferentation', Frontiers in Psychology, vol. 9. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01322

Comment/debate

Rosenthal, O, Wing, AM, Wyatt, JL, Punt, D, Brownless, B, Ko-Ko, C & Miall, RC 2019, 'Correction to:: Boosting robot-assisted rehabilitation of stroke hemiparesis by individualized selection of upper limb movements - A pilot study (Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation DOI: 10.1186/s12984-019-0513-0)', Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, vol. 16, no. 1, 51. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12984-019-0521-0

Preprint

Aloi, D, Jalali, R, Tilsley, P, Miall, RC & Fernández-Espejo, D 2021 'tDCS modulates effective connectivity during motor command following; a potential therapeutic target for disorders of consciousness' bioRxiv, pp. 1-34. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.02.09.430392

Review article

Caligiore, D, Miall, R, Arbib, M & Baldassarre, G 2019, 'The super-learning hypothesis: integrating learning processes across cortex, cerebellum and basal ganglia', Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews, vol. 100, pp. 19-34. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2019.02.008

View all publications in research portal

Expertise

How the human brain controls movement; how we learn and adapt our movements; visual guided movement; use of brain imaging, brain stimulation and movement recording methods, both in normal people and in patients with movement disorders

Alternative contact number available for this expert: contact the press office