VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology

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The VA RR&D Center for Neurorestoration and Neurotechnology (CfNN) at the Providence VA Healthcare System (VAPHS) unifies a distinguished team of scientists, engineers and clinicians from the VA, Brown University, and affiliated hospitals to discover, design, develop, and deploy novel neurotechnologies and device-based therapies that advance the rehabilitation of Veterans with impairments in mobility, communication, mental health, and limb function. CfNN’s three Focus Areas are each dedicated to performing the rigorous, peer-reviewed science that leads to new diagnostic, rehabilitation, and therapeutic strategies for Veterans with spinal cord injury, stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), epilepsy, limb loss, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression, and other nervous system diseases or injuries. CfNN’s three Focus Areas are: (1) Restoring Communication and Mobility, (2) Restoring Mental Health, and (3) Restoring Limb and Sensory Function. The Focus Areas’ interdisciplinary research efforts are supported by three Cores providing essential infrastructure and specialized services: (A) Neuroimaging (B) Recording, Decoding, and Computational Neuroscience, and (C) Assessment, Outcome Measurement, and Implementation. CfNN research is further facilitated by a dedicated Administrative Team who support scientific productivity, coordinate the synergistic relationships between CfNN and its academic and clinical affiliates, maintain close contact with local and national VA officials, and optimize our research in service to Veterans. CfNN’s Strategic Plan and Research Strategy maximize interactions via complementary expertise and resources among its Focus Areas and Cores. This in turn supports a high-impact research community focused on application of medical devices to neurologic health, both within the VA and in the wider regional and national brain science community. Through this renewal, over the next five years CfNN will leverage and expand its collaborative research, both within VA Providence and together with other VA Centers, toward rehabilitation goals important to the large number of affected Veterans and their families. These goals include: restoring arm and leg function for Veterans with stroke, spinal cord injury, or amputation; improving and maintaining intuitive, rapid communication for Veterans with ALS; improving the understanding, early detection, and management of seizures; and more effectively treating Veterans with PTSD, depression, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or other severe disorders of mental health. CfNN also aims to develop, validate, and disseminate the outcomes measures needed for effective clinical trials of new restorative neurotechnologies for these conditions. In addition to the research of its investigators, CfNN facilitates the training and research careers of outstanding early career researchers, seeking to recruit them together with established clinicians, scientists, and engineers to focus their research efforts on improving rehabilitation for Veterans with nervous system disease or injury. CfNN is committed to providing seed funding for pilot studies to enable affiliated investigators to launch promising research and collect preliminary data to inform and strengthen larger research projects, thereby strategically leveraging VA resources toward enabling the larger public and private investments required for pivotal demonstrations of clinical utility. Through its close association with Brown University, CfNN provides educational opportunities to undergraduates, graduate students, neuropsychology interns, and postdoctoral researchers to learn more about the VA, inspiring them to shape their careers toward not only gaining a better understanding of fundamental human neuroscience, but toward using that knowledge to improve Veterans Health and rehabilitation.