We use brain stimulation to establish the functional role of transient synchrony, and its pathological role in common movement disorders and beyond.
Each pendulum is a model oscillator, coloured by its phase. Where neighbours swing together, they are synchronised. The ring is a stimulation probe: move it with your pointer, click to stimulate.tap to move it and stimulate. With closed-loop on, the probe stimulates by itself when local synchrony crosses the marked threshold. Illustrative model, not recorded data.
Our everyday actions, from decision making to motor control, involve information exchange through transient neural synchrony across multiple brain regions. A range of neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease, essential tremor, dystonia and dyskinesia could be attributed to dysfunction of this fundamental neural property. To date, the functional and pathological roles of transient neural synchrony remains unknown, a critical link that could be leveraged to identify novel ways of treating a range of neuropsychiatric disorders.
Modulating neural activity of interest while sparing other physiological function.
Adjusting neuromodulation according to the current state of the neural system.
Learning from spontaneous neural processes how to modulate neural synchrony.
This paper investigates the changes in brain-wide synchronization associated with Essential Tremor and relates these to the oscillatory dynamics during voluntary movements.
Read the paper: Large-Scale Motor Dynamics Associated with Reaching are Altered in Essential Tremor
Deep brain stimulation has a greater clinical effect in those with stronger cortico-thalamo-peripheral tremor connectivity, which is also associated with more regular tremors as measured with an accelerometer.
We are now recruiting for MRes in Neurotechnology and funded PhD positions.
Email Hayriye Cagnan