I am a postdoctoral research associate working with Dr. Alison Yarnall and the Brain and Movement (BAM) Research Group within the Translational and Clinical Research Institute. My research interest lie between Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience and I am primarily interested in understanding neural control of the human motor system and how it is altered in movement disorders.
My current research activities involve investigating the safety and tolerability of a transcranial electrical stimulation device in people with Parkinson’s. I am additionally developing novel methods to investigate how the brain controls walking using a multi-modal (PET/MRI) brain imaging coupled with concurrent acquisition of movement and muscle activity measures.
My goal is to use these techniques to understand disease pathology and facilitate targeted therapies.
Previous Roles
I completed my PhD at the University of Nottingham in 2018 where I studied sensory phenomena and brain structure in young people with Tourette syndrome. I then spent few months in Nottingham developing trying to understand the neural substrates of premonitory urges in Tourette syndrome using functional neuroimaging.
Publications:
Sigurdsson, HP., Raw, R., Hunter, H., Baker, MR., Taylor, J-P., Rochester, L & Yarnall AJ. (submitted). Non-invasive vagus nerve stimulation in Parkinson’s Disease: current status and future prospects. Expert Review of Medical Devices.
Sigurdsson, HP., … Rochester, L. (submitted). Gait-related metabolic covariance networks at rest in Parkinson’s disease. Movement Disorders.
Morera Maiquez, B., Sigurdsson, HP, … Jackson, SR. (2020). Entraining movement-related brain oscillations to suppress tics in Tourette syndrome. Current biology.
Sigurdsson, HP,… Jackson, SR (2020). A feasibility study for somatomotor cortical mapping in Tourette syndrome using neuronavigated transcranial magnetic stimulation. Cortex.
Sigurdsson, HP,… Jackson, GM. (2020). Alterations in cerebellar grey matter structure and covariance networks in young people with Tourette syndrome. Cortex
Sigurdsson, HP., Molloy, KJ., Jackson, SR. (2020). Somatomotor cortical representations are predicted by levels of short-interval intracortical inhibition. bioRxiv
Jackson, SR, … Sigurdsson, HP, … Jackson, GM. (2020). The role of the insula in the generation of motor tics and the experience of the premonitory urge-to-tic in Tourette syndrome. Cortex.
Jackson, SR., Sigurdsson, HP., … Jackson, GM. (2020). The role of the cingulate cortex in the generation of motor tics and the experience of the premonitory urge-to-tic in Tourette syndrome. Journal of Neuropsychology. 2018
Sigurdsson, HP,… Jackson, SR. (2018). Alterations in the microstructure of white matter in Tourette syndrome measured using tract-based spatial statistics and probabilistic tractography. Cortex
Chen, C, Sigurdsson, HP,…Jackson, SR. (2017). Activation induced changes in GABA: Functional MRS at 7T with MEGA-sLASER. NeuroImage
Funding:
Co-writing of a successful Parkinson’s UK Project Grant to develop a multimodal imaging method to study gait and balance in Parkinson’s disease using FDG-PET/MR (2020).
Wellcome Trust Broaden your Horizon travel support (2019). Newcastle University.
University of Nottingham internal fund for research lab visit (2018).
Guarantors of Brain Travel awards (2016 & 2017).
EPS Grindley Travel Support Grant (2016).
Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship for Research Excellence (2014). University of Nottingham.
Research Fund award in collaboration with Dr. Solveig Jonsdottir (2013). National University Hospital in Iceland (300,000 ISK/£1,811)
Conferences/Awards:
• Movement Disorder Society (MDS) Congress (2020). Abstract contribution rated as excellent and selected for a Guided Poster Tour.
• Best public engagement quickfire presentation (2017). School of Psychology, University of Nottingham.
• Postgraduate conference best oral presentation runner up (2016). School of Psychology, University of Nottingham.
