Monitor Neural Activity

Project Abstract Our project aims to form a multi-site consortium that will carry out fundamental exper- iments to elucidate the mesoscopic and microscopic neural dynamics underlying human memory and use direct brain stimulation as a manipulative tool to study those dynamics. Additionally, we seek to create a dynamical timeseries model that predicts the evolution of brain activity during cognitive tasks and incorporates the e ects of stimulation-induced perturbations on the system.

Project Summary/Abstract Speech perception is inherently multisensory: when conversing with someone that we can see, our brains combine auditory information from the voice with visual information from the face. Speech perception lies at the heart of our interactions with other people and is thus one of our most important cognitive abilities. However, there is a large gap in our knowledge about this uniquely human skill because most experimental techniques available in humans suffer from poor spatiotemporal resolution.

PROJECT SUMMARY The basic mechanisms underlying comprehension of spoken language are unknown. We are only beginning to understand how the human brain extracts the most fundamental linguistic elements (consonants and vowels) from a complex and highly variable acoustic signal. Traditional theories have posited a ‘universal’ phonetic inventory shared by all humans, but this has been challenged by other newer theories that each language has its own unique and specialized code.

PROJECT SUMMARY Actions are not mediated solely by cortical processes but rely on communication within basal ganglia- thalamocortical loops. Speech is one example, although how the basal ganglia participate in this uniquely human behavior is not clear, due to a lack of empirical data. For instance, the leading computational model of speech production ignores the hyperdirect cortical pathway to the subthalamic nucleus (STN), a basal ganglia node that has been implicated in multiple cognitive processes relevant to speech production (e.g.

Project Summary/Abstract Decades of research and clinical observations have established that successful spatial navigation and memory depend on the hippocampus and associated structures in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), including entorhinal, perirhinal and parahippocampal cortices [1, 2]. It is thought that the supporting neuronal mechanisms rely on key oscillatory patterns of activity within the MTL that change dynamically when navigating through an environment [3-10].

Project Summary The rapid formation of new memories and the recall of old memories to inform decisions is essential for human cognition, but the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. The long-term goal of this research is a circuit-level understanding of human memory to enable the development of new treatments for the devastating effects of memory disorders. Our experiments utilize the rare opportunity to record in-vivo from human single neurons simultaneously in multiple brain areas in patients undergoing treatment for drug resistant epilepsy.

Abstract Humans have a remarkable ability to flexibly interact with the environment. A compelling demonstration of this cognitive flexibility is our ability to respond correctly to novel contextual situations on the first attempt, without prior rehearsal.

An integrated single-neuronal, population-, local network- and stimulation-based prefrontal investigation of human social cognition This proposal aims to undertake a comprehensive single-cellular, population-, local circuit- and stimulation- based evaluation of the role that the dorsal prefrontal cortex plays in human social cognition. Despite ongoing progress in our understanding of basic elements of social behavior through animal models, astonishingly little is known about the single-neuronal and causal mechanisms that underlie human social cognition.

PROJECT SUMMARY Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) can restore lost function for people with severe speech and motor impairment (SSMI) due to neurological injury or disease. Despite tremendous recent progress, iBCI performance remains well below that of able-bodied people.