New tools, analytic methods and conceptual approaches for harnessing plasticity in the human brain

Our Vision

It is now clear that normal human cognition arises from the activity and interactions of brain regions within well-defined circuits and that psychiatric disease results from dysfunction of these circuits. However, our ability to non-invasively manipulate human neural activity – both for gaining a more causal understanding of normal brain function and to therapeutically remediate dysfunctional circuits – remains very limited. Critical to advancing these capacities, and with it the availability of novel psychiatric treatments, are a more robust understanding of which patient-relevant brain circuits are most important for which cognitive operations, how these circuits can be best modulated through repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) and how the broader societal understanding of the brain basis of mental illness can be advanced so that new technologies best impact the lives of individuals in need of treatment. We will address these challenges by bringing expertise from neuroscience, psychiatry, psychology, engineering, physics and computational modeling to bear. Our work will range from tool development and experimental work in healthy individuals to complex data analysis and computational modeling, and ultimately to a larger-scale engagement with societal attitudes through educational interventions. Through these efforts and the interdisciplinary collaborations involved, we hope to establish a new intellectual, scientific and clinical paradigm for understanding and manipulating human brain circuits in healthy individuals and for treating psychiatric disease.