BME Seminar: Matthew D. Johnson, Ph.D. - Deep Brain Stimulation

Armour College of Engineering's Biomedical Engineering Department will host a seminar featuring Matthew D. Johnson, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota on Friday, April 20, 2018.

Recent advances in neurotechnology for basic science research and healthcare have created new and exciting opportunities to interface with our nervous system. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) is one such technology that has enabled numerous people living with movement disorders to reclaim control over their motor function. A deeper understanding of the neural pathways and physiological mechanisms underlying DBS therapy continues to be critically important to improve efficacy and decrease treatment variability.

This seminar will cover our development of patient-specific computational models of DBS that help explain how varying electrode configurations and stimulation parameters affect the electrophysiological activity within fiber pathways projecting near one or more active electrode contacts. While these retrospective studies help identify the neural pathways underlying DBS's therapeutic effects and side effects, the seminar will also show how optimization theory can enable prospective identification of DBS settings that more selectively target these neural pathways. The seminar will conclude with experimental analysis showing the performance of model-derived DBS settings in reducing individual Parkinsonian motor signs.

Short Bio

Matthew D. Johnson is an Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Minnesota. He received his bachelor’s degree in engineering sciences from Harvard University in 2002 and master’s and doctorate in biomedical engineering from the University of Michigan in 2003 and 2007, respectively. He then completed an NIH-NRSA post-doctoral fellowship at the Cleveland Clinic. His expertise is in neural engineering with specific research interests in deep brain stimulation (DBS). His research program studies how the brain responds and adapts to DBS therapies from computational and experimental perspectives. These studies, in turn, provide a rationale his group to develop and translate new neuromodulation-based approaches for treating for a range of brain disorders. He teaches courses in signal processing, physiological control systems, system identification with biological applications, and neuro-engineering.