Mesut Sahin
New Jersey Institute of Technology, NJ·Biomedical Engineering
The cerebellum, at the back of the brain, is best known for coordinating movement. Yet growing evidence shows it also shapes thinking and emotion.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Neuroscience
Engineering
- Topics
cerebellum
cerebellar nuclei
neuromodulation
- Grants
- 1 known grant, through Apr 2027
What they work on
- Develop focused ultrasound protocols that directly stimulate the deep cerebellar nuclei, the cerebellum's output centers, without surgery, and identify settings that selectively activate specific neuron types.
- Determine transcranial electrical stimulation settings that modulate the cerebellar cortex and indirectly change activity in the cerebellar nuclei, targeting selected neuronal subtypes.
- Investigate new neuromodulation mechanisms that emerge when focused ultrasound and transcranial electrical stimulation are applied together to cerebellar circuits.
More about the research
Through the thalamus, its output nuclei connect to motor and non-motor areas of the cortex and to the basal ganglia. Changing cerebellar output could therefore affect much of the forebrain and help treat many disorders. Early trials that stimulated the cerebellar surface gave mixed results. Stimulating the deep cerebellar nuclei has recently shown benefits, but that requires implanting electrodes deep in the brain.
Why it matters
Cerebellar dysfunction may contribute to symptoms of many psychiatric and neurological disorders, and clinical studies suggest cerebellar stimulation can improve motor learning, cognition and emotion. Non-invasive protocols using focused ultrasound and transcranial electrical stimulation could offer patients these benefits without surgery to implant deep brain stimulation electrodes.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Indira M Raman
Northwestern University, IL·Neuroscience
Determine how the synchrony of inhibitory input from many Purkinje neurons shapes the firing of cerebellar nuclei neurons, using in vitro synaptic studies in mice and larval zebrafish.
Kathleen Gunthert
American University, DC·Neuroscience
Test whether excitatory or inhibitory non-invasive neuromodulation of right cerebellar lobule VII (RVII) selectively changes social learning, comparing it with sham stimulation in neurotypical adults and adults with autism.
Dominique Durand
Case Western Reserve University, OH·Biomedical Engineering
Test whether an extracellular voltage clamp, which holds the electric field around neurons steady, prevents neurons from firing in sync in overexcitable brain tissue, using electrophysiology, neural imaging and computer models.
The school
New Jersey Institute of Technology: 12 labs on PI Pages, $172M a year on research, 74 research doctorates a year.
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