Lab Members

I am interested in all things MRI with a special focus on neuroimaging methods, analysis and applications. I focus on cerebrovascular effects of neuroimaging signals with emphasis on pre-surgical planning and diagnosis with an eye towards improving clinical neuroimaging.

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) are exciting new methods that can be used for therapy and mapping. I am also interested in developing alternative methods of brain mapping for neuroscience applications as well as intra-operative mapping.

Recently, I have been working towards improving spinal cord imaging with projects trying to understand the functional and structural role of the spinal cord. In addition collaborative work with Jim Elliott in the Physical Therapy and Human Movement Sciences department has created a new methodology of identifying the chronic effects of whiplash.

Arterial spin labeling, fMRI and pharmacological MRI.

Brain plasticity, fMRI reliability, resting state functional connectivity, diffusion imaging, single trial EEG/ERP analysis and Granger causality.

Interests include: Functional MRI and diffusion tensor imaging.

Projects include:

• Establishing the role of the Hippocampus in memory encoding and recall using fMRI. The goal of this project is to be able to elicit Hippocampal activation in Epileptic patients so as to determine hemispheric dominance for memory prior to temporal lobectomy.
• Testing willful modulation of brain activity in Disorders of unconsciousness using fMRI. The main objective of this study is to determine if patients suffering from disorders of unconsciousness can respond using brain activity.

Stroke in the language-dominant hemisphere can result in a language impairment called aphasia. For many, aphasia is a lifelong diagnosis, but insurance policies typically cover only six to 12 months of language therapy. Clinicians need robust prognostic tools that can help them make accurate, individualized treatment recommendations to their aphasic clients. To this end, I study neurophysiological mechanisms of language recovery in chronic stroke, with the goal of using MRI to longitudinally predict patterns of recovery. I am currently investigating cerebral hemodynamics measured by arterial spin labeling MRI as a potential biomarker of recovery. 

I also am interested in the neural correlates of sentence processing in healthy and aphasic individuals. I am currently examining areas of brain damage (i.e., hypometabolism, necrosis, atrophy) associated with syntactic impairments in Primary Progressive Aphasia and stroke-induced agrammatic aphasia. 

Research interests include resting-state fMRI and neuroimaging. I am working on the pipelines to process data using QUEST and store data in NUNDA.

As a chiropractic physician, my clinical training has focused on the non-surgical management of spinal pain syndromes. Spinal pain remains a widespread problem, causes much suffering, and places a large burden on the health care system. From my experience, I have learned that spinal pathophysiology is a challenging topic, and a great disparity exists between our understanding of the spine and its response to therapy. The aims of my research are to fill these gaps in our knowledge of spinal pain and its treatment to advance current management strategies and create a quantitative foundation for continued scientific investigation.

Current Projects

Investigating Pain Processing in the Brain, Brainstem and Spinal Cord with fMRI

Chronic pain syndromes remain a widespread problem in the United States. Recent advancements in brain imaging techniques are increasing our understanding of the role of the brain in the perpetuation of chronic pain. The proposed project aims to expand our research to include functional imaging of the brainstem and spinal cord, and we will study and compare pain processing along the entire neuraxis in healthy controls and chronic neck pain patients.

In Vivo Three-Dimensional Kinematic Analysis of the Cervical Spine

Manual therapies are a common treatment for neck and back pain, and they have traditionally been taught and practiced from a biomechanical viewpoint. Manual therapists detect areas of restricted spinal segmental motion and then apply treatments in a manner to increase motion and restore proper function to the joint. However, the question of whether manual therapies alter spinal motion has not been thoroughly investigated. MRI can be used to non-invasively measure 3D spinal segmental motion in vivo following controlled rotation of the spine. We aim to utilize these techniques to better understand how spinal pain syndromes influence spinal motion and to investigate the effects of manual therapies on the biomechanics of the spine.