RESToRe Lab — News

Min Jae Kim presents STN-DBS effects on motor cortex and cortico-basal ganglia connectivity at AANS.

Sun, 03 May 2026 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Min Jae Kim presented a rapid-fire oral abstract at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons (AANS) Annual Meeting on how subthalamic-nucleus deep brain stimulation modulates microscale motor cortex activity and cortico-basal ganglia functional connectivity in Parkinson's disease. Co-authors include Drs. Iahn Cajigas, Casey Halpern, Bijan Pesaran, and Michael Beauchamp; lab members Pedro Borges, Qasim Qureshi, and Pierce Davis; with additional contributions from Kelly A. Mills and Yiwen Shi (Johns Hopkins), Robert Eisinger (Penn Neurology), and Elton Ho, Yoon Woo Byun, and Benjamin Rapoport (Precision Neuroscience). The presentation was part of the AANS Stereotactic & Functional Rapid Fire Abstracts session on May 3, 2026.

Pedro Borges leads a preprint on microscale organization of the human motor homunculus.

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Drs. Iahn Cajigas, Bijan Pesaran, Casey Halpern, and colleagues (including Drs. Liming Qiu, Michael Beauchamp, and Daniel Yoshor) report new findings on the microscale organization and separability of upper-extremity representations in the human motor cortex, in collaboration with Precision Neuroscience. The work is led by lab postdoctoral fellow Pedro Borges (first author); additional lab co-authors include Qasim Qureshi, Pierce Davis, Krishna Sargur, Jarl Haggerty, Min Jae Kim, and Thomas Pisano. The preprint was posted on Research Square on April 29, 2026.

Bowen Wang submits master's thesis on single-hemisphere bimanual decoding for motor brain–computer interfaces.

Wed, 29 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Master's student Bowen Wang submitted his Penn Bioengineering M.S.E. thesis, "Single-Hemisphere Decoding of Bimanual Hand Movement: Implications for Motor Brain-Computer Interfaces." The work spans a Miami chronic Activa PC+S sparse-ECoG dataset for four-class motor imagery and a Penn intraoperative 1024-channel Precision Neuroscience micro-ECoG dataset for ipsilateral versus contralateral hand decoding. Bowen will matriculate in the Emory University Neuroscience PhD program in Fall 2026.

Pierce Davis, Iahn Cajigas, and Qasim Qureshi publish a Behind the Paper essay on Thalamus.

Wed, 15 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Medical student Pierce Davis (lead), Dr. Iahn Cajigas, and lab member Qasim Qureshi published a Behind the Paper essay on Thalamus in the Springer Nature Engineering Community. The piece accompanies the lab's Communications Engineering paper from February 2026 and walks readers through the design choices behind the open-source platform — synchronizing neural and behavioral data across multiple devices in real time, with the practical constraints that shape clinical-neuroscience workflows.

Kamren Khan awarded a Parkinson's Foundation Summer Student Fellowship.

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Kamren Khan was awarded a Parkinson's Foundation Summer Student Fellowship for the project "Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Beta and Broadband Activity Along the Hyperdirect Pathway." The award supports summer 2026 research extending the lab's work on subthalamic-cortical motor signaling in Parkinson's disease.

Kyunghwan Lim selected for the Hermes/Miller Lab summer placement at Mayo Clinic.

Tue, 07 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Undergraduate researcher Kyunghwan Lim will spend Summer 2026 at the Mayo Clinic in the labs of Drs. Dora Hermes and Kai Miller, working on intracranial electrophysiology and cognitive neuroscience. Kyunghwan will return to the RESToRe Lab in fall 2026.

Iahn Cajigas presents at the Penn Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences (MINS) annual symposium.

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas delivered "Towards Restorative Brain Computer Interfaces: Intraoperative High-Resolution Mapping and Motor Decoding" at the Penn Mahoney Institute for Neurosciences (MINS) annual symposium on April 1, 2026. Invited by Dr. Timothy Machado.

Kamren Khan awarded the Guggenheim Family Neurosurgery Scholarship for Summer 2026.

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Kamren Khan was selected for the Guggenheim Family Neurosurgery Scholarship through Penn's Department of Neurosurgery. The eight-week summer scholarship supports continued work on basal-ganglia population dynamics in movement disorders.

Thalamus, the lab's real-time multimodal data-capture system, is published in Communications Engineering.

