Collaborators

Present:

Past:

Graduate Students:

  • Lee Von Kraus PhD... Local Section
  • Marcello DiStasio MD/PhD
  • I am an MD/PhD student working on the functional interaction between the thalamus and cortex in the sensorimotor system.  By recording extracellular electrical activity from the primary sensory and motor cortex and rVPL nucleus of thalamus in rats as they perform reaching movements, I am trying to determine how feed-forward models of actions modulate afferent sensory feedback.  In other words, I am trying to determine how the brain predicts the sensory consequences of its own movement commands.  In order to evalute information exchange across brain regions I am making use of techniques from the information theory, biophysical models, and the family of generalized linear models.

  • Brandi T. Marsh MD/PhD
  • John S. Choi PhD
  • Jordan C. Iordanou MD/PhD


Post-doctoral Candidates:

  • Weiguo Song
  • Janina Ferbinteanu 


Alumni: 

  • Mulugeta Semework PhD
  • Pratik Chhatbar MD/PhD
  • My research interest is sensorimotor neuroprosthesis. I started with tactile somatosensory task on non-human primates when I joined the lab and later moved on to state-funded neural control of force project. As of now, we have done comparison of different micro-electrode arrays, developed an efficient surgical technique of implanting multiple floating microelectrode arrays (using NP or Nesting Platform), performed real-time control of virtual arm using position/velocity/force/torque predictions and are working on which predictions can do equally well in different external dynamic environments. I am currently focusing on real-time hybrid torque+position control. I am proficient in chronic microelectrode array implantation surgeries, electrophysiology, decoding spiking neural signals and real-time use of such signals in a behavioral paradigm. My career interest is to become an academic physician, preferably a neurosurgeon.
  • Shaohua Xu
  • Kwangtaek Kim