Masud Husain

Last updated
Masud Husain
FRCP FMedSci
Masud cropped.jpg
Husain in 2023
Born
Masud Husain
Education King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys
Alma mater University of Oxford (BMBCh, DPhil)
Awards Harkness Fellowship
Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship (2012)
Scientific career
Fields Cognitive neurology
Working memory
Apathy
Alzheimer's disease
Parkinson's disease [1]
Institutions
Thesis On hemispheric specialisation and visual direction sense  (1987)
Website www.masudhusain.org OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg

Masud Husain FRCP FMedSci [2] is a clinical neurologist and neuroscientist at the University of Oxford. [3] [1] He is Professor of Neurology & Cognitive Neuroscience at the Nuffield Department of Clinical Neurosciences [4] and Departmental of Experimental Psychology, [5] University of Oxford, a Professorial Fellow at New College, Oxford, [6] and Editor-in-Chief of the journal Brain . [7] [8] He was born in East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.[ citation needed ]

Contents

Education

Husain was educated at King Edward VI Camp Hill School for Boys, Birmingham, and studied medicine at the University of Oxford where he was a student at New College, Oxford and received a Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery (BMBCh) degree [5] followed by a DPhil in 1987. [9]

Research and career

Husain held a Harkness Fellowship as a postdoctoral fellow in the laboratory of Richard A. Andersen at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). [10] He completed his clinical and neurological training at hospitals in Oxford and London. [4]

Husain's research focuses on cognitive functions in people with neurological diseases and healthy people. [4] [5] [11] [12] [13] [14] [15] [16] [17]

In an editorial in 2025, Husain criticised the rise of Bullshit Jobs in Universities in the United Kingdom. [7]

Attention and inattention

His work on people with hemispatial neglect following stroke demonstrated several novel components of this syndrome. Using the attentional blink paradigm he showed that there were non-spatial, selective attention deficits in these patients, [18] in addition to their well-established directional attentional bias. Subsequent behavioural studies revealed that some people with hemispatial neglect can also suffer from impaired spatial working memory, [19] often revisiting locations without being aware that they have fixated them before. [20] [21] Some may have poor sustained attention as measured on vigilance tasks, [22] or even directional motor deficits as indexed by paradigms where the spatial location of a visual target is dissociated from direction of movement required to reach it. [23] [24] These findings provided further evidence for neglect being a multi-component syndrome, with different patients having different deficits, depending upon the extent of their lesion. [25] [26] Critical brain regions associated with neglect that were identified by this work, included the right inferior posterior parietal and frontal regions. [27] [28] Experimental medicine studies by Husain's group using the dopamine agonist rotigotine [29] and the noradrenergic agonist guanfacine [30] [31] demonstrated that these drugs can ameliorate hemispatial neglect to some extent by improving attention.

Visual short-term or working memory

By using new methods to measure the precision of recall in healthy people, work in Husain's lab challenged the view that capacity of visual short-term memory or working memory is limited to a fixed number of items. [32] [33] Instead, this research revealed that although short-term memory is a highly limited resource, it can be flexibly deployed depending upon task demands. [34] This work led to the application of new methods to measure short-term memory in patients with Alzheimer's disease, [35] [36] Parkinson's disease [35] [36] [37] and individuals at risk of developing these conditions. [35] [36] [37] [38] The techniques that have been developed can provide more sensitive ways to measure short-term memory than traditional methods. [39] They have also revealed how different mechanisms might underlie short-term memory disorders in different neurological conditions. [36]

Motivation, apathy and initiation of action

Work from Husain's lab showed that lesions to ventral basal ganglia leads to a condition of profound apathy, manifest as a lack of motivation to initiate action and specifically attributable to a deficit in reward sensitivity. [40] Using the dopamine receptor agonist ropinirole, it was possible to improve reward sensitivity, restore motivational vigour and reverse apathy. [40] These observations stimulated larger-scale studies in Parkinson's disease, a condition associated with basal ganglia pathology and often debilitating apathy. The syndrome of pathological apathy in Parkinson's disease [41] [42] and small vessel cerebrovascular disease [43] [44] was found to be characterised by reduced sensitivity to rewards, a deficit that could be ameliorated by dopaminergic drugs in Parkinson's disease. [41] [42] This has led to a theoretical framework to understand mechanisms underlying apathy across brain disorders which incorporates concepts from cost-benefit decision making to formalise how people differ in their willingness to engage in effort in order to obtain potential rewards. [45]

