Tony Wilson, PhD

Assistant Professor, Department of Pharmacology & Experimental Neuroscience
Assistant Professor, Department of Neurological Sciences (Joint Appointment)
Scientific Director, Center for Magnetoencephalography (MEG)

Education:
Midwestern State University, B.S., Psychology & Biology (2001 – Summa cum laude)
University of Minnesota, Ph.D., Cognitive Neuroscience (2005)
University of Colorado Health Sciences Center, Post-doctoral Fellowship, Developmental Cognitive
Neuroscience (2005-2007) 

Hospital Appointments:
N/A

Interests: Pharmaco-MEG; functional connectivity; attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD); spatial filtering; pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease

Biographical Sketch:
Dr. Tony W Wilson was born and spent most of his early life in the Texas panhandle. He attended the University of Texas and Midwestern State University, where he graduated summa cum laude with majors in psychology and biology. He completed his doctoral training in cognitive neuroscience in the laboratory of renowned neurophysiologist, 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. As a NICHD pre-doctoral fellow, his laboratory training involved extracting the time course of neural areas serving various cognitive operations in health, and their dysfunction in several psychiatric disease states. Dr. Wilson’s dissertation work 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 cognitive neuroscience under Drs. Donald Rojas (primary) and Martin Reite 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. 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 Neurological Sciences at the University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in late 2008 as an Assistant Professor. He now has a joint appointment in Neurological Sciences, with his primary appointment being in the Department of Pharmacology and Experimental Neuroscience. Dr. Wilson is also the Scientific Director of the Center for Magnetoencephalography (MEG) at UNMC, which houses a state-of-the-art 306-sensor whole-brain neuromagnetometer. Tony is an expert in brain imaging analysis techniques and has had extensive experience working in this context with challenging populations.

Current work in Dr. Wilson’s Laboratory focuses on the application of neurophysiological imaging methods for understanding disease pathophysiology, and for quantifying neuronal changes that accompany pharmacotherapies and/or behavioral interventions directed at these diseases. The primary neurophysiological focus is on high- and ultra high-frequency cortical oscillations due to their known role in information processing and network level inter-regional communication. At present, major effort is directed toward using these methods to further understand the effect of traditional (e.g., methylphenidate) and non-traditional (e.g., atomoxetine, vyvanse) drugs on patients with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). An underlying premise of this work is that by understanding the mechanisms of efficacious treatments, one can extract key insights on the basic pathophysiology of the candidate disease, and its symptomatology. Another line of work in Dr. Wilson’s Laboratory evaluates the impact that dopaminergic treatments have on cortical function and cortical-subcortical oscillatory activity in patients with mild to moderate Parkinson’s disease. Currently, it is widely recognized that Parkinson’s is associated with pathological levels of cortical-subcortical synchronization, and work in Dr.Wilson’s Laboratory focuses on how such neuronal synchronization is affected by dopamine-based treatments and disease progression.

Selected Publication:

1. Wilson, T.W., Wetzel, M.W., White, M.L., Knott, N.L. Gamma-Frequency Neuronal Activity is Diminished in Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder: A Pharmaco-MEG Study. (under review).
2. Wilson, T.W., Franzen, J.D., White, M.L., Knott, N.L., Wetzel, M.W. Broadband
   neurophysiological abnormalities in the medial prefrontal region of the default-mode network in adults with ADHD. (under review). 
3. Franzen, J.D., White, M.L., Knott, N.L., Wetzel, M.W., Heinrichs, B., Wilson, T.W. Disturbed patterns of functional connectivity in the default-mode network of adults with ADHD. (under review). 
4. Wilson, T.W., Slason, E., Asherin, R.M., Teale, P.D., Reite, M.L., Kronberg, E., & Rojas, D.C. (in press). Abnormal gamma and beta activity during finger movements in early-onset psychosis. Developmental Neuropsychology.
5. Kurz, M.J., & Wilson, T.W. (2011). Neuromagnetic activity in the somatosensory cortices of children with cerebral palsy. Neuroscience Letters, 490:1-5.
6. Wilson, T.W., Fleischer, A., Archer, D., Hayasaka, S., & Sawaki, L. (2011). Oscillatory MEG motor activity reflects therapy-related plasticity in stroke patients. Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair, 25:188-193.
7. Wilson, T.W., Slason, E., Asherin, R.M., Kronberg, E., Reite, M.L., Teale, P.D., & Rojas, D.C. (2010). An extended motor network generates beta and gamma oscillatory perturbations during development. Brain & Cognition, 73:75-84.
8. Wilson, T.W., Godwin, D.W., Czoty, P.W., Nader, M.A., Kraft, R.A., Buchheimer, N.C., & Daunais, J.B. (2009). An MEG investigation of somatosensory processing in the rhesus monkey. NeuroImage, 46:998-1003.
9. Wilson, T.W., Slason, E., Hernandez, O.O., Asherin, R.M., Reite, M.L., Teale, P.D., & Rojas, D.C. (2009). Aberrant high-frequency desynchronization of cerebellar cortices in early-onset psychosis. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 174:47-56.
10. Wilson, T.W., Hernandez, O.O., Asherin, R.M., Teale, P.D., Reite, M.L., & Rojas, D.C. (2008).Cortical gamma generators suggest abnormal auditory circuitry in early-onset psychosis. Cerebral Cortex, 18:371-378.
11. 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.
12. Wilson, T.W., Rojas, D.C., Teale, P.D., Hernandez, O.O., Asherin, R.M., & Reite, M.L. (2007). Aberrant functional organization and maturation in early-onset psychosis: Evidence from magnetoencephalography. Psychiatry Research: Neuroimaging, 156:59-67.
13. 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, 62:192-297. Also see: Uhlhaas P.J., Singer W. (2007). What do disturbances in neural synchrony tell us about autism. Biol Psychiatry, 62:190–191. [Editorial discussing these findings]
14. 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.
15. 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.