| Hosman T, Hynes JB, Saab J, Wilcoxen KG, Buchbinder BR, Schmansky N, Cash SS, Eskandar EN, Simeral JD, Franco B, Kelemen J, Vargas-Irwin CE, Hochberg LR. "Auditory cues reveal intended movement information in middle frontal gyrus neuronal ensemble activity of a person with tetraplegia." Scientific Reports, vol. 11, no. 1, 2021, pp. 98. |
| Rastogi A, Willett FR, Abreu J, Crowder DC, Murphy BA, Memberg WD, Vargas-Irwin CE, Miller JP, Sweet J, Walter BL, Rezaii PG, Stavisky SD, Hochberg LR, Shenoy KV, Henderson JM, Kirsch RF, Ajiboye AB. "The Neural Representation of Force across Grasp Types in Motor Cortex of Humans with Tetraplegia." eNeuro, vol. 8, no. 1, 2021. |
| Rule, Michael E., Vargas-Irwin, Carlos, Donoghue, John P., Truccolo, Wilson. "Phase reorganization leads to transient β-LFP spatial wave patterns in motor cortex during steady-state movement preparation." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 119, no. 6, 2018, pp. 2212-2228. |
| Brandman DM, Hosman T, Saab J, Burkhart MC, Shanahan BE, Ciancibello JG, Sarma AA, Milstein DJ, Vargas-Irwin CE, Franco B, Kelemen J, Blabe C, Murphy BA, Young DR, Willett FR, Pandarinath C, Stavisky SD, Kirsch RF, Walter BL, Bolu Ajiboye A, Cash SS, Eskandar EN, Miller JP, Sweet JA, Shenoy KV, Henderson JM, Jarosiewicz B, Harrison MT, Simeral JD, Hochberg LR. "Rapid calibration of an intracortical brain-computer interface for people with tetraplegia." J. Neural Eng., vol. 15, no. 2, 2018, pp. 026007. |
| Accomando AW, Vargas-Irwin CE, Simmons JA. "Spike Train Similarity Space (SSIMS) Method Detects Effects of Obstacle Proximity and Experience on Temporal Patterning of Bat Biosonar." Frontiers in behavioral neuroscience, vol. 12, 2018, pp. 13. |
| Vargas-Irwin, Carlos E., Feldman, Jessica M., King, Brandon, Simeral, John D., Sorice, Brittany L., Oakley, Erin M., Cash, Sydney S., Eskandar, Emad N., Friehs, Gerhard M., Hochberg, Leigh R., Donoghue, John P. "Watch, Imagine, Attempt: Motor Cortex Single-Unit Activity Reveals Context-Dependent Movement Encoding in Humans With Tetraplegia." Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, vol. 12, 2018, pp. 450. |
| Rule ME, Vargas-Irwin CE, Donoghue JP, Truccolo W. "Dissociation between sustained single-neuron spiking and transient β-LFP oscillations in primate motor cortex." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 117, no. 4, 2017, pp. 1524-1543. |
| Rule ME, Vargas-Irwin C, Donoghue JP, Truccolo W. "Contribution of LFP dynamics to single-neuron spiking variability in motor cortex during movement execution." Frontiers in systems neuroscience, vol. 9, 2015, pp. 89. |
| Vargas-Irwin CE, Franquemont L, Black MJ, Donoghue JP. "Linking Objects to Actions: Encoding of Target Object and Grasping Strategy in Primate Ventral Premotor Cortex." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 35, no. 30, 2015, pp. 10888-97. |
| Lu Y, Truccolo W, Wagner FB, Vargas-Irwin CE, Ozden I, Zimmermann JB, May T, Agha NS, Wang J, Nurmikko AV. "Optogenetically induced spatiotemporal gamma oscillations and neuronal spiking activity in primate motor cortex." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 113, no. 10, 2015, pp. 3574-87. |
| Vargas-Irwin CE, Brandman DM, Zimmermann JB, Donoghue JP, Black MJ. "Spike train SIMilarity Space (SSIMS): a framework for single neuron and ensemble data analysis." Neural Computation, vol. 27, no. 1, 2015, pp. 1-31. |
| Barrese JC, Rao N, Paroo K, Triebwasser C, Vargas-Irwin C, Franquemont L, Donoghue JP. "Failure mode analysis of silicon-based intracortical microelectrode arrays in non-human primates." J. Neural Eng., vol. 10, no. 6, 2013, pp. 066014. |
| Bansal AK, Truccolo W, Vargas-Irwin CE, Donoghue JP. "Decoding 3D reach and grasp from hybrid signals in motor and premotor cortices: spikes, multiunit activity, and local field potentials." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 107, no. 5, 2012, pp. 1337-55. |
| Bansal AK, Vargas-Irwin CE, Truccolo W, Donoghue JP. "Relationships among low-frequency local field potentials, spiking activity, and three-dimensional reach and grasp kinematics in primary motor and ventral premotor cortices." Journal of Neurophysiology, vol. 105, no. 4, 2011, pp. 1603-19. |
