I am currently…

a Senior Research Scientist at the Institute for Advanced Consciousness Studies (IACS) in Santa Monica, California. IACS is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) research laboratory founded in 2019 using neuromodulation (brain stimulation), virtual/augmented reality, neurofeedback, altered states and much more to study consciousness. We do so using highly rigorous cognitive neuroscience — the premise being, to perform the quality science expected from the top universities we hail from, but without the bureaucratic bloat, overhead costs, and internal pressures that we have found to slow, limit, and bias research. Moreover, through a growing list of partnerships with for-profit companies, we hope to not only perform basic science in this area, but to soon inform and/or personally develop emerging commercial products and services in neurotech as well as inform novel advancements in clinical practice. 

While receiving my Ph.D. at  UCLA…

I contributed to the study of consciousness and cognitive functioning while pioneering the use of focused ultrasound (FUS) neuromodulation in human subjects (under Prof. Martin Monti). This technique was the first and remains the only way to selectively alter small (centimeter or even millimeter-sized brain regions) without surgery. My Ph.D. work in this area includes the first ever clinical trial (Voice of America Coverage) employing this technique, which investigated if focused ultrasound stimulation of the central thalamus could induce recovery in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC), such as coma and the vegetative state.  Essentially, by stimulating a small arousal-related region that can’t be reached with other non-invasive methods (e.g., TMS), could we help “wake up” patients trapped in a state of low arousal; indeed, this appeared preliminarily effective in patients both soon after injury as well as those who have remained in a DOC for over a year. During my time at UCLA, I also performed some of the foundational work using FUS in healthy subjects, demonstrating both the first change in fMRI BOLD signal (which indirectly measures brain activity) from subcortical FUS aimed deep in the brain, as well as the first causal evidence for the thalamus's role in cognitive functioning in healthy humans period, since I was the first to modify the activity of this deep structure without performing surgery or otherwise causing damage (paper in review).  Collectively, this work (full dissertation), which cooccurred with the rapid (and still accelerating) adoption of FUS, helped demonstrate the clear clinical and scientific value of this technique, which was only theoretical just years prior, while refining its methods.

At I.A.C.S. ….…

I am applying my experience in theories of consciousness, neuromodulation, neuroimaging, and more to, with my colleagues, develop ways to better understand and promote/recreate potentially beneficial subjective states like deep meditation[link], psychedelic-like states[link], empathy[link], the chills you get from a good song[link], and much more. For instance, I am currently using ultrasound to selectively disrupt several brain regions (one at a time) during Vipassana (~mindfulness) meditation in an effort to move meditators into particularly deep meditative states and/or to achieve deep mediation faster or more readily than without this aid. Early results on meditative depth are already available. This is in the hopes of soon being able to reduce the effort needed to acquire the increasingly-clear benefits of meditation.  Click here to learn more or sign up as a participant and here to see a short, informal, video documentary of the experiment and here for a subject’s article on how this procedure felt. My interest in consciousness began from a largely philosophical approach but was later informed by the scientific rigor of professional cognitive neuroscience. I see my work at IACS—the attempt to best characterize particular states of consciousness with hard-nosed neuroscience—as a way to closely marry these two perspectives. Moreover, with the rest of IACS, I am committed to living my life producing a tangible positive impact on the world that gave me it. We attempt what many have felt impossible—employing the esoterica of philosophy of mind and cognitive neuroscience to the real-world betterment of our everyday experience.