Thu, 05 Feb 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Drs. Iahn Cajigas, Bijan Pesaran, Casey Halpern, Brian Litt, and colleagues (including Drs. Michael Beauchamp and Daniel Yoshor) report Thalamus, an open-source software platform for synchronized closed-loop electrophysiology and behavior. Lab co-authors include Jarl Haggerty, Qasim Qureshi, Pedro Borges, Krishna Sargur, Min Jae Kim, Pierce Davis, Ellie Gabriel, and Jerry Cai. The accepted preprint accumulated approximately 3,578 accesses in its first week of public availability. See also the Behind the Paper essay from April 2026.

Michael Baumgartner presents the cuneiform-nucleus DBS for freezing-of-gait story at the San Francisco Neurological Society.

Mon, 26 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Lab member Michael Baumgartner gave an invited talk at the San Francisco Neurological Society on the lab's cuneiform-nucleus deep brain stimulation work for levodopa-resistant freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease, presenting the trajectory from the Phase I pilot trial to the multicenter program now underway with support from the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Iahn Cajigas honored with the NANS Kumar New Investigator Award.

Sat, 24 Jan 2026 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas received the North American Neuromodulation Society's Kumar New Investigator Award for the implantable brain–computer interface for volitional hand-grasp restoration in spinal cord injury. The award was presented at the NANS 2026 Annual Meeting on January 24, 2026.

Kyunghwan Lim's Parkinson's-tremor poster accepted at the Nature Conferences "Towards Healthy Brain Aging" meeting.

Fri, 28 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Undergraduate researcher Kyunghwan Lim had a poster on Parkinson's disease tremor accepted at the Nature Conferences "Towards Healthy Brain Aging" meeting, his first nationally curated meeting acceptance. The work draws on the lab's intraoperative tremor recordings under the mentorship of Dr. Iahn Cajigas.

Effect of motor imagery on tremor in a patient with Parkinson disease undergoing intraoperative testing — published in Neurology.

Sat, 15 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Pedro Borges (first author), Qasim Qureshi, Drs. Lauren Hammer and Iahn Cajigas (co-senior authors) report a single-patient case showing that volitional motor imagery suppresses tremor during awake intraoperative testing for deep brain stimulation. The work was carried out as part of the lab's intraoperative electrophysiology program at Pennsylvania Hospital.

Krishna Sargur presents PSID-based finger-speed decoding at SfN 2025 in Chicago.

Wed, 12 Nov 2025 12:00:00 GMT

PhD student Krishna Sargur presented a poster at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting in Chicago on Preferential Subspace Identification (PSID) applied to high-density electrocorticography for movement-speed decoding in human M1. Co-authors include Pedro Borges, Qasim Qureshi, Tom Pisano, Bowen Wang, Benjamin Rapoport, and Drs. Bijan Pesaran and Iahn Cajigas.

Krishna Sargur presents PSID extraction of latent motor-speed subspaces at CNS 2025.

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT

PhD student Krishna Sargur presented a poster at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting on "Preferential Subspace Identification Extracts High Gamma Driven Latent Spaces That Are Highly Correlated With Movement Speed In Human M1 ECoG Recordings." Co-authors include Pedro Borges, Qasim Qureshi, Tom Pisano, Bowen Wang, Benjamin Rapoport, and Drs. Bijan Pesaran and Iahn Cajigas.

Bowen Wang presents asymmetric motor-cortex representations at CNS 2025 — his first national-meeting poster.

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Master's student Bowen Wang presented his first national-meeting poster at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting: "Asymmetric Motor Representations in Ipsilateral and Contralateral Motor Cortex During Hand Gesture Executions." Co-authors include Pedro Borges, Qasim Qureshi, Krishna Sargur, Tom Pisano, Benjamin Rapoport, and Drs. Bijan Pesaran and Iahn Cajigas. The work anticipates Bowen's M.S.E. thesis on single-hemisphere bimanual decoding.

Qasim Qureshi presents traveling-wave dynamics in precentral gyrus at CNS 2025.

Wed, 15 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Research specialist Qasim Qureshi presented an abstract at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting titled "Quantifying Traveling Waves in the Precentral Gyrus Using a High-Density Micro-Electrocorticography Array," extending the lab's beta-dynamics work to a multi-patient cohort. Co-authors include Pedro Borges, Krishna Sargur, Bowen Wang, Pierce Davis, Tom Pisano, Benjamin Rapoport, and Drs. Bijan Pesaran and Iahn Cajigas.

