Professional background

Professor Ward is a consultant neurologist at National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery and a professor of clinical neurology and neurorehabilitaion at Queen Square UCL Institute of Neurology. His special clinical interest is in stroke and neurorehabilitation, focusing in particular on recovery of arm and hand function through the Queen Square upper limb neurorehabilitation programme. He is the founder of the Neurorehabilitation Online N-ROL project. He is co-founder of the UCLP Centre for Neurorehabilitation, co-editor Oxford Textbook of Neurorehabilitation and associate editor of the journals Neurorehabilitation and Neural Repair and Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry.

Research interests

Professor Ward leads a research programme to help understand the mechanisms of upper limb impairment and treatment after stroke. In particular, he uses structural and functional brain imaging to study the relationship between brain network reorganisation and recovery of movement after stroke.

Publications

Selected Publications

Kwakkel G, Meskers CGM, Ward, NS. Time for the next stage of stroke recovery trials. Lancet Neurol. 2020;9:636-637

Ward NS, Brander F, Kelly K. Intensive upper limb neurorehabilitation in chronic stroke: outcomes from the Queen Square programme. Journal of Neurology, Neurosurgery and Psychiatry 2019 May;90(5):498-506. (Free access https://jnnp.bmj.com/content/90/5/498)

Ward NS. Restoring brain function after stroke – bridging the gap between animals and humans. Nat Rev Neurol 2017;13(4):244-255

Rondina JM, Park CH, Ward NS. Brain regions important for recovery after severe post-stroke upper limb paresis. J Neurol Neurosurg Psychiatry 2017; 88(9):737-743.

Kuppuswamy A, Clark EV, Turner I, Rothwell JC, Ward NS. Post stroke fatigue: a deficit in cortico-motor excitability? Brain 2015;138:136-48.

Ward NS. Treatment of arm and hand dysfunction after CNS damage. In: Dietz V, Ward NS (eds) Oxford Textbook of Neurorehabilitation. Oxford University Press, 2015: 238-250.

Rossiter HE, Boudrias MH, Ward NS. Do movement-related beta oscillations change after stroke? J Neurophysiol. 2014;112(9):2053-8.

Full publication list