John Stein (physiologist)

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Professor
John Stein
FRCP FMedSci
Born
John Frederick Stein
Awards
Scientific career
Institutions University of Oxford
Doctoral students Daniel Wolpert

John Frederick Stein is a British physiologist. He is Emeritus Professor of Physiology at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Magdalen College, Oxford. His research has focussed on sensorimotor control, the cerebellum, deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease and the neurological basis of dyslexia. [1] Stein was elected as a Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences in 2014. [2]

Contents

Biography

Stein was educated at Winchester College. He read Animal Physiology at New College, Oxford, followed by an MSc in Neural Control of Respiration in the Oxford University Laboratory of Physiology. He completed Clinical Medicine at St Thomas' Hospital, London, followed by a specialism in Neurology. He was appointed Tutor in Medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1970, retiring from that post in 2008. [3] Stein is the brother of the chef and restaurateur Rick Stein, the father of artist Lucy Stein and the uncle of DJ Judge Jules.

Stein is the chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust [4] . He is also a trustee of the Institute for Food, Brain and Behaviour [5] , now rebranded as Think Through Nutrition, and is Chair of the Institute's Science Advisory Council. [6]

Stein came into the public eye when Gordon Brown suggested a student had been discriminated against because of her state school education as she was not offered a place at Magdalen College, Oxford, despite the fact that she had comparable qualifications to the accepted applicants, who came from a broad range of backgrounds. [7]

Stein is active in furthering the medical benefits of animal testing, speaking at pro-testing rallies and demonstrations, and has defended animal testing in high-profile television interviews. [8]

Research

Stein has published over 450 research articles in scientific journals, covering a wide range of fields in physiology and neuroscience with applications to medical practice. [9]

Dyslexia research

Stein has provided evidence in support of the magnocellular theory of developmental dyslexia, arguing that dyslexia is caused by impaired visual and auditory timing systems due to impaired development of magnocellular neurons on which they depend. [10] [11] He has supervised many medical and physiology students at the University of Oxford conducting laboratory work investigating the theory. Stein's research has provided an evidence basis for using colour filters to treat reading difficulties. [12] [13] Alongside his former D.Phil. student, Joe Taylor, Stein has proposed that increasing noradrenergic output from the locus coeruleus via a subcortical irradiance detection pathway may prove effective in the treatment of the condition. [14]

Sensorimotor Control

Along with Tipu Aziz, Stein was instrumental in developing deep brain stimulation as a successful treatment for Parkinson's disease following proof-of-concept experiments in non-human primates. [15] [16] With his former doctoral student Daniel Wolpert, Stein unified experimental and neurological observations of cerebellar function via the theory that the cerebellum contains an internal model that predicts both the outcomes of motor commands and the temporal delay of expected sensory feedback. [17] [18]

Nutrition

Stein has advocated the importance of nutrition for brain development and function, in particular the role of long chain omega-3 fatty acids in maintaining the function of magnocells. Stein has investigated how fish oil and other nutritional supplements can improve behaviour and impulse control in schoolchildren [19] and young offenders [20] .

Related Research Articles

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dystonia</span> Neurological movement disorder

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Pedunculopontine nucleus</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tipu Aziz</span> British neurosurgeon (1956–2024)

Tipu Zahed Aziz was a Bangladeshi-born British professor of neurosurgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford, Aarhus Denmark and Porto, Portugal. He specialised in the study and treatment of Parkinson's disease, multiple sclerosis, dystonia, spasmodic torticollis, fixed abnormal posture of the neck, tremor, and intractable neuropathic pain. Besides his medical work, he was also notable as a public commentator in support of animal experimentation.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Parasol cell</span>

A parasol cell, sometimes called an M cell or M ganglion cell, is one type of retinal ganglion cell (RGC) located in the ganglion cell layer of the retina. These cells project to magnocellular cells in the lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN) as part of the magnocellular pathway in the visual system. They have large cell bodies as well as extensive branching dendrite networks and as such have large receptive fields. Relative to other RGCs, they have fast conduction velocities. While they do show clear center-surround antagonism, they receive no information about color. Parasol ganglion cells contribute information about the motion and depth of objects to the visual system.

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References

  1. ↑ "John Stein". Department of Physiology, Anatomy and Genetics, University of Oxford. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  2. ↑ "Professor John Stein". The Academy of Medical Sciences. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
  3. ↑ "Professor John Stein". Magdalen College, Oxford. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  4. ↑ "THE DYSLEXIA RESEARCH TRUST, registered charity no. 1052989". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  5. ↑ "INSTITUTE FOR FOOD, BRAIN AND BEHAVIOUR, registered charity no. 517817". Charity Commission for England and Wales.
  6. ↑ "Professor John Stein". Think Through Nutrition.
  7. ↑ "INTERVIEW: PROFESSOR JOHN STEIN". BBC: Breakfast with Frost. BBC. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  8. ↑ Aziz, Tipu; Stein, John; Yogeshwar, Ranga (23 February 2011). "Animal testing: TV or not TV?". Nature. 470: 457–459. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  9. ↑ "John Frederick STEIN". ResearchGate. Retrieved 20 December 2024.
  10. ↑ Stein, John F. (27 March 2001). "The magnocellular theory of developmental dyslexia". Dyslexia: An International Journal of Research and Practice. 7 (1): 12–36. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  11. ↑ Stein, John F. (July 2019). "The current status of the magnocellular theory of developmental dyslexia". Neuropsychologia. 130: 66–77.
  12. ↑ Ray, N J.; Fowler, S; Stein, J F. (April 2005). "Yellow Filters Can Improve Magnocellular Function: Motion Sensitivity, Convergence, Accommodation, and Reading". Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1039: 283–293. doi:10.1196/annals.1325.027.
  13. ↑ Hall, R; Ray, N; Harries, P; Stein, J (29 April 2013). "A comparison of two-coloured filter systems for treating visual reading difficulties". Disability and Rehabilitation. 35 (26): 2221–2226. doi:10.3109/09638288.2013.774440.
  14. ↑ Taylor, Visser and Stein. The efficacy of spectral filters in the upregulation of retinohypothalamic drive. Program No. 927.13. 2007. San Diego, CA: Society for Neuroscience, 2007.
  15. ↑ "Using deep brain stimulation to treat Parkinson's disease". Oxford Neuroscience. University of Oxford. Retrieved 19 December 2024.
  16. ↑ Pycroft, Laurie; Stein, John F.; Aziz, Tipu (12 December 2018). "Deep brain stimulation: An overview of history, methods, and future developments". Brain and Neuroscience Advances. 2: 2398212818816017.
  17. ↑ Miall, R. C.; Weir, D. J.; Wolpert, D. M.; Stein, J. F. (1993). "Is the Cerebellum a Smith Predictor?". Journal of Motor Behaviour. 25 (3): 203–216. doi:10.1080/00222895.1993.9942050.
  18. ↑ Stein, John (15 January 2009). "Cerebellar forward models to control movement". The Journal of Physiology. 587 (2): 299. doi:10.1113/jphysiol.2008.167627.
  19. ↑ Tammam, Jonathan D.; Steinsaltz, David; Bester, D. W.; Semb-Andenaes, Turid; Stein, John F. "A randomised double-blind placebo-controlled trial investigating the behavioural effects of vitamin, mineral and n-3 fatty acid supplementation in typically developing adolescent schoolchildren". British Journal of Nutrition. 115 (2): 361–373. doi:10.1017/S0007114515004390.
  20. ↑ "3 Prisons Study: Reducing serious incidents among offenders through nutrition". Think Through Nutrition.
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