Welcome to the Bronte-Stewart lab

The goal of the research in the Bronte-Stewart laboratory is to understand the cortical and subcortical pathophysiology of Parkinson’s disease (PD) and other movement disorders. The current focus of the lab is to investigate the neural and kinematic signatures of movement disorders using synchronous neural and kinematic recordings in freely moving human subjects, who have implanted investigative sensing deep brain stimulators. We are now performing the first closed loop neurostimulation experiments using a fully embedded device.  We have developed several quantitative metrics of movement disorders such as bradykinesia, tremor, and freezing of gait and we are working to understand the cognitive, motor and neurophysiological contributions to these debilitating symptoms and how these may be used to improve our toolbox of therapies.  We have several collaborations underway to investigate the brain networks involved in chronic HIV people and people with Parkinson’s disease, to develop ambulatory EEG capabilities and to investigate whether augmented reality interventions can improve gait in people with Parkinson’s disease.