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Transcranial Focused Ultrasound Neuromodulation: Mechanisms and Applications
Bin He, PhDDone
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Wired for Words: Using Noninvasive Brain Stimulation To Explore the Language System and Enhance Aphasia Recovery
Roy H. Hamilton, MD, MSDone
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Real Time Neuromodulation in Frontalparietal Control Systems
John Medaglia, PhDDone
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Coffee Break
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Lunch
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Coffee Break
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The Rise and Relevance of Brain Data
Martijn Schreuder, PhDDone
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Coffee Break
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E-field Modeling for Neuromodulation
Nicholas L. Balderston, PhDDone
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Neuroergonomics: Understanding the “Brain at Work” in Real-World Environments
Hasan Ayaz, PhDDone
Russell Toll graduated from the United States Military Academy at West Point in 2005 and deployed to Iraq as an Armor/Infantry Platoon Leader. During the 15 month tour in the Diyala River Valley his unit fought in some of those most pitched engagements of the war, earning the Valorous Unit Citation for extraordinary heroism.
After returning home Russ served as a casualty officer which entailed the difficult duty of informing families their soldier had been killed. Casualty officers also handle the administration of their unit’s severely wounded. Russ’ experiences at Walter Reed motivated him to improve the technologies available to his fellow veterans. He received permission to transfer to the reserves and began graduate studies in bioengineering at Stanford University.
Russ earned his PhD in 2018, applying EEG and transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) towards treatments for PTSD and depression. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at UTSW, leading neuroimaging and neuromodulation components of several studies. He is also the executive director of Compassion Neuroscience – a TMS nonprofit. Compassion Neuroscience’s missions are to provide no-cost TMS therapy for Gold Star Family members (those whose soldier was killed in action) and make TMS more accessible to the most vulnerable.
How do we treat someone with an unknown heart problem? We get a stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff, and take measurements. With that information we select the best known intervention and administer it to the patient. Then some time later we take those same measurements of the patient and compare the numbers to see if it worked. That makes sense. We don’t rely on a questionnaire asking the patient if they feel like their heart was beating faster or slower than usual over the past few weeks.
This is the methodology that computational psychiatry seeks to treat addiction, depression, and other disorders. These disorders affect the brain, so let’s measure the brain. Then treat, then re-measure, then re-evaluate. This simple concept has been out of our grasp technologically until recently. Now with neuroimaging tools like MRI and high-density EEG combined with neuromodulation tools like transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), we are ready for a paradigm shift in medicine.
Mental health challenges stop being a stigma-riddled taboo and become a mechanical problem for which there is a mechanical solution. By playing a game of Marco Polo with TMS and EEG, we have the potential to map the mind and guide patients back to health and happiness.