Dr. Richardson is PI on this new 5-yr U01 grant "Basal ganglia-cortical networks for speech production," with co-investigators Frank Guenther (BU), Nathan Crone (Johns Hopkins), Lori Holt (CMU), Julie Fiez (Pitt), and Rob Turner (Pitt). In this project, we will use intracranial electrophysiology collected during DBS surgery to define the connectivity of speech-related cortex to the STN, while evaluating the role of cortical-STN and cortical-GPi dynamics in two basal ganglia functions critical for speech: motor sequence learning and gain modulation. Our invasive human neuroscience approach is unique in its ability to define a broad cortical-basal ganglia network for modulating speech. We hope that establishing a neurobiological framework for cortical-basal ganglia network control of these processes will advance our understanding of mechanisms for modulating speech, in turn informing how we model the dynamics of other human behaviors modulated by the basal ganglia.
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