The COBRE Center for Neuromodulation (CCN) at Butler Hospital: Clinical-Translational Research in Human Brain Stimulation.

ABSTRACT

The COBRE Center for Neuromodulation (CCN) at Butler Hospital supports clinical research in neuromodulation and investigators' career development in this field. The work couples brain stimulation methods with readouts of brain activity (e.g., using various neuroimaging, behavioral, and physiological assessment methods) in clinical or clinically relevant populations. Its guiding principle is that for noninvasive brain stimulation to gain efficacy and implementation, it is essential to better characterize clinically relevant target circuits and mechanisms of action. The CCN includes a Design and Analysis Core (DAC) to support rigorous and innovative experimental design and data analytic strategies and a Neuromodulation and Neuroimaging Core (NNC) to facilitate the acquisition and processing of high-quality data using noninvasive neurostimulation and neuroimaging methods. This article will describe the CCN's research focus and how it enhances research capacity in neuromodulation in our state. It will introduce our current investigator Project Leaders, their projects, and our pilot project program. It will also detail the CCN's links to Centers and research cores in Rhode Island researching allied areas of clinical neuroscience, neurology, psychiatry, and psychology, current collaborative efforts across those centers, and opportunities to collaborate in research and training.