Speaker Series Archive

This series will explore diverse neuromodulation methods with a focus on rehabilitation. Researchers and clinicians of all career stages (including students and fellows), who are interested in neuromodulation and novel rehabilitation techniques, are invited. At each meeting, a speaker will present a topic or study relating to the improvement of rehabilitation techniques through the use of neuromodulation. The attendees will have the opportunity to ask questions, exchange ideas and opinions, and develop informal discussions. This monthly Speaker Series will be presented via Zoom and aims to present innovative ideas and cutting-edge methods for clinicians and researchers.

We're proud to present this archive of the past presentations from this Speaker Series.  To learn more about the Speaker Series and to register to attend future sessions, please visit the Speaker Series information page.

Past Presentation Video Recordings

December 1, 2021:  Bashar Badran, Ph.D.

Developing Novel Therapeutics – Focused Ultrasound and Auricular Neuromodulation as Alternatives to Implantable Brain Stimulation 

Dr. Bashar Badran is a Neuroscientist and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry within the Brain Stimulation Division at the Medical University of South Carolina. Dr. Badran’s Neuro-X lab is a multidisciplinary neuromodulation, engineering, and innovation laboratory that fosters an environment of neurotechnology and innovation to begin addressing complex medical and neuropsychiatric disorders. His lab has been on the forefront of pioneering noninvasive vagus nerve stimulation and low transcranial focused ultrasound. Dr. Badran is also an inventor and co-founder of several startups, including Zendo, a neuromodulation device for meditation enhancement, and BabyStrong, a new feeding system for newborns.

 

February 2, 2022:  Simon Davis, Ph.D.

Modulating Memory Network Dynamics in Healthy & Pathological Aging

Our understanding of the cortical mechanisms that contribute to healthy cognition as we age is an exciting and nascent domain of knowledge. Such an understanding of such patterns in healthy aging is a precondition to the effective treatment of age-related disorders like Alzheimer's disease. For example, the notion that older adults rely on a more bilateral system of brain regions (relative to younger adults) to maintain cognitive function has become generally well accepted. Nonetheless, the compensatory role of bilateral activation remains controversial because most of the data supporting this idea is correlational, and fails to actively engage these bilateral networks. Understanding the importance and malleability of such cross-hemispheric communication in cognition will likely provide a clear path for developing novel therapies to ameliorate age-related cognitive decline. In this talk I will present neuroimaging, neurophysiology, behavioral and TMS data that highlights this and other age-related mechanisms by which older adults may continue to perform tasks successfully, and how these mechanisms may be encouraged by noninvasive neuromodulation.

Dr. Simon Davis is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurology at Duke University, as well as the co-Director of Duke Brain Stimulation Research Center and the Director of the Neuroimaging Core: Bryan Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. His research includes age-related reorganization during episodic memory, executive functions, and semantic processes, cross-hemispheric communication during episodic and semantic memory in younger and older adults, myelination in the aging brain, and its role in cognitive decline and connectivity during episodic memory processes using neuromodulation.

 

March 2, 2022:  Aiko Thompson, Ph.D.

Operant Conditioning of Evoked EMG Responses for Enhancing Neurorehabilitation

A faculty member of NC NM4R, Aiko Thompson, Ph.D., has been investigating neurorehabilitation for over a decade. Dr. Thompson was the first researcher to implement the principles of Operant Conditioning for neural recovery on humans, and is the head of The Barbara S. Christie Evoked Potential Operant Conditioning (EPOC) laboratory and NC NM4R EPOC Core. She has won several NIH R01 grants, and will continue her research working with various populations to seek innovative approach for rehabilitation.

 

April 6, 2022:  Til Ole Bergmann, Ph.D., and Umair Hassan

The BEST Toolbox: Increasing Objectivity, Reliability, and Reproducibility in Non-invasive Brain Stimulation Research

 

Developed by Mr. Hassan working in Dr. Bergmann’s lab, the BEST Toolbox is easy-to-use MATLAB-based open-source software with a powerful graphical user interface, which allows the user to flexibly design, run, analyze, and share multi-protocol/multi-session non-invasive brain stimulation studies, involving transcranial magnetic, electric, and ultrasound stimulation in combination with EMG, EEG, and fMRI.

