![]() ![]() In addition to Paydarfar, the multidisciplinary research group includes José del R. Two Infinity Treadmills donated by the Coleman Fung Foundation will be used to study the brain’s ability to rewire itself. ![]() That’s why I am so excited to support this multidisciplinary team and its groundbreaking research,” said Coleman Fung, a serial entrepreneur whose foundation is also donating the two VR treadmills that will be used in the study.įung’s latest Austin-based company, Blue Goji, develops the Infinity Treadmill, which gamifies cognitive and physical rehabilitation. “Although neuroplasticity is such a well-understood attribute of the brain, we have not proactively leveraged it in a clinical setting. Researchers hope the study, funded by a $2.5 million gift from the Coleman Fung Foundation, will set the stage for further discoveries in neuroplasticity. Learning to harness neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to rewire itself, presents a new frontier for healing from brain disorders. “Our initial study will explore how we can do that for young people undergoing surgery for epilepsy, but we hope our findings will have broader implications for brain health." Rewiring the Brain for Healing “We want to prevent important real estate in the brain from becoming collateral damage to the surgeon’s knife,” he said. Lead investigator David Paydarfar, M.D., chair of the Department of Neurology at Dell Medical School at UT Austin and director of the Mulva Clinic for the Neurosciences, compares it to evacuating a site before a nearby building is demolished. A 3D model of the brain’s left hemisphere highlights regions responsible for movement and touch (red), speech perception (orange) and speech production (blue).Īs part of a three-year study, researchers will map the brains of adolescents before and after epilepsy surgery to examine how novel brain-machine interfaces and embodied learning technologies - such as playing games on a virtual-reality treadmill - can help the brain rewire itself before surgery, move key functions away from the surgeon’s target, and recover more quickly afterward. ![]()
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