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Cognitive Neuromodulation

The lab is also interested in how electrical stimulation can be used to therapeutically modulate memory function. The RAM project, supported by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is a large-scale collaboration in which we use intracranial recording and stimulation to understand and affect memory function. By aggregating data collection from intracranial patients at many clinical centers, we are able to study in detail the neural mechanisms of memory encoding and retrieval across four tasks that address many core memory processes: free recall, categorized free recall, paired associate learning and spatial navigation. During performance of these tasks, we apply targeted electrical stimulation to specific nodes in the memory network, including the hippocampus, medial temporal lobe cortices and the frontal cortex. We then use multivariate machine learning methods to analyze the effects of stimulation on brain activity, and their relationship to memory performance. Our ultimate goal is to use this knowledge to understand how electrical stimulation can be used to treat memory dysfunction.

Figure 7: Free recall and machine learning for cognitive neuromodulation. Left: an example free recall task used to collect record-only and stimulation data in intracranial patients. Right: we use machine learning methods, including classification of brain-wide spectral power, to understand how stimulation can evoke patterns of brain activity likely to lead to either remembering or forgetting.