Brian Christie

Brian R. Christie is an Associate Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience at The University of British Columbia. He received his Ph.D. in 1992 from the University of Otago before doing postdoctoral work with Dr. Daniel Johnston at Baylor College of Medicine and Dr. Terrence Sejnowski at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies.

He was one of the first researchers to find evidence that exercise not only promotes adult neurogenesis in the hippocampus, but also enhances synaptic plasticity in this structure. This work has since progressed to show that exercise can have beneficial effects for the brains of animals that have been exposed to ethanol while in the womb, an animal model of fetal alcohol syndrome effects.

His current work continues to seek out the mechanisms by which exercise can benefit the brain.