There is a substantial need to understand the fundamental biological mechanisms of neuromodulation therapies in order to improve clinical delivery and outcomes (RFA-NS-20-006). Intractable chronic pain of the back and limbs continues to be challenging to treat clinically, and spinal cord stimulation (SCS) devices have experienced tremendous market growth despite a lack of an accepted mechanistic basis.
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT. Research Project: Spatial memory – memory of where an event happened or an object was located – depends on the hippocampus in a wide range of vertebrate species, including mammals and birds. In humans, most spatial memories are formed through visual experience. However, it is unclear how visual information is processed by hippocampal memory circuits to support spatial memory formation.
PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT Functional MRI (fMRI) is today the predominant tool for noninvasive imaging of brain function, which has revolutionized our understanding of the human brain. To date, echo-planar imaging (EPI) has been the standard fMRI acquisition method, but suffers from intrinsic limitations such as static and dynamic distortion, image/contrast blurring, signal voids, suboptimal CNR and physiological noises.
Despite widespread clinical use, the theoretical framework by which to understand safety of electrical stimulation through implanted electrodes is surprisingly limited. Most of our current understanding of stimulation safety was phenomenologically determined in the 80s and 90s using very limited electrode geometries, materials, stimulation systems, and stimulation locations.
A central goal of neuroscience is to discover how neural circuits control the body’s muscles to produce behavior. However, despite recent advances in tools for studying brain activity, methods for examining the signals that actually control behavior – spiking activity in muscle fibers – have advanced little since the 1950s, fundamentally limiting our understanding of how the brain controls the body. By combining our expertise in electrophysiology (Dr. Sober) and engineering (Dr.
This study proposes to refine, integrate and disseminate the NeuroImaging Brain Chart (NIBCh) software toolbox and machine learning (ML) model library, an ecosystem of software components enabling constructive integration, statistical harmonization, and ML-centric data analyses across studies. NIBCh enables large-scale analyses of multi-modal brain MRI data by mapping such data into a compact coordinate system of informative neuroimaging signatures implemented by our library of ML models.
This proposal describes a five-year career development program to prepare the candidate, Dr. Nan Xu, for a career as independent investigator at a major academic research institute, with the expertise of modeling dynamics of brain causal system to provide novel insights into the basic pathophysiology of neurologic disorders. This proposal develops upon Dr.
Project Summary Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of the sensory cortices is an emerging approach to restore sensation to people who have lost it due to neurological injury or disease. ICMS of somatosensory cortex has been used in clinical trials to restore sensation to the hands of people with spinal cord injury and, more recently, was used to restore vision to a person with blindness. The sensations evoked by ICMS are dependent on the stimulated electrode and selected parameters.
Abstract Microelectrode arrays (MEAs) have great potential for therapeutic use in direct brain-computer interface (BCI) control of robotic prostheses to improve the lives of patients suffering from debilitating conditions related to loss of limbs or limb function. MEAs also have the potential to restore loss of sensory perception in vision, hearing, and tactile sensation by applying patterned current stimulation to sensory neurons.
Project Summary Learning and performing complex skills such as speech or music requires precise control of motor variability. While elevated motor variability can spur the learning of new behaviors, excessive variability can impair performance of learned skills. How the brain controls motor variability during learning and in expert performance remains unclear. Intriguingly, the basal ganglia (BG) is an important source of motor variability in both health and disease, and is a key site where dopamine (DA) reinforces more successful behaviors.