| Zhuang J, Truccolo W, Vargas-Irwin C, Donoghue JP. "Decoding 3-D reach and grasp kinematics from high-frequency local field potentials in primate primary motor cortex." IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 57, no. 7, 2010, pp. 1774-84. |
| Vargas-Irwin CE, Shakhnarovich G, Yadollahpour P, Mislow JM, Black MJ, Donoghue JP. "Decoding complete reach and grasp actions from local primary motor cortex populations." Journal of Neuroscience, vol. 30, no. 29, 2010, pp. 9659-69. |
| Zhuang J, Truccolo W, Vargas-Irwin C, Donoghue JP. "Reconstructing grasping motions from high-frequency local field potentials in primary motor cortex." 2007 29th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, vol. 2010, 2010, pp. 4347-50. |
| Vargas-Irwin C, Donoghue JP. "Automated spike sorting using density grid contour clustering and subtractive waveform decomposition." Journal of Neuroscience Methods, vol. 164, no. 1, 2007, pp. 1-18. |
| Suner S, Fellows MR, Vargas-Irwin C, Nakata GK, Donoghue JP. "Reliability of signals from a chronically implanted, silicon-based electrode array in non-human primate primary motor cortex." IEEE Trans. Neural Syst. Rehabil. Eng., vol. 13, no. 4, 2005, pp. 524-541. |
| Wood F, Black MJ, Vargas-Irwin C, Fellows M, Donoghue JP. "On the Variability of Manual Spike Sorting." IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 51, no. 6, 2004, pp. 912-8. |
My long-term research goal is to understand how networks of neurons represent and transform information. In order to address this issue, I have focused on the relationship between the activity of cortical neurons and the control of upper limb motion. Movements that involve the simultaneous and partially independent control of multiple degrees of freedom are a concrete, measurable, representation of the high-dimensional output of the nervous system. Relating these complex movement measurements to the activity of hundreds of simultaneously recorded cortical neurons provides a unique perspective on biological data processing. One of my main projects has been the development of mathematical ‘neural decoder’ models capable of reconstructing the movement of the shoulder, elbow, wrist, and digits based solely on neural activity. Another project involves examining how the flow of visual information into motor cortex shapes motor plans for grasping based on the properties of the target. Using these kinds of data, I have developed novel algorithms for automated data-driven pattern recognition. I have also worked on the development of automated algorithms for large-scale electrophysiological data processing (identifying the number of neurons recorded by a given electrode and assigning each spike to the correct neuron of origin – a.k.a. spike sorting). The software generated for these projects has been openly shared with the neuroscience community at large, resulting in multiple ongoing collaborations. The results of this research not only contribute to our understanding of the nervous system, but also aid in the development of brain-controlled neuroprosthetic assistive devices.
NIH Director's New Innovator Award: DP2NS111817 (NINDS) Synergistic Effector/Environment encoding: A new perspective on motor cortex and brain-computer interfaces
| Year | Degree | Institution |
|---|---|---|
| 2010 | PhD | Brown University |
| 2002 | BS | Brown University |
| 2002 | BA | Brown University |
| Name | Title |
|---|---|
| Black, Michael | Adjunct Professor of Computer Science |
| Borton, David | Associate Professor of Engineering, Associate Professor of Neurosurgery, Associate Professor of Brain Science |
| Donoghue, John | Henry Merritt Wriston Professor Emeritus of Neuroscience |
| Harrison, Matthew | Associate Professor of Applied Mathematics |
| Hochberg, Leigh | L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Engineering, Professor of Brain Science |
| Nurmikko, Arto | Professor of Physics |
| Simmons, James | Professor of Biology |
| Truccolo, Wilson | Pablo J. Salame Goldman Sachs Associate Professor of Computational Neuroscience |
| Zimmermann, Jonas | Postdoctoral Research Associate in Neuroscience |
