Today, our Brain, Language and Behaviour (BLB) Lab played host to a landmark event in the field of brain tumour surgery: the 2025 Awake Craniotomy Symposium. Organised in collaboration with the North Bristol NHS Trust and the Tessa Jowell Brain Cancer Mission, the symposium brought together a community of more than a hundred neurosurgeons, speech and language therapists, neuropsychologists, physiotherapists, anaesthetists, and researchers to explore the latest advancements and challenges in awake brain surgery. Scroll down to see the photo gallery from the event!
The day began with a warm welcome from organisers, and our BLB Lab’s co-leads, Anna Piasecki and Neil Barua, setting the tone for a programme rich in interdisciplinary insight and clinical innovation. The first session focused on preoperative planning, featuring talks on cutting-edge techniques such as Navigated Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (nTMS) by Jose Pedro Lavrador, and Diffusion Tensor Imaging (DTI) by Puneet Plaha and Natalie Voets. Neil Barua also introduced the role of mixed reality in surgical planning, highlighting how immersive technologies can support surgical approaches with the whole multidisciplinary team’s involvement. All attendees were then invited to explore some of these technologies for themselves at the featured sponsor stands throughout the day, including wearing VR goggles, which created a high level of interest and excitement.
Session two shifted the spotlight to intraoperative test selection. Hajira Mumtaz presented the first outcome of her research at the BLB Lab: the world’s first standardised and clinically tested resource for English-language object and action naming testing, freely available to clinicians (gain access to our BOATIM material here). This was followed by a compelling trio of perspectives on cognitive and sensorimotor testing during surgery—from physiotherapy, neuropsychology, and neurosurgery—delivered by Charly Moran, Margaret Newson, and Francesco Vergani respectively. Their insights underscored each discipline’s contribution in preserving complex brain functions during the surgery.
Following the morning sessions, clinical teams from across the UK and international delegates presented some of their innovative practice over joint lunch-poster session conversations. The winning poster was collectively decided by the symposium delegates and was awarded to the clinical team from the North Midlands and North Staffordshire Combined Healthcare Trust, sharing an evaluation of their originally designed Awake Craniotomy Video Leaflet for patients.
After lunch, the afternoon resumed with Sonia Mariotti and Clare Toner, who provided an overview of clinician and patient experience of awake brain surgery practices in the UK (see here and here for their respective work), setting the scene for two subsequent panel discussions. These two interactive sessions involved the attendees in a lively conversation with a multidisciplinary panel of experts, discussing the need for consensus on test selection and follow-up protocols. The conversations revealed both the diversity of current practices across the UK and a shared desire for more unified approaches to patient care and research.
The final session, “Directions for Networking and Collaboration,” featured a series of flash talks that showcased innovative projects and case studies. Highlights included Aimun Jamjoom’s introduction of Map-OR, a digital platform for intraoperative language testing, and Sonia Mariotti’s exploration of bilingual patient testing. Tom Williamson presented on the challenges of testing multiple linguistic modalities, while Will Singleton addressed the unique considerations of awake craniotomy in paediatric patients.
The symposium concluded with reflective feedback and closing remarks, followed by a well-earned dinner at PepeNero, where conversations continued informally among colleagues and new collaborators.
The 2025 Awake Craniotomy Symposium was more than a meeting of minds—it was a celebration of the collaborative spirit that drives progress in brain surgery and cognitive science. By bridging clinical practice with research and technology, the event highlighted the importance of interdisciplinary dialogue in improving patient care and advancing our understanding of the brain. And the overwhelmingly positive feedback from delegates reaffirmed just that – followed by requests for further iterations of our symposium that helps bringing this key community together. So, watch this space!
Photo Gallery
