Neurostimulation
has entered our
vernacular. Neurostimulation techniques have
received increasing attention in recent years due
to their promise as treatment for a wide variety of
neurological disorders, including chronic pain,
Parkinson's disease, and major depression.
Conventionally defined, neurostimulation
refers to the use of
tiny implanted devices that directly stimulate
neurons (nerve cells) through mild electrical
pulses. Those neurons in turn respond to produce
the desired physiological effect, such as the
inhibition of pain signals to the brain, control of
involuntary tremors, or the release of
neurotransmitters to specific brain regions.
We are interested in expanding the concept of neurostimulation to ask: Are there ways to engage these neural pathways non-invasively? We call this approach behavioral neurostimulation; that is, using the environment or a mental strategy-- not an implanted device -- to target activity in neural circuits involved in emotion, motivation, and reward processing and thereby enhance learning and memory.
In our prior work, we demonstrated anticipatory neural responses in a region known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in response to cues that predict a reward. These anticipatory activations are coupled with activation in the hippocampus, a region demonstrated to underlie episodic memory formation. By releasing excitatory neuromodulatory signals, the VTA appears to prime the hippocampus to record an upcoming experience to memory. We are exploring new ways to elicit this signalling behaviorally.
With the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, we are able to manipulate stimuli presented to individuals and watch how the VTA and hippocampus respond. With this knowledge we can tailor stimuli to specific individuals or populations, with the hopes of helping them develop specific strategies for improving memory function that can be taken beyond the lab. This research gets at the basic questions of how we learn, what motivates us, and how those two processes are intimately interwoven with one another.
Interested in learning more? Please contact Jeff MacInnes (jeff.macinnes_at_duke.edu)
We are interested in expanding the concept of neurostimulation to ask: Are there ways to engage these neural pathways non-invasively? We call this approach behavioral neurostimulation; that is, using the environment or a mental strategy-- not an implanted device -- to target activity in neural circuits involved in emotion, motivation, and reward processing and thereby enhance learning and memory.
In our prior work, we demonstrated anticipatory neural responses in a region known as the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in response to cues that predict a reward. These anticipatory activations are coupled with activation in the hippocampus, a region demonstrated to underlie episodic memory formation. By releasing excitatory neuromodulatory signals, the VTA appears to prime the hippocampus to record an upcoming experience to memory. We are exploring new ways to elicit this signalling behaviorally.
With the use of functional magnetic resonance imaging, we are able to manipulate stimuli presented to individuals and watch how the VTA and hippocampus respond. With this knowledge we can tailor stimuli to specific individuals or populations, with the hopes of helping them develop specific strategies for improving memory function that can be taken beyond the lab. This research gets at the basic questions of how we learn, what motivates us, and how those two processes are intimately interwoven with one another.
Interested in learning more? Please contact Jeff MacInnes (jeff.macinnes_at_duke.edu)
behavioral
neurostimulation