Connor William Brown L&S Sciences
Using Electrocorticographic Gamma Oscillation to Explore Models of Movement Preparation in Humans
Movement preparation and execution are central to our everyday experience, yet we do not yet understand how the complex motor computations required for these actions are performed. In an attempt to understand how movements are prepared, many models have been created–using brain activity to predict someones intended movement before it is executed–with limited efficacy. A recent breakthrough in primate research provides a potential framework for exploring these preparatory computations further, but due to technical and ethical constraints the development and evaluation of this model has been limited to research involving non-human primates. My research project makes use of previously recorded human electrocorticography (ECoG) data, obtained from microelectrodes implanted during neurosurgery, to evaluate the utility of this model in a human context. Together, this work should advance our understanding of the human brain and add to the brain-machine interface field, enabling better rehabilitation strategies for a variety of patients that have brain or spinal cord injury and bettering our understanding of how we prepare for movement.
Message To Sponsor
To those at the Guthrie Fund--Thank you. This summer has been an incredible experience, allowing me for the first time to fully immerse myself in my chosen field and devote my time to research whole-heartedly. It showed me that it is one thing to pursue projects while juggling a million other responsibilities, but fully another to put effort full time into the research process. I was able to accomplish so much, and gain such valuable experience and direction in my future career. I had some doubts with my direction within cognitive neuroscience, but this summer has set me definitively on the path toward methods research, enabling the work of further scientists. Thank you for enabling this growth, and for a fantastic summer.