Memory impairments are common to several neurological and psychiatric disorders, including Alzheimer?s disease and depression, conditions which impose a heavy burden on patients, families and society. Novel treatment and diagnostic strategies are desperately needed, and these require a deeper and more precise understanding of the neural basis of episodic memory. Brain stimulation, applied either intracranially or transcranially, has emerged as a potentially powerful therapeutic strategy. However, the targeting of stimulation electrodes has to be precise, and for this the idiosyncrasies of each individual?s functional brain anatomy have to be respected. The proposed project will use recent advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to delineate distributed brain networks within individuals, and use these network maps to guide the placement of intracranial electrodes. An episodic memory task will be used to gain high temporal and spatial resolution data on the involvement of individual-level brain network structures in episodic memory. Further, direct cortical stimulation will be applied to individual network regions to test the causal influence of these regions on memory recall. To achieve this project, the candidate will implement individual-level fMRI mapping at Stanford University with the guidance of Prof. Russel Poldrack (co- mentor), and then train in intracranial electrophysiology and stimulation with Prof. Josef Parvizi (mentor). After this initial training, the candidate will apply this multimodal approach to study the neurophysiology of episodic memory, under additional guidance of Prof. Anthony Wagner (collaborator) and Prof. Randy Buckner (collaborator). This training, combined with mentoring and formal courses focused on career development, will provide the candidate with a strong basis upon which to build an independent research program. Once the candidate transitions to independence, he will use network-guided brain stimulation to improve the accuracy and efficacy of stimulation paradigms used to modulate episodic memory recall. The resulting data will refine the current understanding of the neural systems involved in episodic memory, and importantly provide a proof- of-principle for the use of individual-level network mapping to guide brain stimulation, which could have important implications for brain stimulation therapies for a range of mental health disorders.
Brain stimulation has emerged as a potentially powerful means to remediate symptoms in a range of neurological and psychiatric diseases, however, precise targeting of electrodes is needed to ensure treatment efficacy. The proposed project will use recent advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging to delineate distributed brain networks within individuals, and use these network maps to guide the placement of intracranial electrodes and stimulation during an episodic memory task. The resulting data will refine the current understanding of the neural systems involved in episodic memory, and provide a proof-of-principle for the use of individual-level network mapping to guide brain stimulation, which could have important implications for brain stimulation therapies for a range of mental health disorders.
