Research

We conduct detailed studies of brain organization and neurocognitive abilities in individuals who have had a brain injury.  This research program allows us to test hypotheses about how the brain works and how it responds to injury. The insights gained can help design personalized brain mapping protocols in neurosurgery patients, and test hypotheses about the factors that may encourage and hinder recovery. 

Optimizing Functional Mapping during Awake Brain Surgery

Electrical stimulation mapping during awake neurosurgery is a clinical technique to confirm person-specific functional organization in real time, during invasive neurosurgical procedures. Our group has partnered with clinical colleagues to innovate how abilities such as language, memory, motor function, and music can be mapped in the human brain during awake brain surgery.

Our research on awake brain mapping has been anchored by our experience with the neurosurgical teams at the University of Rochester Medical School (see Mahon et al., 2019, JoVE), and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center.

A central goal of this work is to identify the most sensitive task to map critical functions in individual patients. To accomplish this, we use per-operative functional and structural MRI, and detailed neurocognitive testing. This allows us to develop tests that can then be used during awake surgery.

This is research that can have an immediate impact. Data that are generated from our research studies are available to the clinical team at the time of surgery. For patients who have an awake brain surgery for functional mapping, our research lab has developed protocols for using electrical stimulation mapping to study separable aspects of language, music, action, and perception. This research is supported by funding from the National Institutes of Health.