UCL Lunch Hour Lecture | Plastic brains: recovery (or not) after brain injuries

Overview

Orlando Swayne discusses neuroplasticity, the process by which the brain is shaped by the world around it, and implications for healthcare.

About the lecture

A stroke or other brain injury wipes out functions such movement, sensation, vision or speech, with an often devastating loss of independence. According to classical neuroscience teaching the damage is permanent, but often we do in fact see significant recovery with time. So what is going on in the brain that enables this? And can we do anything to enhance it?

In this talk, Orlando Swayne will discuss the science of ‘neuroplasticity’, the process by which the brain is shaped by the world around it. Our billions of neurons can remould their connections with intensive training and so allow networks to shift in response to a change. Our brains are especially responsive in the early months – the ‘plasticity window’ – but currently our healthcare systems deliver relatively little therapy. Fixing this, or artificially enhancing neuroplasticity, would potentially transform outcomes for thousands of people.

About the speakers

Orlando Swayne is a consultant neurologist and clinical academic who works primarily in the neurorehabilitation of acquired brain injury, including stroke. He is a consultant neurologist at the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery (NHNN), where he is lead neurologist for the Neurorehabilitation Unit, and is a member of the Department of Brain Repair and Rehabilitation at the UCL Institute of Neurology. He also works at Northwick Park Hospital and the Wellington Hospital.

He has published widely on the control of movement by the brain and the role of brain plasticity in recovery following stroke. ‘How To Use a Fork: Stories of Mending the Broken Brain’, was released in the UK by Picador on 4th June 2026.

About the chair

Alexander Leff is Professor of Cognitive Neurology and a Consultant Neurologist at the UCL Queen Square Institute of Neurology. His main clinical and academic interest is in cognitive rehabilitation, especially in the field of acquired language disorders and vision, using functional and structural brain imaging. He has developed web-based rehabilitation tools that can be used by patients with hemianopia, or aphasia, co-designed with patients and leading to phase II clinical trials. At the National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery he run a specialist out-patient MDT assessment clinic for patients with hemianopia and/or higher disorders of vision.