Tony Wilson, PhD
Assistant Professor
Assistant Professor and MEG Scientist, Magnetoencephalography Laboratory
Research Interests: Functional connectivity; spatial filtering; neurodevelopmental disorders in children, especially autism and schizophrenia; pharmaco-MEG; event-related synchronizations/desynchronizations (ERS/ERD); pathophysiology of Alzheimer’s disease
EDUCATION:
2001 B.S., Midwestern State University, Psychology/Biology
(Summa cum laude)
2005 Ph.D., University of Minnesota, Cognitive Neuroscience
Dissertation: Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Word-level Linguistic Processing
POSTDOCTORAL TRAINING:
2005-07 NIMH Fellowship in Developmental Psychobiology, Neuromagnetic Imaging Center, Department of Psychiatry, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
Dr. Tony W Wilson completed his doctoral training in cognitive neuroscience in the laboratory of Dr. Apostolos Georgopoulos at the University of Minnesota. At the time, this work utilized the only high-density MEG instrument (200+ sensors) in the United States to extract the time course of neural areas serving various cognitive operations in health, and their dysfunction in several psychiatric disease states. Dr. Wilson’s dissertation employed novel MEG source localization methods to identify the dynamic networks serving language processing in normal adult readers.
Dr. Wilson completed postdoctoral training in developmental psychobiology under Dr. Donald Rojas in the Neuromagnetic Imaging Center at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center in Denver. As a postdoctoral trainee, Tony developed high-density MEG techniques that could be applied to typically developing children and adolescents, as well as those with neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism and schizophrenia. A primary goal of this work was to expand the application of multi-modality neuroimaging procedures toward enhancing the initial recognition and subsequent tracking of aberrant developmental processes that may accompany the disease process.
Tony joined the Department of Neurology in the spring of 2007 as an Assistant Professor and the MEG Scientist of the Magnetoencephalography Laboratory. Dr. Wilson is an expert in brain imaging analysis techniques and has had extensive experience working in this context with children and adolescents. Tony’s current work focuses on functional connectivity in autism and the development of pharmacological imaging techniques utilizing the 275-sensor whole-head neuromagnetometer operated by the department.
RECENT PUBLICATIONS:
Wilson, T.W., Leuthold, A.C., Lewis, S.M., Georgopoulos, A.P., & Pardo, P.J. (2005). The time and space of lexicality: A neuromagnetic view. Experimental Brain Research, 162:1-13.
Wilson, T.W., Leuthold, A.C., Lewis, S.M., Georgopoulos, A.P., & Pardo, P.J. (2005). Cognitive dimensions of orthographic stimuli affect occipitotemporal dynamics. Experimental Brain Research, 167:141-147.
Wilson, T.W., Rojas, D.C., Reite, M.L., Teale, P.D., & Rogers, S.J. (2007). Children and adolescents with autism exhibit reduced MEG steady-state gamma responses. Biological Psychiatry, 62:192-197.
Wilson, T.W., Leuthold, A.C., Moran, J.E., Pardo, P.J., Lewis, S.M., & Georgopoulos, A.P. (2007). Reading in a deep orthography: Neuromagnetic evidence for dual-mechanisms. Experimental Brain Research,180:247-262.
Wilson, T.W., Rojas, D.C., Teale, P.D., Hernandez, O.O., Asherin, R.M., & Reite, M.L. (in press). Aberrant functional organization and maturation in early-onset psychosis: Evidence from magnetoencephalography. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging
Wilson, T.W., Hernandez, O.O., Asherin, R.M., Teale, P.D., Reite, M.L., & Rojas, D.C. (in press). Cortical gamma generators suggest abnormal auditory circuitry in early-onset psychosis. Cerebral Cortex.
Wilson, T.W., Slason, E., Hernandez, O.O., Asherin, R.M., Teale, P.D., Reite, M.L., & Rojas, D.C. (in review). Adolescents with psychosis exhibit abnormal desynchronizations in cerebellar cortex during unilateral tactile stimulation.