Professional background

Professor David Holder has had joint training in clinical medicine and biophysics. As a young doctor, he became interested in developing a new method which could image fast electrical activity in the brain.

He has been a consultant in clinical neurophysiology at UCLH since 1997 where he undertakes EEG reporting, nerve conduction studies and EMG (electromyography). 

On the academic side, he came up with a practical possible way to image fast neural activity in the brain during a Master’s degree at Berkeley in 1983 – the then new method of Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). With an MRC training and then Royal Society University Research Fellowship held at University College London, he has built up an interdisciplinary research group which has pioneered the application of EIT for imaging brain and nerve function. This group has been in Medical Physics at University College London (UCL) since 2005.

Research interests

  • Electrical Impedance Tomography of brain function:  a new portable inexpensive imaging method with the potential to provide images in acute stroke, epileptic seizures and, uniquely, of fast neural activity during brain function.
  • Bioengineering developments applied to clinical neurophysiology: Vibration studies for RSI (repetitive strain injury)
  • Using machine learning methods for automated analysis of the EEG
  • Optimal methods for thermal threshold testing for small fibre neuropathies
  • Use of telemedicine for remote reporting in neurophysiology.

Publications

  • Malone E, Sato Dos Santos G, Holder D, Arridge S. (2015) A reconstruction-classification method for Multifrequency Electrical Impedance Tomography. IEEE Trans Med Imaging. 34, 1486 – 1497.
  • Aristovich, K. Y., Packham, B. C., Koo, H., dos Santos, G. S., McEvoy, A., & Holder, D. S. (2016). Imaging fast electrical activity in the brain with electrical impedance tomography. NEUROIMAGE, 124, 204-213. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.08.071
  • Dowrick T, Sato Dos Santos G, Vongerichten A, Holder D (2015) Parallel, multi frequency EIT measurement, suitable for recording impedance changes during epilepsy Journal of Electrical Bioimpedance 6(1):37-43
  • Dowrick, T., Blochet, C., & Holder, D. (2016). In vivo bioimpedance changes during haemorrhagic and ischaemic stroke in rats: Towards 3D stroke imaging using electrical impedance tomography. Physiological Measurement, 37(6), 765-784. doi:10.1088/0967-3334/37/6/765
  • Avery, J. P., Dowrick, T., Faulkner, A., Goren, N., & Holder, D. (2017). A Versatile and Reproducible Multi-Frequency Electrical Impedance Tomography System. Sensors. Sensors (Basel). 2017 Jan 31;17(2). pii: E280. doi: 10.3390/s17020280.
  • Faulkner, M., Hannan, S., Aristovich, K., Avery, J., & Holder, D. (2018). Feasibility of imaging evoked activity throughout the rat brain using electrical impedance tomography. NeuroImage, 178, 1-10. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.05.022
  • Witkowska-Wrobel, A., Aristovich, K., Faulkner, M., Avery, J., & Holder, D. (2018). Feasibility of imaging epileptic seizure onset with EIT and depth electrodes. NeuroImage, 173, 311-321. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2018.02.056
  • Goren N, Avery J, Dowrick T, Mackle E, Witkowska-Wrobel A, Werring D, Holder David (2018) Multi-frequency electrical impedance tomography and neuroimaging data in stroke patients. Scientific Data 5, 180112.http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2018.112
  • Aristovich K, Donegá M, Blochet C, Avery J, Hannan S, Chew DJ, Holder D. (2018) Imaging fast neural traffic at fascicular level with electrical impedance tomography: proof of principle in rat sciatic nerve. J Neural Eng. 2018 Oct;15(5):056025. doi: 10.1088/1741-2552/aad78e. Epub 2018 Aug 2. PubMed PMID:30070261.
  • Tarotin I, Aristovich K, Holder D. Model of impedance changes in unmyelinated nerve fibres. IEEE Trans Biomed Eng. 2018 Jun 20. doi: 10.1109/TBME.2018.2849220. [Epub ahead of print] PubMed PMID: 29993457.
  • Hannan, S., Faulkner, M., Aristovich, K., Avery, J., Walker, M., & Holder, D. (2018). Imaging fast electrical activity in the brain during ictal epileptiform discharges with electrical impedance tomography. NeuroImage. Clinical, 20, 674-684. Advance online publication. doi:10.1016/j.nicl.2018.09.004
  • Chapman, C. A. R., Aristovich, K., Donega, M., Fjordbakk, C. T., Stathopoulou, TR., Viscasillas, J, Holder, D. (2019). Electrode fabrication and interface optimization for imaging of evoked peripheral nervous system activity with electrical impedance tomography (EIT). JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING, 16 (1), ARTN 016001. doi:10.1088/1741-2552/aae868
  • Thompson, N., Mastitskaya, S., & Holder, D. (2019). Avoiding off-target effects in electrical stimulation of the cervical vagus nerve: Neuroanatomical tracing techniques to study fascicular anatomy of the vagus nerve. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 325, 108325. doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2019.108325
  • Thompson, N., Ravagli, E., Mastitskaya, S., Iacoviello, F., Aristovich, K., Perkins, J., Holder, D. (2020). MicroCT optimisation for imaging fascicular anatomy in peripheral nerves. Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 108652. doi:10.1016/j.jneumeth.2020.108652
  • Enrico Ravagli, Svetlana Mastitskaya, Nicole Thompson, Francesco Iacoviello, Paul R Shearing, Justin Perkins, Alexander V Gourine, Kirill Aristovich, David Holder (2020). Imaging fascicular organization of peripheral nerves with fast neural Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT). BioArxiv. doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.06.04.133843.