 

 

 

May 4, 2022:  Zhi-De Deng, Ph.D.

 

 

Model-Driven Design for Brain Stimulation Therapies

Dr. Zhi-De Deng is a Staff Scientist, Director of the Computational Neurostimulation Research Program, Noninvasive Neuromodulation Unit, at the National Institute of Mental Health. He is also Adjunct AssistantProfessor of Psychiatry & Behavioral Sciences, Duke UniversitySchool of Medicine. He received the SB degree in physics, SB and MEng in electrical engineering and computer science, from MIT. He received PhD in electrical engineering from Columbia University. He completed postdoctoral training at Duke and research fellowship at NIMH. His research focuses on computational approaches 1) to understand the physics and biophysics of neurostimulation, 2) to optimize dosing and individualization, and 3) to advance noninvasive brain stimulation technology development via model-informed design. His vision is to transform psychiatry through engineering innovation.

 

June 1:  Teresa Kimberley, Ph.D., PT

Paired Neuromodulation with Rehabilitation:  Lessons from Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Stroke

Teresa Jacobson Kimberley, PhD, PT, FAPTA is Professor and Director of the Brain Recovery Lab, in the Department of Physical Therapy in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the MGH Institute. Her lab's focus is to understand the pathophysiology of motor impairment and develop novel rehabilitation interventions for neurologic disorders, such as dystonia and stroke. She has an appointment as Research Staff at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Department of Neurology, and as Core Faculty in the Center for Neurotechnology and Neurorecovery.

Her research helped to pioneer the use of neuroimaging and non-invasive brain stimulation in the investigation of rehabilitation-related areas. Her work is funded through the National Institutes of Health, private foundations and industry partners. She serves on the Foundation for Physical Therapy Scientific Review Committee, is an Associate Editor for the Journal of Neurologic Physical Therapy and Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, and is on the editorial board of the Physical Therapy Journal.

 

Enhancing Episodic Memory Networks with Noninvasive Brain Stimulation

Video not available due to recording error

Joel Voss, Ph.D., is an Adjunct Associate Professor of Medical Social Sciences at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine.  The Voss laboratory uses human neuroscience methods (fMRI, EEG, TMS, eye tracking) to investigate mechanisms of learning and memory and their impairment in neurologic and neuropsychiatric disorders. They also use noninvasive stimulation methods to modulate distributed networks of the human hippocampus in order to test their roles in memory and to develop novel treatments for memory impairment.

 

August 3, 2022:  Michael Urbin, Ph.D.

Targeting a Mechanism of Dysfunction in the Spinal Cord to Address Motor Deficits after Stroke

Mike Urbin, Ph.D., is a Scientist with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He is jointly affiliated with the Rehabilitation Neural Engineering Laboratories at the University of Pittsburgh and the Human Engineering Research Laboratories within the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System.

Dr. Urbin’s primary research interest is in human motor control and learning. He uses a variety of noninvasive stimulation and structural imaging methods to study pathophysiology of stroke and spinal cord injury. A broad goal of his current research agenda is to understand mechanisms of motor dysfunction and how neuromodulation can be used to retrain distal limb muscles weakened by neurological injury.

 

September 7, 2022: Jesse Dawson, M.D., BSc (Hons), MBChB (hons), FRCP, FESO, postponed until February 2023

 

October 5, 2022: Dan Iosifescu, M.D.

Transcranial Photobioneuromodulation with Near Infrared Light for Depression and Cognition

 

November 2, 2022: Andre Machado, M.D., Ph.D., postponed until further notice

 

December 7, 2022: Flavio Frohlich, Ph.D., video pending

Fifteen Years of Entraining Brain Oscillations with Transcranial Alternating Current Stimulation: Past, Present, Future