The basal ganglia are considered to be essential for linking motivation to action systems. [46] Outputs of the basal ganglia are strongly connected to medial frontal cortex. Husain's group identified a mechanism that resolves competition between conflicting action plans, in medial frontal brain regions, including the supplementary eye field, [47] supplementary motor area and pre-supplementary motor area. [48] [49] A key component of voluntary control paradoxically appears to involve inhibition of unwanted actions that are primed automatically by seeing objects around us. [50] This control is lost following supplementary motor area and pre-supplementary motor area lesions. Findings from lesion, stimulation and physiological studies were incorporated to provide a new theoretical framework for the role of the supplementary motor area and pre-supplementary motor area complex. [51]

Awards and honours

Husain held a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellowship at Imperial College London (2000-2007) and University College London (UCL) (2007–12). He was awarded a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellowship (2012-2023) and elected Fellow of the Academy of Medical Sciences (FMedSci) in 2008. [2] Husain was awarded the Graham Bull Prize in Clinical Science by the Royal College of Physicians in 2006, British Neuropsychological Society's Elizabeth Warrington Prize (2006), [52] and the European Academy of Neurology Investigator Award (2016). [53] He is Fellow of the American Academy of Neurology (2018) and Fellow of the European Academy of Neurology (2018), [54] and is co-lead of the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre Dementia theme (2022 -) [55] and Dementia Research Oxford at the University of Oxford. [56]

