Oathes Lab

Center for Brain Imaging and Stimulation

Welcome to the Center for Brain Imaging and Stimulation homepage at the University of Pennsylvania. we are also affiliated with the Center for Neuromodulation in Depression and Stress, Department of Psychiatry, Perelman School of Medicine as well as the Department of Neuroscience, the brainSTIM Center and the Institute for Translational Medicine and Therapeutics.

Center Mission Statement

The goal of the center is to leverage cutting edge neuroimaging to guide brain stimulation tools that interrogate and manipulate brain networks involved in neuropsychiatric conditions. We also pursue TMS/fMRI methods development research with broad applications to cognitive and affective systems.

Approaches

To define causal communication pathways and to quantify neural circuit integrity, our group interleaves single pulse Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) with functional MRI recordings (TMS/fMRI). We benefit from the slow rise time of the BOLD response to interleave TMS pulses and to capture the resulting brain activity caused by TMS to the surface of the brain.

We also use structural and functional MRI to guide efforts to influence behavior, cognitive function, psychophysiological responses, and symptoms especially in depression and post-traumatic stress with repetitive trains of TMS (rTMS).

Targeted behaviors and symptoms

Our current projects are designed to improve worry/rumination symptoms, working memory and mentalizing functions including through the use of resting fMRI, diffusion imaging, network control theory, neuroeconomics and closed loop TMS/fMRI.