Research in our laboratory is aimed at developing quantitative biophysical descriptions of brain structure and function and using those descriptions to:
- Understand the integrative operation of the central nervous system, and
- Manipulate the brain through electrical stimulation and recording.
The last decade of the twentieth century was the 'Decade of the Brain', which dramatically expanded our knowledge of the nervous system at all levels. The largest questions remain, however. Namely, how do these levels fit together so that the brain produces such myriad and interesting behavior?
Our research approach is founded in the belief that understanding biophysical details at the level of roughly 1 mm^3 of the cortex--a few cortical columns, encompassing ~10,000 cells--will be crucial to understanding the functional operation of the cortex. This is a regime which lies above single cells and below the limits of resolution of current imaging modalities, such as fMRI. This is roughly the regime influenced by stimulating electrodes, and with the continuing advance of computational power, is also a regime approachable with biophysical modelling.
The laboratory presently has three main research foci:
Plasticity of Single-unit Neural Responses in Human Cortex
Deep Brain Stimulation and Electrodes
Single Neuron Recording in Hypothalamic Hamartomas
Other research areas include:
Biophysics of Neuronal Computation and Information Processing