Emeritus Professor John Willoughby

John Willoughby is in the final years of a career in Neurology and Neuroscience. He trained in neurology at the Royal Adelaide Hospital, the Royal Post-Graduate Medical School (UK) and the Montreal General Hospital (Canada). His training in Neuroscience was at McGill University in the Montreal General Hospital Research Institute.

He joined Flinders University as a senior lecturer and Flinders Medical Centre as a consultant neurologist in 1977. Initial research addressed hypothalamic regulation of growth hormone and prolactin secretion in animal models. From 1995, he undertook epilepsy studies in animal models leading, in collaboration with Electrical Engineer, Kenneth Pope, to studies in humans with neuropsychiatric disorders. The research led to the recognition that electrical signals from muscles prevent advanced analysis of EEG recordings because the muscle signals obscure brain signals. Current work addresses how this can be diminished and, because of some success in 'muscle pruning', studies of brain signals in people with psychiatric disorders have commenced.

He retired from his formal academic and clinical neurologist roles in 2006, but continued to undertake research and teaching in an honorary capacity until 2019.

Interests outside his academic roles are the environment (as a member of Doctors for the Environment Australia), voluntary assisted dying (as a Patron of the SA Voluntary Euthanasia Society) and meditation (as Patron of The Lifeflow Meditation Centre).