References

  1. 1 2 Masud Husain publications indexed by Google Scholar OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  2. 1 2 Anon (2008). "Professor Masud Husain". acmedsci.ac.uk. London: The Academy of Medical Sciences . Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  3. ↑ Masud Husain publications from Europe PubMed Central OOjs UI icon edit-ltr-progressive.svg
  4. 1 2 3 "Masud Husain". ndcn.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  5. 1 2 3 "Masud Husain". psy.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  6. ↑ "Masud Husain | New College". new.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  7. 1 2 Husain, Masud (2025). "On the responsibilities of intellectuals and the rise of bullshit jobs in universities". Brain. 148 (3): 687–688. doi:10.1093/brain/awaf045. PMID   40048619.
  8. ↑ "Editorial_Board". Oxford Academic. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  9. ↑ Husain, Masud (1987). On hemispheric specialisation and visual direction sense. ox.ac.uk (DPhil thesis). University of Oxford. ISBN   9798206358568. ProQuest   303614968.
  10. ↑ "Alumni". caltech.edu. Andersen Lab. Retrieved 2023-11-10.
  11. ↑ "Brain structure may be root of apathy | University of Oxford". ox.ac.uk. 2015-11-13. Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  12. ↑ "High blood pressure and diabetes impair brain function, study suggests". theguardian. The Guardian. ISSN   0261-3077 . Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  13. ↑ "Covid-19: Infection raises brain conditions risk". bbc.co.uk. BBC News . Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  14. ↑ "Canongate acquires neurologist's debut book on brain disorders and identity". thebookseller.com. The Bookseller . Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  15. ↑ Husain's ORCID   0000-0002-6850-9255
  16. ↑ Prior, Ryan (2021-04-07). "A third of Covid-19 survivors suffer 'brain disease,' study shows". cnn.com. CNN . Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  17. ↑ "Brain disorders affect 1 in 3 Covid survivors, large UK study shows". ft.com. Financial Times . Retrieved 2024-03-11.
  18. ↑ Husain, Masud; Shapiro, Kimron; Martin, Jesse; Kennard, Christopher (1997). "Abnormal temporal dynamics of visual attention in spatial neglect patients" . Nature. 385 (6612): 154–156. Bibcode:1997Natur.385..154H. doi:10.1038/385154a0. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   8990117. S2CID   4281607.
  19. ↑ Paresh Malhotra; H Rolf Jäger; Andrew Parton; Richard Greenwood; E Diane Playford; Martin M Brown; Jon Driver; Masud Husain (11 January 2005). "Spatial working memory capacity in unilateral neglect". Brain . 128 (Pt 2): 424–435. doi:10.1093/BRAIN/AWH372. ISSN   0006-8950. PMID   15644422. Wikidata   Q49156659.
  20. ↑ Husain, M. (2001-05-01). "Impaired spatial working memory across saccades contributes to abnormal search in parietal neglect". Brain. 124 (5): 941–952. doi: 10.1093/brain/124.5.941 . PMID   11335696.
  21. ↑ Mannan, Sabira K.; Mort, Dominic J.; Hodgson, Tim L.; Driver, Jon; Kennard, Christopher; Husain, Masud (2005-02-01). "Revisiting Previously Searched Locations in Visual Neglect: Role of Right Parietal and Frontal Lesions in Misjudging Old Locations as New" . Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 17 (2): 340–354. doi:10.1162/0898929053124983. ISSN   0898-929X. PMID   15811244. S2CID   9434730.
  22. ↑ Malhotra, Paresh; Coulthard, Elizabeth J.; Husain, Masud (2009). "Role of right posterior parietal cortex in maintaining attention to spatial locations over time". Brain. 132 (3): 645–660. doi:10.1093/brain/awn350. ISSN   1460-2156. PMC   2664449 . PMID   19158107.
  23. ↑ Mattingley, Jason B.; Husain, Masud; Rorden, Chris; Kennard, Christopher; Driver, Jon (1998). "Motor role of human inferior parietal lobe revealed in unilateral neglect patients" . Nature. 392 (6672): 179–182. Bibcode:1998Natur.392..179M. doi:10.1038/32413. ISSN   0028-0836. PMID   9515962. S2CID   205001866.
  24. ↑ Husain, M.; Mattingley, Jason B.; Rorden, Chris; Kennard, Christopher; Driver, John (2000-08-01). "Distinguishing sensory and motor biases in parietal and frontal neglect". Brain. 123 (8): 1643–1659. doi: 10.1093/brain/123.8.1643 . PMID   10908194.
  25. ↑ Husain, Masud; Rorden, Chris (2003). "Non-spatially lateralized mechanisms in hemispatial neglect" . Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 4 (1): 26–36. doi:10.1038/nrn1005. ISSN   1471-003X. PMID   12511859. S2CID   11450338.
