Invasive neural device research with humans

Patients with implanted neural devices offer researchers unique opportunities to directly study the brain, facilitating both novel technology development and basic neuroscientific discovery. This research made possible by patients who are undergoing epilepsy monitoring or the surgical implantation of a deep brain stimulation device, patients with chronic brain implants like RNS systems, and patients participating in brain-machine interface studies. Should we utilize these opportunities to answer scientific questions about the brain and what’s at stake when we do? How do patients think about their contribution to and participation in these studies, which come with no promise of personal clinical benefit? How could this research be informed by a disability justice framework and designed to relate to participants as research partners? Our lab focuses on how these unique research contexts push us to rethink benefit, consent, trust, and the values that patients and investigators attach to basic science research.

Funding:

NIH BRAIN Initiative RF1MH121373

NIH BRAIN Initiative UH3NS103442

UCLA-CDU Dana Center for Neuroscience and Society

Engagement is increasingly recognized as a core feature of good research. While many other fields have embraced aspects of community based participatory research, many of the neurosciences have not. This is particularly true for basic neuroscience, which is often inspired by human experience, but carried out in insolation from the people and social contexts in which these experiences have meaning. The mission of The UCLA-CDU Dana Center for Neuroscience and Society is to develop a practice of community partnered neuroscience, influencing education, research, and systems change through centering the knowledge of communities historically underrepresented in neuroscience research. We host interdisciplinary fellowships, seed grants, and workshops for students at UCLA and Charles R. Drew University, as well for community members and organizations aligned with this mission. https://bri.ucla.edu/ucd-cns/

Collaborators: Drs Helena Hansen, Denese Shervington, Gina Poe, Amy Woods, Felix Schweizer, Marco Iacoboni, Nick Shapiro, and Aaron Panofsky

Funding: The Dana Foundation, Center Grant