Shane Lee, Ph.D.

I am presently a postdoc in neuroscience now at Brown University. My Ph.D. was in neuroscience here at Boston University, with a B.S. in physics from Trinity University in Texas.

I study how movement is represented by neural activity in the human brain and how that movement is impaired in Essential Tremor (ET), Parkinson's Disease (PD), and dystonia. If we can understand how the brain represents pathological activity, improved treatments may be possible in the future.

Motor-related neural activity in the human brain

For patients who are good candidates, deep brain stimulation (DBS) can be an effective treatment. During DBS electrode implant surgery, our subjects are awake and perform a variety of motor tasks while we record field potentials and single neuron activity from several motor-related areas in the brain. This allows us to test hypotheses about how movement is represented by neural activity.

Our subjects also perform similar tasks in the clinic to understand their movement disorders compared to controls. We also test subjects with DBS on and off to assess how DBS affects their symptoms.

Modeling the targets of DBS

One of the most prominent symptoms of ET and PD is an involuntary intention tremor. We build computational models of areas of the brain that are targets of DBS and simulate neural activity related to the presence of tremor.

We simulate DBS in these models to understand the mechanisms of how DBS reduces motor symptoms and study potential ways to improve DBS in the future.

Other ongoing projects

Other active work I'm involved in:

Publications

Schaeffer EL, Liu DY, Guerin J, Ahn M, Lee S, Asaad WF. A Low-Cost Solution for Quantification of Movement during DBS Surgery. Journal of Neuroscience Methods. 2018.

Lauro PM, Lee S, Ahn M, Barborica A, Asaad WF. DBStar: An Open-Source Tool Kit for Imaging Analysis with Patient-Customized Deep Brain Stimulation Platforms. Stereotact Funct Neurosurg. 2018.

Soplata AE, McCarthy MM, Sherfey J, Lee S, Purdon PL, Brown EN, Kopell N. Thalamocortical control of propofol phase-amplitude coupling. PLoS Computational Biology. 2017. 13 (12): e1005879.

[review] Lee S, Asaad WF, Jones SR. Computational modeling to improve treatments for essential tremor. Drug Discovery Today: Disease Models 2017.

Lee JJ, Segar DJ, Morrison JF, Mangham WM, Lee S, Asaad WF. Subdural hematoma as a major determinant of short-term outcomes in traumatic brain injury. J Neurosurg. Feb 2017.

Ainsworth M, Lee S, Kaiser M, Simonotto J, Kopell NJ, Whittington MA. GABAB receptor-mediated, layer-specific synaptic plasticity reorganizes gamma-frequency neocortical response to stimulation. PNAS. Apr 2016.

Sherman MA, Lee S, Law R, Haegens S, Thorn CA, Hämäläinen MS, Moore CI, Jones SR. Neural mechanisms of transient neocortical beta rhythms: Converging evidence from humans, computational modeling, monkeys, and mice. PNAS. Aug 2016.

[review] Cannon J, McCarthy MM, Lee S, Lee J, Börgers C, Whittington MA, Kopell N. Neurosystems: brain rhythms and cognitive processing. Eur J Neurosci. Mar 2014.

Lee S, Jones SR. Distinguishing mechanisms of gamma frequency oscillations in human current source signals using a computational model of a laminar neocortical network. Front Hum Neurosci. Dec 2013.

[review] Ainsworth M, Lee S, Cunningham MO, Traub RD, Kopell NJ, Whittington MA. Rates and rhythms: a synergistic view of frequency and temporal coding in neuronal networks. Neuron. Aug 2012.

Ainsworth M, Lee S, Cunningham MO, Roopun AK, Traub RD, Kopell NJ, Whittington MA. Dual gamma rhythm generators control interlaminar synchrony in auditory cortex. J Neurosci. Nov 2011.

Lee S, Sen K, Kopell N. Cortical gamma rhythms modulate NMDAR-mediated spike timing dependent plasticity in a biophysical model. PLoS Comput Biol. Dec 2009.

Mentors and collaborators

© 2017 Shane Lee