Network mechanisms underlying cognition and recovery of function in the human brain

The ability to predict the extent to which brain damage will impair cognitive function, and to predict to the degree of recovery, whether spontaneous or induced, continues to elude researchers and clinicians. In the past, the inability to locate and determine the extent of brain damage and correlate the injury with any observed recovery while the patient was still living, stymied progress. Recent advances in brain imaging methodologies give researchers and clinicians the ability to characterize the location and evolution of brain lesions in patients at the time of injury, while undergoing treatment, and during recovery. Simultaneously, advances in large-scale, dynamic network theory are being used to develop new models of how information is transmitted, communicated, and processed in the brain. Together these two approaches offer researchers opportunities to develop new theories about how the function, disruption, and re-organization of brain networks might account for the cognitive deficits caused by brain injuries. It is also possible that research along these lines will lead to theoretically sound and effective rehabilitation interventions.

The Brain Network Recovery Group (BNRG) is an international, multi-disciplinary team that will unite researchers with expertise in computational, cognitive, and clinical neuroscience to address these problems. The BNRG will employ shared research protocols, common databases and analytic tools, postdoctoral fellow exchanges, and group meetings to develop applications of neural network theory for identifying mechanisms of brain injury, reorganization, and recovery.

By working collaboratively, this team will have the capacity to undertake the multi-level neurological research needed to solve these problems.