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Brian Erickson, PhD - Drexel University Research Assistant Professor

Brian Erickson

Research Assistant Professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences
Office: Stratton 320
bae25@drexel.edu
Phone: 215.760.7253

Additional Sites:

Cognitive Neuroengineering and Wellbeing Laboratory (CogNeW)


Education:

  • PhD, Cognitive Psychology, Drexel University, 2017
  • MS, Bioengineering, 2012

Curriculum Vitae:

Download (PDF)

Research Interests:

  • Closed-loop Brain Stimulation
  • Electroencephalography EEG
  • Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation TMS
  • Attention
  • Signal processing
  • Network Neuroscience
  • Cognitive Enhancement

Bio:

Brian Erickson is a research assistant professor at Drexel University, and a member of the Cognitive Neuroengineering and Wellbeing Laboratory (CogNeW). He received his PhD in cognitive science from Drexel University in 2017. Brian specializes in the combination of Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) and electroencephalography (EEG) into high temporal-precision closed-loop systems to explore and enhance attention, motor, and other human cognitive functions. Brian has made major contributions to grantwork leading to NIH R01 funding for the development of novel EEG technology. He has expertise in machine learning, statistical parametric mapping and network neuroscience approaches. He has published in diverse cognitive domains including creativity and the connectomics of aphasia.

Brian’s primary research is on closed-loop enhancement of attention. Some aspects of attention depend on frontal “Theta” frequency rhythms. For instance, our reaction times to simple stimuli are faster during a “good” phase of Theta and slower during a “bad” phase. Using closed-loop EEG, Brian’s current research proposes to influence attention function in real time by modulating these phases with TMS. This will let us learn more about how attention works. Furthermore, Brian’s research aims to enhance people’s attention by repetitively stimulating Theta at the optimal phase to make it stronger. This could lay promising groundwork for the development of brain-stimulation treatments for attention disorders or focus enhancements for people with normal attention.

Selected Publications:

  • Erickson, B. A., Kim, B., Deck, B. L., Pustina, D., DeMarco, A. T., Dickens, J. V., ... & Medaglia, J. D. (2022). Preserved anatomical bypasses predict variance in language functions after stroke. Cortex, 155, 46-61.
  • Medaglia, J. D., Erickson, B. A., Pustina, D., Kelkar, A. S., DeMarco, A. T., Dickens, J. V., & Turkeltaub, P. E. (2022). Simulated attack reveals how lesions affect network properties in post-stroke aphasia. Journal of Neuroscience.
  • Driscoll, N., Erickson, B., Murphy, B. B., Richardson, A. G., Robbins, G., Apollo, N. V., ... & Vitale, F. (2021). MXene-infused bioelectronic interfaces for multiscale electrophysiology and stimulation. Science Translational Medicine, 13(612), eabf8629.
  • Oh, Y., Chesebrough, C., Erickson, B., Zhang, F., & Kounios, J. (2020). An insight-related neural reward signal. NeuroImage, 214, 116757.