CS&E Colloquium: Engineering Translational Human Neuroscience Through Brain Stimulation and Recording
The computer science colloquium takes place on Mondays from 11:15 a.m. - 12:15 p.m. This week's speaker, David Darrow (UMN Department of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry), will be giving a talk titled "Engineering Translational Human Neuroscience Through Brain Stimulation and Recording"
Abstract
Human brain disorders such as chronic pain, Parkinson’s disease, epilepsy, depression, pain and traumatic brain injury arise from dysfunction in distributed neural circuits rather than isolated anatomical lesions. However, most neuromodulation therapies remain anatomically targeted, open-loop, and only partially optimized.
This talk presents an engineering framework for translational human neuroscience built around three pillars: large-scale neural recording in humans, circuit-level system identification linked to behavior, and rational optimization of brain stimulation. Our group leverages intracranial electrophysiology (128–256 channels, multi-kHz sampling), noninvasive stimulation techniques, and implantable neuromodulation devices to directly measure and perturb human brain networks. By combining these recordings with computational modeling approaches, including reinforcement learning, drift diffusion modeling, and Bayesian optimization, we identify individualized circuit biomarkers and guide stimulation targeting across disorders. I will present examples spanning epilepsy monitoring, modulation of cognitive effort with deep brain stimulation in Parkinson’s disease, precision functional mapping for chronic pain, and emerging closed-loop approaches for seizure and autoregulatory failure detection.
The long-term goal is to engineer adaptive, circuit-informed neuromodulation systems that move seamlessly from laboratory discovery to clinical implementation. This work sits at the intersection of computer science, engineering, and medicine and highlights how scalable algorithms and real-time control methods can be deployed in the most complex dynamical system we know: the human brain.
Biography
Dr. David Darrow is board-certified pain and functional neurosurgeon, Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery and Psychiatry at the University of Minnesota and the Rockswold-Kaplan Endowed Chair for Traumatic Brain Injury at Hennepin County Medical Center, specializing in functional and pain neurosurgery. Dr. Darrow treats diseases of the central nervous system with neuromodulation including epilepsy, movement disorders, trigeminal neuralgia/facial pain, chronic pain, and psychiatric diseases.
Dr. Darrow is co-PI of the Herman-Darrow Human Neuroscience Lab with a mission of understanding and treating disorders of the nervous system with neuromodulation. The Herman-Darrow Lab links together circuit-level electrophysiology with behavior. By pairing neuromodulation with a quantitative understanding of the pathological circuits of the brain, the lab hopes to help patients improve symptoms and quality of life.
Dr. Darrow is also the PI of the Restorative Neurotrauma Lab at HCMC where electrophysiology and neuromodulation are used to better understand and treat traumatic injuries of the central nervous system. He is the PI for the E-STAND trial, where neuromodulation is used to restore function after Spinal Cord Injury. In collaboration with many other investigators, the team is testing neuromodulation to restore volitional movement and autonomic function using algorithmic, personalized approaches through remote data collection.
Category
Start date
Monday, March 2, 2026, 11:15 a.m.
End date
Monday, March 2, 2026, 12:15 p.m.
Location
Keller Hall 3-180