Bio:
Brian Erickson is a research assistant professor at 91制片厂, and a member of the . He received his PhD in cognitive science from 91制片厂 in 2017. Brian specializes in the combination of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG) into high temporal-precision closed-loop systems to explore and enhance attention, motor, and other human cognitive functions. Brian has made major contributions to grantwork leading to NIH R01 funding for the development of novel EEG technology. He has expertise in machine learning, statistical parametric mapping and network neuroscience approaches. He has published in diverse cognitive domains including creativity and the connectomics of aphasia.
Brian鈥檚 primary research is on closed-loop enhancement of attention. Some aspects of attention depend on frontal 鈥淭heta鈥 frequency rhythms. For instance, our reaction times to simple stimuli are faster during a 鈥済ood鈥 phase of Theta and slower during a 鈥渂ad鈥 phase. Using closed-loop EEG, Brian鈥檚 current research proposes to influence attention function in real time by modulating these phases with TMS. This will let us learn more about how attention works. Furthermore, Brian鈥檚 research aims to enhance people鈥檚 attention by repetitively stimulating Theta at the optimal phase to make it stronger. This could lay promising groundwork for the development of brain-stimulation treatments for attention disorders or focus enhancements for people with normal attention.