Christopher Weinberger

One of the current solutions to help those suffering from Parkinson’s Disease is by using neuromodulation, a technique that involves electrically stimulating a group of neurons. In particular, deep brain stimulation (DBS) is a type of neuromodulation in which electrical pulses are sent to one or more implanted electrodes in the patient’s brain. One recent development in DBS technology is in the DBS leads themselves; rather than stimulate an area of neurons with four ring electrodes, newer technology is able to stimulate with a greater distribution of electrodes across its surface. With these increased number of electrodes, computational models that predict neural pathway activation and optimization algorithms based on these models have proved useful to know which electrodes will have the strongest modulatory effect within the brain. To date, however, these models have not been rigorously tested with electrophysiological data. The project will record spike data from the globus pallidus, which is interconnected with the subthalamic nucleus, which in turn is one of the primary targets for treating Parkinson’s disease with DBS. This project will use a NeuroNexus 32-channel high-density microelectrode array with spaces electrodes ~50 um apart, which allows one to see a cell from multiple electrodes and results in better spike sorting. The electrophysiological signals will be processed and compared with the computational model predictions. If time permits, I will work with a graduate student to investigate how model parameters (e.g. tissue conductivity, neuron excitability) can be tuned to better fit the electrophysiological data.