🧠 Seeing the Brain in Action: A Beginner’s Guide to Neuroimaging

You’ve learned to listen to the brain’s electrical activity with EEG — now it’s time to see it. Neuroimaging gives us a window into the brain’s structure, guiding diagnosis, understanding, and treatment. 

But no single scan tells the full story. Each modality sees the brain differently — some reveal anatomy, others show activity — and choosing the right one means knowing what you’re asking, and what the scan can answer. This is just a primer to get you started - imaging is a long journey of learning to come !

Grant success: future AI symposium

 I am very pleased to be part of the cross-institutional team that will be delivering a symposium

"Harnessing AI and technology for equitable and ethical medical education" 

thanks to our successful GEMPASS Professional Development Education Grant. 

Congratulations to the whole grant team - my collaborators from Macquarie University,  Melbourne University, Deakin University and the University of Notre Dame - on our grant success. Looking forward to getting this work underway !!

📦 Want to learn more?

• 📝 All posts about research and data →
• 📝 Identifying ideal applicants for medicine (2022) →
• 📝 Should we extend the currency of cognitive ability testing scores? (2023) →
• 📝 Automated protocol for assessing career rurality outcomes (2023) →
• 📝 Comparing rural and specialty choices of UOW graduates (2023) →
• 📝 Australian health workforce insights (2024) →
• 📝 Medical school admissions processes to target rural applicants (2025) →

🧠 How Do We Listen to the Brain? A Beginner’s Guide to EEG

 Electroencephalography (EEG) is like eavesdropping on a conversation happening in your cerebral cortex. But instead of words, it uses electrical signals—and the patterns those signals make can tell us a lot about how the brain is functioning… or misfiring.

This post will outline the major important features of the EEG and how it can help us to understand the function, and dysfunction, of the brain. 

💊 Neurotransmitters on drugs: How alcohol, medications & other substances affect the CNS

Every action in the brain - whether catching a ball, calming a panic attack, or waking from anaesthesia - starts at the synapse. In physiology, you’ve already met the major neurotransmitters: GABA, glutamate, dopamine, serotonin, acetylcholine, and noradrenaline.

Now it’s time to see these in clinical action. If you haven't already read it, go back and check out the Neurotransmitters 101 post, it will help it all make sense. 

Many drugs and substances - from prescription medications to recreational drugs - alter the brain’s electrochemical balance. They dial neurotransmitter signalling up or down, leading to effects that are therapeutic, recreational, harmful, or all three. Understanding how they work builds your clinical intuition - and helps you spot mechanisms behind both therapeutic effects and side effects.

 We’ll explore how each class works, what effects they trigger, and where they act in the neural circuit. Consider this your pharmacological map of the CNS - designed for clarity, clinical context, and curiosity.

🧠 Principles of Seizure Management

 Seizures are a common clinical presentation—but behind each episode lies a nuanced web of causes, classifications, and considerations. Effective care begins with pattern recognition, cause exploration, and clinical prioritisation. 

This guide walks through how clinicians approach seizure care—from the first event to long-term planning—by connecting symptoms to anatomy, treatment, and safety.

Clinical Cases in Seizure Localisation

 Recognising seizure types isn't just about memorising lists — it's about observing patterns, interpreting subtle clues, and linking symptoms to functional neuroanatomy. The ability to reason clinically, even from brief descriptions, is one of the most important skills you’ll develop as a future doctor. 

In this post, we’ll walk through a series of realistic case vignettes that should be a challenge for not just first years, but clinical second and third years as well. 

Take your time with each one — some may seem straightforward, others more ambiguous. That’s okay. Clinical reasoning is a skill, not an instinct — and every case you puzzle through builds it.

To Anki or not to Anki: Why flashcards aren’t the whole story in medical education

You’ve probably heard it already today—someone swearing by their Anki deck, proudly announcing they’re “only 600 cards behind.”

Flashcards have become the unofficial religion of medical study.

 🧠 Anki isn’t evil - but it’s also not enough

Anki’s not a villain. But it’s also not a miracle and definitely not a short cut.

And sometimes, it might be the very thing slowing you down.

🌐 Navigating the blog: A guide to getting the most out of it

 Welcome! Whether you’ve stumbled in while revising neuroanatomy or you're deep in a diagnostic reasoning rabbit hole, this blog was designed to help you connect clinical concepts, and spark questions that actually matter. 

It's a scaffolded learning tool designed to provoke thinking, support understanding, and build clinical intuition. Here’s how to dive deeper and make the most of it.

🧠 CONSCIOUSNESS (and how we can lose it)

 Consciousness might seem like something “obvious”—you know when you’re awake, alert, and aware. But understanding what consciousness is (from a medical perspective), and why it can be disrupted, is fundamental to learning clinical neurology and emergency medicine. Let’s build the foundation.

🧠 NEUROTRANSMITTERS 101: The Basics of Neurotransmission

 Ready to dive into the fascinating world of neurotransmitters? These tiny molecules are the chemical messengers that keep your nervous system humming—coordinating thoughts, movements, moods, and memories.

 Let’s explore how these molecules work and why they’re clinically meaningful. 🩺

Localisation of seizures 🧠

 When someone has a seizure, the symptoms can tell us more than just what happened — they give clues about where in the brain it happened. Seizure localisation is the art and science of mapping signs and behaviours to specific cortical regions. From staring spells to sudden muscle jerks, each presentation points to a unique neural epicentre. 

Understanding where seizures begin helps us decode the circuitry behind them, guides diagnosis, and even shapes treatment decisions. Let’s explore how brain geography becomes clinical insight.

Understanding Seizure Classification 🧠

Hey future doctors! 👋 Let's dive into the fascinating world of seizure classification. 🩺✨

Seizures reflect abnormal electrical activity in the brain, but they don't all look alike. Some involve convulsions, others just subtle lapses in awareness. Classification matters—not just for tidy documentation, but for tailoring treatment and understanding prognosis.

🔬 Pathophysiology of Seizures: What’s Going Wrong?

 Seizures are caused by abnormal, excessive, synchronous electrical activity in groups of neurons. Seizures are like a power surge in the brain. Instead of orderly, purposeful neural signals, you get a storm of chaotic, excessive firing across neuron groups. 

This hyperactivity disrupts normal function — from movement and sensation to awareness and behaviour.

🧠 From Cortex to Brainstem: Mapping the Machinery of Thought and Function

 The central nervous system (CNS) isn’t just a bundle of grey and white matter—it’s the command centre for sensation, movement, cognition, and survival. Understanding its architecture sets the stage for recognising how neurological damage unfolds in real patients.

Let’s take a tour through the cortex, subcortex, and brainstem—with just enough anatomical and functional depth to make it stick.