Iahn Cajigas presents at the New York Brain-Computer Interface Symposium.

Sat, 04 Oct 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas delivered "Intraoperative Windows to Motor Cortex Enabling Next Generation BCIs" at the New York BCI Symposium on October 4, 2025. The lab also participated in the symposium's Cutting Edge Panel on October 3. The 2025 NYBCI Symposium was co-organized with Dr. Joshua Bederson (Mount Sinai); Penn co-attendees included Drs. Bijan Pesaran and Tom Pisano.

Michael J. Fox Foundation funds a multicenter trial of sensing-enabled cuneiform-nucleus DBS for freezing of gait.

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 12:00:00 GMT

The Michael J. Fox Foundation awarded funding to Dr. Iahn Cajigas (coordinating PI) for a multicenter trial of sensing-enabled directional deep brain stimulation of the cuneiform nucleus for levodopa-resistant freezing of gait in Parkinson's disease, with Penn as the coordinating center alongside UCSF and the University of Miami.

Iahn Cajigas delivers Montefiore Neurosurgery Grand Rounds on next-generation implantable BCIs.

Fri, 22 Aug 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas presented Montefiore Department of Neurological Surgery Grand Rounds on August 22, 2025, titled "Building the Next Generation of Implantable BCIs from High Resolution Intraoperative Neurophysiology." Hosted by Dr. Celina Crisman.

Krishna Sargur passes the Penn Bioengineering qualifying examination.

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 12:00:00 GMT

PhD student Krishna Sargur passed his qualifying examination in the Penn Department of Bioengineering on July 31, 2025. His committee included Drs. Andrew Richardson and Michael Beauchamp.

Yuanchao Zhang defends his master's thesis on dynamic mode decomposition for neural and kinematic signals.

Wed, 14 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT

M.S.E. student Yuanchao Zhang defended his Penn Materials Science and Engineering thesis, "A Review of Advanced Dynamic Mode Decomposition Techniques for Neural and Kinematic Signal Analysis," co-advised by Drs. Iahn Cajigas and Pratik Chaudhari. The thesis builds the visualization and dimensionality-reduction pipeline for the lab's intraoperative motion-capture data.

Krishna Sargur's team wins Dr. Brian Litt's Penn BE 5210 brain–computer interface competition.

Thu, 01 May 2025 12:00:00 GMT

PhD student Krishna Sargur was on the winning team in Dr. Brian Litt's BCI competition for Penn Bioengineering 5210 in spring 2025.

Iahn Cajigas presents on penetrating, non-penetrating, and intravascular arrays for motor BCI at AANS.

Mon, 28 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas presented "Penetrating, Non-Penetrating, and Intravascular Arrays for Motor Brain-Computer Interfaces" at the 2025 American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston on April 28, 2025. The talk surveyed three classes of cortical electrode-array form factors used in motor BCI development.

Six-month outcomes of low-frequency directional cuneiform-nucleus DBS for levodopa-resistant freezing of gait — published in Neurology.

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

The lab's cuneiform-nucleus deep brain stimulation team — alumna Jaskeerat Gujral and lab member Michael Baumgartner among the co-authors, with Drs. Liming Qiu, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas as senior co-authors at Penn — reported six-month outcomes from the Phase I pilot in Neurology. The paper was first presented as a co-authored abstract at the American Academy of Neurology 2025 Annual Meeting in San Diego.

Min Jae Kim and Ellie Gabriel present a co-authored brain–computer interface e-poster at AANS 2025.

Tue, 15 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Min Jae Kim and medical student Ellie Gabriel co-presented an e-poster at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, reporting on the lab's BCI decoding work in collaboration with the Precision Neuroscience high-density ECoG program under the mentorship of Dr. Iahn Cajigas.

Iahn Cajigas invited speaker at AANS 2025: "Penetrating and Non-penetrating Arrays for Motor BCI."

Sat, 12 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas was invited to speak at the American Association of Neurological Surgeons 2025 Annual Scientific Meeting on the trade-offs between penetrating and surface-based recording arrays for motor brain–computer interface applications.

Iahn Cajigas delivers University of Chicago Neurosurgery Grand Rounds on intraoperative-to-implantable BCI.

