A multidisciplinary team of Carney-affiliated researchers have published research that has meaningful implications for patients suffering from Normal Pressure Hydrocephalus (NPH) and identifies new biomarkers in the neurodegenerative disease landscape.

How does dopamine help us make important decisions? What kinds of learning scenarios best enable us to become proficient at something? And why does overthinking sometimes hinder learning? Professor Michael Frank’s lab has published scholarship that responds to these questions. The Director of Carney’s Center for Computational Brain Science, Frank’s research combines computational modeling and experimental work to understand the neural mechanisms underlying reinforcement learning, decision making and cognitive control.

A new mobile app developed by researchers at Brown University’s brain science institute is looking to find what happens in the brain during the transition from acute to chronic pain.

This year, participants were provided with electrical brain activity and clinical scores of 172 clinically depressed patients both pre and post treatment with TMS from Linda Carpenter’s Lab at the Butler Hospital. The investigators’ main challenge was to predict, based on electroencephalogram data from the first treatment session, if a patient would respond to TMS treatment. In practice, these predictions would be able to determine which patients would be the best candidates for and most responsive to TMS treatment for depression.

The Carney Institute for Brain Science brought together faculty who study different aspects of artificial intelligence to discuss what it has in common with human intelligence, and its implications for society.

The idea of connecting computers directly to our brains is moving from fantasy to reality, and some of the richest and most powerful men are pouring money into the space, chasing a vision that the technology could one day upend healthcare — and everyday life as we know it.