1. What is your favorite part about neuromodulation work?
My favorite part about neuromodulation work is translating neuroscience discoveries into real treatments that can change patients' lives. The ability to modulate neural circuits and see direct effects on movement, pain, or cognition is incredibly rewarding. I also enjoy the challenge of refining stimulation strategies, integrating real-time physiological feedback, and personalizing neuromodulation to optimize outcomes.
2. What is your favorite kind of neuromodulation technique and/or equipment and why?
I’m particularly interested in spinal cord stimulation, especially for restoring function after spinal cord injury. The ability to record evoked compound action potentials (ECAPs) in real time and use them to guide therapy is a fascinating step toward closed-loop neuromodulation. Deep brain stimulation is also exciting, particularly for psychiatric conditions like OCD and depression, where we are beginning to apply precision functional mapping with fMRI and invasive recordings to target circuits more effectively.
3. What kind of conditions do you treat with neuromodulation?
I treat a broad range of conditions with neuromodulation, including chronic pain syndromes and trigeminal neuralgia, movement disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and dystonia, psychiatric conditions like OCD and depression, spinal cord injury, and epilepsy. Each of these involves unique challenges, but the underlying goal is the same, leveraging neural circuit dynamics to improve patient outcomes.
4. Any sparks of inspiration you would like to share?
Neuromodulation is moving toward a future where therapy is dynamic and responsive rather than static. The field is shifting from open-loop stimulation to closed-loop systems that use neural biomarkers to adjust therapy in real time. The idea of combining precision functional mapping, computational modeling, and real-time neural decoding is inspiring because it has the potential to make neuromodulation treatments much more effective and personalized. There’s also the possibility of expanding these concepts beyond movement and pain disorders to cognitive and psychiatric conditions.
5. What is your favorite part of the brain and why?
The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC) is particularly interesting to me because of its role in working memory, decision-making, and cognitive control. It’s a key region in understanding how the brain accumulates evidence and makes decisions, and it plays a central role in psychiatric disorders. The intersection of DLPFC activity with neuromodulation is an exciting area for future research, especially in conditions like Parkinson’s disease and depression.
6. Any exciting news or breakthroughs you'd like to share regarding your neuromodulation work?
Our latest paper, "Distinct computational mechanisms of uncertainty processing explain opposing exploratory behaviors in anxiety and apathy," was just accepted in Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging. This study lays the groundwork for understanding how anxiety and apathy shape decision-making through different perceptions of uncertainty, which has implications for computational psychiatry and neuromodulation. Right now, we are using this work as a basis for decoding neural activity directly from intracranial electrodes. The goal is to refine real-time adaptive neuromodulation strategies by integrating intracranial EEG with computational models, which could lead to more precise and responsive neuromodulation therapies. This is an exciting step toward closed-loop stimulation for psychiatric and neurological disorders.
