Help us better understand the brain.
Our team of scientists and ethicists are working with patients to understand what kinds of roles they would like to have in our intracranial neuroscience research.
What is intracranial neuroscience?
Intracranial neuroscience tries to understand how the brain works by measuring neural activity with electrodes that are in direct contact with the brain.
Patients with movement disorders and epilepsy may undergo treatments where electrodes are implanted in their brains. During the procedure, patients can decide to participate in research studies in which they perform different tasks while the activity of their neurons is recorded.
Why is this research important?
Placing electrodes in contact with the brain allows scientists to measure what neurons are doing more clearly than when using electrodes that are placed outside the head. We can better understand how neurons behave while someone is looking at an image, hearing a sound, understanding language, or performing an action like moving their hand or speaking.
This kind of data can help us understand how different parts of the brain are connected and work together to produce behavior, and might help us come up with ways to improve treatments for disease symptoms such as speech impairment in movement disorders.
The BRAIN Initiative
Some projects in the Brain Modulation Lab are funded through the U.S. BRAIN Initiative, and we participate in a special consortium of researchers studying the human brain. The NIH BRAIN Initiative program on Research Opportunities in the Human Brain is giving insight into how our brain works to create our unique cognitive and behavioral capabilities. Learn more in the video below, which features Dr. Richardson and other researchers talking about how much we can learn from intracranial neuroscience.