Wed, 09 Apr 2025 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas presented University of Chicago Neurosurgery Grand Rounds on April 9, 2025, titled "Developing Brain-Computer Interfaces in the OR: A Path Toward Implantable Solutions for Motor Recovery." The talk traced the lab's pathway from intraoperative high-density mapping to implantable motor BCI prototypes.

Validation of an ICD-10 diagnostic code for essential tremor — published in Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements.

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Susanna Howard (first author) and colleagues — including Drs. Liming Qiu, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas at Penn — validated the ICD-10-CM diagnostic code for essential tremor against chart review, providing a foundation for future epidemiologic and outcomes work in the population.

Pierce Davis selected for oral presentation at CNS 2024 Houston: high-density ECoG array localization.

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Medical student Pierce Davis gave an oral presentation at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting in Houston on intraoperative localization of high-density electrocorticography arrays, in collaboration with Precision Neuroscience. Co-authors include Drs. Bijan Pesaran, Casey Halpern, Han-Chiao Isaac Chen, and Iahn Cajigas.

Qasim Qureshi presents beta-dynamics work with high-density cortical surface array at SfN 2024.

Tue, 08 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Research specialist Qasim Qureshi presented "Unraveling Beta Dynamics with a High-Density Cortical Surface Array" at the Society for Neuroscience Annual Meeting, reporting on beta-spiral suppression during movement using a 1024-channel ECoG recording over hand-knob cortex during an essential-tremor focused-ultrasound rock-paper-scissors task. Co-authors include Pierce Davis, Alex Vaz, Min Jae Kim, Jarl Haggerty, Benjamin Rapoport, and Drs. Bijan Pesaran and Iahn Cajigas.

Min Jae Kim presents motor-cortex oscillatory dynamics after STN-DBS at CNS 2024 Houston.

Mon, 07 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Min Jae Kim gave an oral presentation at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting on "Distinctive Spatial Distributions of Motor Cortex Oscillatory Dynamics after Subthalamic Nucleus Deep Brain Stimulation in Parkinson's Disease," using a 1024-channel ECoG array to map STN-DBS effects across alpha, beta, and gamma bands. Co-authors include Qasim Qureshi, Pierce Davis, Alex Vaz, and Drs. Bijan Pesaran and Iahn Cajigas.

Qasim Qureshi presents spatiotemporal motor-cortex dynamics at CNS 2024 Houston.

Sun, 06 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Research specialist Qasim Qureshi presented "Deciphering Spatiotemporal Patterns in the Motor Cortex Using a High-Density Micro-Electrocorticography Array" at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting, applying Hilbert-transform-based dynamics analysis across alpha, beta, gamma, and delta bands during an essential-tremor focused-ultrasound case. Co-authors include Pierce Davis, Min Jae Kim, Jarl Haggerty, Alex Vaz, Benjamin Rapoport, and Drs. Bijan Pesaran, Casey Halpern, Michael Beauchamp, and Iahn Cajigas.

Pierce Davis presents two Medicare reimbursement abstracts at CNS 2024 Houston.

Sat, 05 Oct 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Medical student Pierce Davis (first author) presented two Medicare-reimbursement abstracts at the Congress of Neurological Surgeons Annual Meeting: "A Decade of Change: Trends and Disparities in Medicare Reimbursement for Deep Brain Stimulation" and "Amid the Opioid Epidemic: Falling Medicare Reimbursement for Spinal Cord Stimulation." Co-authors include Qasim Qureshi, Susanna Howard, and Drs. Liming Qiu, Han-Chiao Isaac Chen, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas.

Susanna Howard presents tremor-rating-scale validation work at MDS 2024.

Sat, 28 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Susanna Howard presented a poster at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders on the correlation between the Clinical Rating Scale for Tremor and quantitative tremor metrics in essential tremor. Co-authors include Drs. Liming Qiu, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas at Penn.

Reasons for hospitalizations and emergency department visits among patients with essential tremor — published in Tremor and Other Hyperkinetic Movements.

Sun, 15 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Susanna Howard (first author), medical student Ellie Gabriel, and colleagues — including Drs. Liming Qiu, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas at Penn — characterized hospitalization and emergency-department patterns among patients with essential tremor, identifying high-acuity comorbidities that drive utilization in this population.

Iahn Cajigas presents brain–computer interfaces and neuromodulation for incomplete spinal cord injury at the NASS webinar.

