Professor John Stein, FRCP, FMed. Sci
Professor of Neurophysiology, University of Oxford, Fellow of the Royal College of Physicians and Chair of the Dyslexia Research Trust
John Stein studied Medicine and Neurology at Oxford University and then was appointed tutor in Medicine at Magdalen College, Oxford, in 1970. Since then in addition to teaching medical students he has been researching how vision controls movement.
With Tipu Aziz, a leading neurosurgeon, he found that deep brain stimulation of the basal ganglia and related structures in patients with movement disorders like Parkinson's disease can relieve both akinesia (lack of movement) and dyskinesia (abnormal movements), by preventing spontaneous oscillations of the motor networks. Likewise, spontaneous oscillations of the pain matrix cause central neuropathic pain; and eliminating these by DBS can alleviate the pain.
John is also internationally known for his studies of attentional and eye movement control in dyslexia and related conditions. These have shown that mild impairments in the development of magnocellular neurones in the brain may explain many of the memory, auditory and visual problems associated with dyslexia.
This work has enabled him to develop simple treatments, such as coloured filters and omega-3 fish oils, to improve their function and thus greatly improve dyslexics' reading, without endangering their artistic talents. His daughter, Lucy, is a synaesthetic painter. John doesn't cook fish and his brother, TV fish chef, Rick Stein, does not do neuroscience!
Recent Speaking Events
See FAB's recent webinar with John Stein.
How Food Affects Your Brain
Leading international researchers Professor John Stein and Dr Alex Richardson discuss the scientific evidence on how nutrition and diet have a powerful - but often unrecognised - influence on how we all feel, think, and behave.
Diet and Dyslexia
Hear Professor John Stein speak on Vision, Diet and Dyslexia and from Dr Alex Richardson Dyslexia: How Nutrition Can Help.
Publications
Cyhlarova E, Bell JG, Dick JR, Mackinlay EE, Stein JF, Richardson AJ. (2007) Membrane fatty acids, reading and spelling in dyslexic and non-dyslexic adults. Eur Neuropsychopharmacol 17(2) 116-21.
Kringelbach, M. L., N. Jenkinson, Stein JF et al. (2007). "Deep brain stimulation for chronic pain investigated with magnetoencephalography." Neuroreport 18(3): 223-228.
Paracchini, S., A. Thomas, et al. (2006). "The chromosome 6p22 haplotype associated with dyslexia reduces the expression of KIAA0319, a novel gene involved in neuronal migration." Hum Mol Genet. 15, 1659-66.
Green, A. L., S. Wang, et al. (2006). "Controlling the heart via the brain: a potential new therapy for orthostatic hypotension." Neurosurgery 58(6): 1176-83
Jenkinson, N., D. Nandi, et al. (2006). "Pedunculopontine nucleus electric stimulation alleviates akinesia independently of dopaminergic mechanisms." Neuroreport 17: 639-41.
Paracchini S, Thomas A, Castro S, Lai C, Paramasivam M, Wang Y, Keating BJ, Taylor JM, Hacking DF, Scerri T, Francks C, Richardson AJ, Wade-Martins R, Stein JF, Knight JC, Copp AJ, Loturco J, Monaco AP. The chromosome 6p22 haplotype associated with dyslexia reduces the expression of KIAA0319, a novel gene involved in neuronal migration. Hum Mol Genet. 2006, 15(10):1659-66.
Jenkinson, N., D. Nandi, et al. (2005). "Pedunculopontine nucleus: a new target for deep brain stimulation for akinesia." Neuroreport 16(17): 1875-6.
Ray, N., Fowler S, Stein JF. (2005). "Yellow filters can improve magnocellular function: motion sensitivity, convergence, accommodation, and reading." Ann N Y Acad Sci. 1039: 283-293.
Francks C, Paracchini S, Smith SD, Richardson AJ, Scerri TS, Cardon LR, Marlow AJ, MacPhie IL, Walter J, Pennington BF, Fisher SE, Olson RK, DeFries JC, Stein JF, Monaco AP. A 77-kilobase region of chromosome 6p22.2 is associated with dyslexia in families from the United Kingdom and from the United States. Am J Hum Genet. 2004 Dec;75(6):1046-58.
Scerri TS, Fisher SE, Francks C, McPhie IL, Paracchini S, Richardson AJ, Stein JF and Monaco AP. Putative functional alleles of DYX1C1 are not associated with dyslexia susceptibility in a large sample of sibling pairs from the UK. Journal of Medical Genetics. 2004 Nov;41(11):853-7.
