Dr Jacob Thorstensen
Researcher biography
Jacob is currently a teaching and research academic within the School of Biomedical Sciences at The University of Queensland and is looking to recruit prospective honours students interested in studying the neurophysiology of human movement. Potential students can send him an email (j.thorstensen@uq.edu.au) to chat about projects on offer, or to suggest an idea for a project.
Jacob's PhD was in human neurophysiology (Griffith University, Australia), where he studied how endogenously released neuromodulators (e.g., monoamines such as serotonin and dopamine) control the excitability of cortico-motoneuronal pathways and muscle activation in healthy human subjects. Jacob also has postdoctoral training in clinical neuroscience (through The University of Queensland, based at the Queensland Children's Hospital), where he further developed his expertise in neuromodulation by investigating the use of non-invasive neurostimulation techniques (e.g., repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation, rTMS) as a clinical intervention after nervous system injury.
Overall, Jacob's research involves direct electrophysiological data collection from awake human participants, and his work spans across basic and clinical neurophysiology, neuropharmacology, and exercise science. He has a strong background in mechanistic human neurophysiology experiments, and extensive experience with non-invasive brain, spinal cord and peripheral nerve stimulation techniques that quantify or modulate the output of the human nervous system and muscles.
Within the School of Biomedical Sciences at UQ, Jacob is currently conducting studies in the following areas/topics (see Available Projects):
1) Using high-density surface electromyography and peripheral nerve stimulation to study human motoneuron excitability
2) Investigating the influence of changes in joint angles and body position on human motoneuron activity