Understanding Neurostimulation
Neurostimulation uses precisely controlled electrical signals to modulate nervous system activity. In clinical settings, this technology has transformed the treatment of neurological conditions, from deep brain stimulation for Parkinson's disease to spinal cord stimulation for chronic pain. These electrical interventions work by engaging residual neural circuits, compensating for lost function, or promoting adaptive plasticity in damaged nervous systems.
Our Lab asks: can neurostimulation actually drive motor recovery? What patterns of electrical activity restore movement? Which neural circuits must be engaged? How can we personalize stimulation to each individual's unique injury and recovery trajectory?
From Bench to Bedside: The Translational Arc
Just as new medications are first tested in laboratory models before reaching patients, neurostimulation therapies must follow a translational pathway. We begin with fundamental questions in rodent models: mapping the neural circuits responsible for movement control, testing how electrical stimulation interacts with damaged pathways, and developing the algorithms that will eventually guide clinical systems.
This preclinical work is where we discover the mechanistic principles that make therapy possible. In our laboratory, insights from rodent studies of cortical control over locomotion and grasping have directly shaped ongoing human clinical trials. The continuum from animal model to human patient isn't a one-way street; clinical observations inform our basic research questions, creating a new research cycle.
Closing the Loop: Adaptive Neurostimulation
Our laboratory focuses on two primary approaches to neural repair through electrical stimulation: cortical stimulation to restore movement after spinal cord injury, and deep brain stimulation (DBS) targeting the brain's motor circuits.
What unites these approaches is a commitment to adaptive neuromodulation: systems that sense neural activity in real-time and adjust stimulation accordingly. Traditional neurostimulation delivers fixed patterns of electrical pulses, essentially replaying the same signal regardless of what the nervous system is doing. This is like trying to have a conversation where you can only speak, never listen.
Closed-loop systems change this. The stimulation adapts to what the brain is trying to do, supporting voluntary effort rather than overriding it.
This adaptive approach reflects a deeper principle: recovery isn't about replacing lost function with technology, but about creating the conditions where the nervous system can reorganize itself. The stimulation may then serve as a guide, strengthening weak connections and gradually building back the neural infrastructure of motor control.
Toward Personalized Neural Repair
Every spinal cord injury is unique. The location and extent of damage, the configuration of surviving pathways, the individual's motor learning capacity: all of these factors determine what's possible for recovery. Our goal is to develop neurostimulation systems that can be personalized to each patient's specific needs.
This requires integrating multiple technologies: high-resolution neural interfaces that can both record and stimulate with precision, computational models that predict how electrical fields interact with neural tissue, and artificial intelligence algorithms that continuously optimize stimulation parameters based on recovery progress.
We're working to build the complete translational pipeline, from establishing the fundamental neuroscience in animal models, to developing the hardware and software platforms, to designing and conducting the clinical trials that will bring these therapies to patients. It's a long arc of research, but one grounded in the conviction that we can do better than the one-size-fits-all approaches of the past. The nervous system is adaptive. Our therapies should be too.