  26. ↑ Husain, Masud (2019). "Visual Attention: What Inattention Reveals about the Brain". Current Biology. 29 (7): R262 –R264. Bibcode:2019CBio...29.R262H. doi: 10.1016/j.cub.2019.02.026 . PMID   30939313. S2CID   89617355.
  27. ↑ Dominic J Mort; Paresh Malhotra; Sabira K Mannan; Chris Rorden; Alidz Pambakian; Chris Kennard; Masud Husain (23 June 2003). "The anatomy of visual neglect". Brain . 126 (Pt 9): 1986–1997. doi:10.1093/BRAIN/AWG200. ISSN   0006-8950. PMID   12821519. Wikidata   Q48272986.
  28. ↑ Husain, Masud; Kennard, Christopher (1996-09-01). "Visual neglect associated with frontal lobe infarction" . Journal of Neurology. 243 (9): 652–657. doi:10.1007/BF00878662. ISSN   1432-1459. PMID   8892067. S2CID   11280313.
  29. ↑ Nikos Gorgoraptis; Yee-Haur Mah; Bjoern Machner; et al. (2 July 2012). "The effects of the dopamine agonist rotigotine on hemispatial neglect following stroke". Brain . 135 (Pt 8): 2478–2491. doi:10.1093/BRAIN/AWS154. ISSN   0006-8950. PMC   3407421 . PMID   22761293. Wikidata   Q36124394.
  30. ↑ Malhotra, Paresh A.; Parton, Andrew D.; Greenwood, Richard; Husain, Masud (2006). "Noradrenergic modulation of space exploration in visual neglect" . Annals of Neurology. 59 (1): 186–190. doi:10.1002/ana.20701. ISSN   0364-5134. PMID   16261567. S2CID   41900093.
  31. ↑ Dalmaijer, Edwin S.; Li, Korina M. S.; Gorgoraptis, Nikos; Leff, Alexander P.; Cohen, David L.; Parton, Andrew D.; Husain, Masud; Malhotra, Paresh A. (2018-06-01). "Randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled crossover study of single-dose guanfacine in unilateral neglect following stroke". Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery & Psychiatry. 89 (6): 593–598. doi:10.1136/jnnp-2017-317338. ISSN   0022-3050. PMC   6031270 . PMID   29436486.
  32. ↑ Bays, Paul M.; Husain, Masud (2008-08-08). "Dynamic Shifts of Limited Working Memory Resources in Human Vision". Science. 321 (5890): 851–854. Bibcode:2008Sci...321..851B. doi:10.1126/science.1158023. ISSN   0036-8075. PMC   2532743 . PMID   18687968.
  33. ↑ Bays, P. M.; Catalao, R. F. G.; Husain, M. (2009-09-01). "The precision of visual working memory is set by allocation of a shared resource". Journal of Vision. 9 (10): 7.1–11. doi:10.1167/9.10.7. ISSN   1534-7362. PMC   3118422 . PMID   19810788.
  34. ↑ Ma, Wei Ji; Husain, Masud; Bays, Paul M. (2014). "Changing concepts of working memory". Nature Neuroscience. 17 (3): 347–356. doi:10.1038/nn.3655. ISSN   1546-1726. PMC   4159388 . PMID   24569831.
  35. 1 2 3 Zokaei, Nahid; Sillence, Annie; Kienast, Annika; Drew, Daniel; Plant, Olivia; Slavkova, Ellie; Manohar, Sanjay G.; Husain, Masud (2020-11-01). "Different patterns of short-term memory deficit in Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease and subjective cognitive impairment". Cortex. 132: 41–50. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2020.06.016. ISSN   0010-9452. PMC   7651994 . PMID   32919108.
  36. 1 2 3 4 Zokaei, Nahid; Husain, Masud (2019), Hodgson, Timothy (ed.), "Working Memory in Alzheimer's Disease and Parkinson's Disease" , Processes of Visuospatial Attention and Working Memory, Current Topics in Behavioral Neurosciences, vol. 41, Cham: Springer International Publishing, pp. 325–344, doi:10.1007/7854_2019_103, ISBN   978-3-030-31026-4, PMID   31347008, S2CID   198912072 , retrieved 2023-10-30
  37. 1 2 Rolinski, Michal; Zokaei, Nahid; Baig, Fahd; Giehl, Kathrin; Quinnell, Timothy; Zaiwalla, Zenobia; Mackay, Clare E.; Husain, Masud; Hu, Michele T. M. (2016). "Visual short-term memory deficits in REM sleep behaviour disorder mirror those in Parkinson's disease". Brain. 139 (1): 47–53. doi:10.1093/brain/awv334. ISSN   0006-8950. PMC   4949392 . PMID   26582557.
  38. ↑ Yuying Liang; Yoni Pertzov; Jennifer M Nicholas; et al. (6 February 2016). "Visual short-term memory binding deficit in familial Alzheimer's disease". Cortex . 78: 150–164. doi:10.1016/J.CORTEX.2016.01.015. ISSN   0010-9452. PMC   4865502 . PMID   27085491. Wikidata   Q36896897.
  39. ↑ Nahid Zokaei; Stephanie Burnett Heyes; Nikos Gorgoraptis; Sanjay Budhdeo; Masud Husain (11 September 2014). "Working memory recall precision is a more sensitive index than span". Journal of Neuropsychology. 9 (2): 319–329. doi:10.1111/JNP.12052. ISSN   1748-6645. PMID   25208525. Wikidata   Q48551461.
