Place: 4274 Chamberlin (Refreshments will be served)
Speaker: Joe Wildenberg, UW Department of Neuroscience
Abstract: The use of electrical neurostimulation to treat neurological disorders is expanding from initial applications in epilepsy and Parkinson's disease to conditions such as depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, balance disorders, and as an adjuvant to behavioral therapy during neurorehabilitation for stroke. Our group has developed a non-invasive technique that stimulates the central nervous system through the tongue. Previous work has shown this technique efficacious as therapy for balance disorders with beneficial effects lasting weeks to months after the stimulation therapy has ended. Here I will present a functional magnetic resonance imaging study indicating that stimulation of the cranial nerves via afferents in the tongue can influence neural structures within the balance-processing network to produce positive behavioral effects. Furthermore, the results of this study indicate that this stimulation can modify neural processing of tasks not encountered during the stimulation sessions. This seems to be the first evidence of long-term network-wide processing plasticity induced by electrical neurostimulation in humans.