Wilmer JB, Richardson AJ, Chen Y, Stein JF. Two visual motion processing deficits in developmental dyslexia associated with different reading skills deficits. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience. 2004 May;16(4):528-40.
Kinsey K, Rose M, Hansen P, Richardson A, Stein J. Magnocellular mediated visual-spatial attention and reading ability. Neuroreport. 2004 Oct 5;15(14):2215-8.
Francks C, Fisher SE, Marlow AJ, MacPhie IL, Taylor KE, Richardson AJ, Stein JF, Monaco AP. Familial and genetic effects on motor coordination, laterality, and reading-related cognition. Am J Psychiatry. 2003 Nov;160(11):1970-7.
Francks C, DeLisi LE, Shaw SH, Fisher SE, Richardson AJ, Stein JF, Monaco AP. Parent-of-origin effects on handedness and schizophrenia susceptibility on chromosome 2p12-q11. Hum Mol Genet. 2003 Oct 28 (Epub ahead of print).
Rosner BS, Talcott JB, Witton C, Hogg JD, Richardson AJ, Hansen PC, Stein The perception of "sine-wave speech" by adults with developmental dyslexia. J Speech Lang Hear Res. 2003 46(1):68-79
Marlow AJ, Fisher SE, Francks C, MacPhie IL, Cherny SS, Richardson AJ, Talcott JB, Stein JF, Monaco AP, Cardon LR Use of multivariate linkage analysis for dissection of a complex cognitive trait. Am J Hum Genet. 2003 Mar;72(3):561-70.
Stein JF. (2003) Why did language develop? Int.J.Pediatr.Otorhinolaryngol.; 67 Suppl 1: S131-S135.
Stein J. (2003) Visual motion sensitivity and reading. Neuropsychologia; 41: 1785-1793.
Fisher SE, Francks C, Marlow AJ, MacPhie IL, Newbury DF, Cardon LR, Ishikawa-Brush Y, Richardson AJ, Talcott JB, Gayan J, Olson RK, Pennington BF, Smith SD, DeFries JC, Stein JF, Monaco AP. Independent genome-wide scans identify a chromosome 18 quantitative-trait locus influencing dyslexia. Nature Genetics. 2002;30(1):86-91.
Vincent A, Deacon R, Stein JF et al (2002) Behavioural and cerebellar MRS findings in mice exposed in utero to serum from mothers of children with neurodevelopmental disorders. J Neuroimmunology 130, 243-7.
Francks C, Fisher SE, MacPhie IL, Richardson AJ, Marlow AJ, Stein JF, Monaco AP. A Genomewide Linkage Screen for Relative Hand Skill in Sibling Pairs. Am J Hum Genet. 2002; 70:800-5.
France SJ, Rosner BS, Hansen PC, Calvin C, Talcott JB, Richardson AJ, Stein JF. Auditory frequency discrimination in adult developmental dyslexics. Perception and Psychophysics, 2002; 64, 169-79
Rae C, Harasty JA, Dzendrowskyj TE, Talcott JB, Simpson JM, Blamire AM, Dixon RM, Lee MA, Thompson CH, Styles P, Richardson AJ and Stein JF. Cerebellar morphology in developmental dyslexia. Neuropsychologia, 2002; 40, 1285-92.
Nandi, T. Z. Aziz, N. Giladi, J. L. Winter, J. F. Stein, Reversal of akinesia in experimental Parkinsonism by GABA antagonist micro-injections in the pedunculopontine nucleus, Brain, 125: 2418-2430.
Nandi, X Liu, TZ Aziz, JF Stein (2002) Brain stem motor loops in the control of movement. Movement Disorders 17, 22-7.
Taylor KET, Richardson AJ, Stein JF. Could platelet activating factor play a role in developmental dyslexia? Prostaglandins Leukotr Essent Fatty Acids, 2001, 64(3):173-180.
Richardson AJ, Calvin CM, Clisby C, Schoenheimer DR, Montgomery P, Hall JA, Hebb G, Westwood E, Talcott JB, Stein JF. Fatty acid deficiency signs predict the severity of reading and related difficulties in dyslexic children. Prostaglandins Leukotr Essent Fatty Acids, 2000; 63:69-74.
Stein JF, Richardson AJ, Fowler MS. Monocular occlusion can improve binocular control and reading in developmental dyslexics. Brain, 2000;123(Pt 1):164-170.
Stein JF & Walsh V (1997) To See; but not to Read; the Magnocellular theory of Dyslexia. TINS 20, 147 - 151