  40. 1 2 Adam, Robert; Leff, Alexander; Sinha, Nihal; Turner, Christopher; Bays, Paul; Draganski, Bogdan; Husain, Masud (2013). "Dopamine reverses reward insensitivity in apathy following globus pallidus lesions". Cortex. 49 (5): 1292–1303. doi:10.1016/j.cortex.2012.04.013. PMC   3639369 . PMID   22721958.
  41. 1 2 Muhammed, Kinan; Manohar, Sanjay; Ben Yehuda, Michael; Chong, Trevor T.-J.; Tofaris, George; Lennox, Graham; Bogdanovic, Marko; Hu, Michele; Husain, Masud (2016). "Reward sensitivity deficits modulated by dopamine are associated with apathy in Parkinson's disease". Brain. 139 (10): 2706–2721. doi:10.1093/brain/aww188. ISSN   0006-8950. PMC   5035817 . PMID   27452600.
  42. 1 2 Le Heron, Campbell; Plant, Olivia; Manohar, Sanjay; Ang, Yuen-Siang; Jackson, Matthew; Lennox, Graham; Hu, Michele T; Husain, Masud (2018-05-01). "Distinct effects of apathy and dopamine on effort-based decision-making in Parkinson's disease". Brain. 141 (5): 1455–1469. doi:10.1093/brain/awy110. ISSN   0006-8950. PMC   5917786 . PMID   29672668.
  43. ↑ Le Heron, Campbell; Manohar, Sanjay; Plant, Olivia; Muhammed, Kinan; Griffanti, Ludovica; Nemeth, Andrea; Douaud, Gwenaëlle; Markus, Hugh S; Husain, Masud (2018-10-20). "Dysfunctional effort-based decision-making underlies apathy in genetic cerebral small vessel disease". Brain. 141 (11): 3193–3210. doi:10.1093/brain/awy257. ISSN   0006-8950. PMC   6202575 . PMID   30346491.
  44. ↑ Saleh, Youssuf; Le Heron, Campbell; Petitet, Pierre; Veldsman, Michele; Drew, Daniel; Plant, Olivia; Schulz, Ursula; Sen, Arjune; Rothwell, Peter M; Manohar, Sanjay; Husain, Masud (2021-05-07). "Apathy in small vessel cerebrovascular disease is associated with deficits in effort-based decision making". Brain. 144 (4): 1247–1262. doi:10.1093/brain/awab013. ISSN   0006-8950. PMC   8240747 . PMID   33734344.
  45. ↑ Husain, Masud; Roiser, Jonathan P. (2018). "Neuroscience of apathy and anhedonia: a transdiagnostic approach" . Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 19 (8): 470–484. doi:10.1038/s41583-018-0029-9. ISSN   1471-0048. PMID   29946157. S2CID   49428707.
  46. ↑ Mogenson, G; Jones, D; Yim, C (1980). "From motivation to action: Functional interface between the limbic system and the motor system" . Progress in Neurobiology. 14 (2–3): 69–97. doi:10.1016/0301-0082(80)90018-0. PMID   6999537.
  47. ↑ Husain, Masud; Parton, Andrew; Hodgson, Timothy L.; Mort, Dominic; Rees, Geraint (2003). "Self-control during response conflict by human supplementary eye field" . Nature Neuroscience. 6 (2): 117–118. doi:10.1038/nn1005. ISSN   1097-6256. PMID   12536212. S2CID   11770770.
  48. ↑ Nachev, Parashkev; Rees, Geraint; Parton, Andrew; Kennard, Christopher; Husain, Masud (2005). "Volition and Conflict in Human Medial Frontal Cortex". Current Biology. 15 (2): 122–128. Bibcode:2005CBio...15..122N. doi:10.1016/j.cub.2005.01.006. PMC   2648721 . PMID   15668167.
  49. ↑ Nachev, Parashkev; Wydell, Henrietta; O’Neill, Kevin; Husain, Masud; Kennard, Christopher (2007). "The role of the pre-supplementary motor area in the control of action". NeuroImage. 36 (3): T155 –T163. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.03.034. PMC   2648723 . PMID   17499162.
  50. ↑ Sumner, Petroc; Nachev, Parashkev; Morris, Peter; Peters, Andrew M.; Jackson, Stephen R.; Kennard, Christopher; Husain, Masud (2007). "Human Medial Frontal Cortex Mediates Unconscious Inhibition of Voluntary Action". Neuron. 54 (5): 697–711. doi:10.1016/j.neuron.2007.05.016. PMC   1890004 . PMID   17553420.
  51. ↑ Nachev, Parashkev; Kennard, Christopher; Husain, Masud (2009). "Cognition and the supplementary motor complex". Nature Reviews Neuroscience. 10 (1): 78. doi: 10.1038/nrn2478-c2 . ISSN   1471-003X. S2CID   26352556.
  52. ↑ "Prizes & Bursaries". the-bns.org. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  53. ↑ "Investigator Awards". ean.org. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  54. ↑ "Fellows of EAN". ean.org. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  55. ↑ "Dementia – NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre". oxfordhealthbrc.nihr.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
  56. ↑ "Dementia Research Oxford — Oxford Neuroscience". neuroscience.ox.ac.uk. Retrieved 2023-06-23.
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