Our research is driven by a desire to understand dystonia. Enhanced understanding and the in-depth behavioural results arising from our research will impact on clinical advances, potentially leading to new therapeutic options

A core hypothesis, which underlies much of the work of the IDRG is that cervical dystonia is caused by defective inhibition of sensory and motor neurons in the superior colliculus as a result of reduced gamma-aminobutyric acid activity.

Our research projects are designed to test this hypothesis from several angles:

• Exploration of the behavior of visual, motor and somatosensory processing.

• Assessment of the functioning of the superior colliculus through functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), and

• Determination of epidemiological, environmental and genetic factors in the development of dystonia.

Follow the links to find out more about each of our research topics.