Dr Martin Vreugdenhil

Senior Lecturer in Pharmacology

Email:: martin.vreugdenhil@bcu.ac.uk
Phone:: 0121 331 7046

Martin received a Masters in Biomedical Science from the University of Leiden (Netherlands) and a PhD from the University of Amsterdam. Because he had developed a strong bias for epilepsy research, he took a Post Doc research post at the University of Amsterdam looking into cellular effects of antiepileptic drugs.

Martin moved to the UK to take up a research post at the University of Birmingham, where he studied mechanisms underlying seizure generation on a neuronal network level. He became Lecturer in Neurobiology in 2002 and focused his research on fast rhythms in the brain; how they are generated and what role they play in higher brain functions.

He looked into how normal ageing, epilepsy and psychoactive drugs, like caffeine and ketamine affect fast rhythms and behavior in rats. In the meantime he increased his teaching portfolio and in 2015 jumped ship to focus on teaching at Birmingham City University, while maintaining his preclinical research interests alive in Xinxiang Medical University (China) where he is a visiting professor.

Current Activity

Areas of Expertise

Qualifications

Teaching

Research

Publications

Limited to the past five years:

E.C.Toescu and M. Vreugdenhil (2010). Calcium and normal brain ageing. Cell Calcium 47,158-64.

O.O. Oke, H. Anver, A. Magony, P. Jiruska, J.G.R. Jefferys and M. Vreugdenhil (2010) High-frequency and low-frequency gamma oscillations coexist in rat visual cortex in vitro. Eur J Neuroscience 31, 1435-45.

P.Jiruska, J. Csicsvari, A.D. Powell, J.E. Fox, W.-C. Chang, M. Vreugdenhil, X. Li, M. Palus, A. Fernandez, R. Dearden, and J.G.R Jefferys (2010) High-frequency network activity, global increase in neuronal activity and synchrony expansion precede epileptic seizures in vitro J. Neurosci. 30, 5690-701.

H. Anver, P.C. Ward, A. Magony and M. Vreugdenhil (2011). NMDA receptor hypofunction phase-couples gamma oscillations in the rat visual cortex. Neuropsychopharmacology.36, 519-28.

C.B. Lu, J.G.R. Jefferys, E.C. Toescu and M. Vreugdenhil (2011). In vitro hippocampal gamma oscillation power as an index of in vivo CA3 gamma oscillation strength and spatial reference memory. Neurobiol. Learn. Memory 95, 221-30.

S. Ratte, M. Vreugdenhil, J.K. Boult, A. Patel, J. Collinge and J.G.R. Jefferys (2011). Threshold for epileptiform activity is elevated in prion knockout mice. Neuroscience 179, 56-61.?

C.B. Lu, Z.H. Wang, Y.H. Zhou and M. Vreugdenhil (2012). Temperature- and concentration-dependence of kainate-induced γ oscillation in rat hippocampal slices under submerged condition. Acta Pharmacol. Sin. 33, 214-20.

C.B. Lu, M. Vreugdenhil, E.C. Toescu (2012). The effect of aging-associated impaired mitochondrial status on kainate-evoked hippocampal gamma oscillations. Neurobiol Aging. 33, 2692-703.

K. Ward, H. Khattak, L. Richardson, J.C. Lee and M. Vreugdenhil (2013) NMDA receptor antagonists distort visual grouping in rats performing a modified two-choice visual discrimination task. Psychopharmacology 229, 627-37.

A.N.J. Pietersen, P.D. Ward, N. Hagger-Vaughan, J.G.R. Jefferys and M. Vreugdenhil (2014) Transition between fast- and slow gamma oscillation modes in rat hippocampus area CA1 in vitro is mediated by slow CA3 gamma oscillations. J. Physiol 592, 605-20.