Thu, 12 Sep 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas delivered a North American Spine Society webinar titled "Brain Computer Interfaces and Neuromodulation in the Treatment of Incomplete Spinal Cord Injury" on September 12, 2024. The talk surveyed the lab's K12-funded program (NIH K12 NS129164) on motor decoding for SCI recovery.

Pierce Davis selected as a top-three abstract at Pennsylvania Neurosurgery Society 2024.

Mon, 15 Jul 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Medical student Pierce Davis presented work on intraoperative high-density ECoG array localization, in collaboration with Precision Neuroscience, at the Pennsylvania Neurosurgery Society. The abstract was selected as third of the top ten abstracts at PNS 2024.

Iahn Cajigas chairs an accepted session on advances in spinal cord injury management at Neurotrauma 2024.

Tue, 11 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas proposed and chaired an accepted session on spinal cord injury management — covering brain–computer interface and neuromodulation approaches for SCI recovery — at the Neurotrauma 2024 conference on June 11, 2024.

Jaskeerat Gujral presents the Phase I cuneiform-nucleus DBS trial for freezing of gait at ASSFN 2024 Nashville.

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Undergraduate alumna Jaskeerat Gujral (first author) presented "Stimulation of the Cuneiform Nucleus Improves Freezing of Gait in Patients with Parkinson's Disease: A Phase I Clinical Trial" at the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Biennial Meeting. Co-authors include lab member Michael Baumgartner and Drs. Liming Qiu, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas at Penn.

Min Jae Kim presents probabilistic lesion mapping of MRgFUS tremor sweetspots at ASSFN 2024.

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Min Jae Kim (first author) presented poster #132, "Characterizing Differential Tremor Sweetspots and Side Effect Sourspots Following Thalamic High-Intensity Focused Ultrasound through Probabilistic Lesion Mapping," at the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Biennial Meeting in Nashville. Co-authors include Drs. Liming Qiu, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas at Penn, with Gustavo Campos, Maya Alexis, and Daniel Barbosa.

Iahn Cajigas presents Cerebellar Deep Nuclei DBS for Acquired Dystonias in Children at the ASSFN biennial meeting.

Sun, 02 Jun 2024 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas presented "Cerebellar Deep Nuclei DBS for Acquired Dystonias in Children" in the Pediatric Surgical Advances session at the 2024 American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN) Biennial Meeting in Nashville on June 2, 2024. Co-authored with Drs. Melanie A. Morrison, Marta San Luciano, and Philip A. Starr (UCSF).

Min Jae Kim presents a focused-ultrasound dysgraphia case report at the Pennsylvania Neurosurgery Society.

Wed, 15 May 2024 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Min Jae Kim presented a case-report abstract at the Pennsylvania Neurosurgery Society on dysgraphia following thalamic high-intensity focused ultrasound, co-authored with Drs. Liming Qiu, Casey Halpern, and Iahn Cajigas.

Min Jae Kim named a 2024 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellow for New Americans.

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 12:00:00 GMT

MD–PhD candidate Min Jae Kim was selected as one of 30 recipients nationwide for the 2024 Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, which supports outstanding immigrants and children of immigrants pursuing graduate education. The fellowship provides up to $90,000 over two years to support his graduate studies at Penn, where his research investigates network-level mechanisms linking deep brain stimulation to cortical physiology in movement disorders.

A surgical decision aid for occipital neuralgia, with literature review and single-center case series.

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Susanna Howard (first author) and colleagues — including Drs. Liming Qiu and Iahn Cajigas at Penn — assembled a structured surgical decision aid for occipital neuralgia, paired with a literature review and the Penn single-center case series.

Cerebellar deep brain stimulation for the treatment of movement disorders in cerebral palsy.

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 12:00:00 GMT

Dr. Iahn Cajigas (first author), with colleagues at UCSF, reported on cerebellar deep brain stimulation as a treatment strategy for movement disorders in patients with cerebral palsy, drawing on the prior UCSF case series.

The RESToRe Lab opens at Penn Neurosurgery.

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 12:00:00 GMT

The RESToRe Lab opened at the University of Pennsylvania Department of Neurosurgery on September 1, 2022, with Dr. Iahn Cajigas as principal investigator. The lab applies computational, engineering, and statistical methods to intraoperative neurophysiology — informing surgical planning, neuromodulation targets, and brain–computer interface design for movement disorders, epilepsy, and pain. // hello, world.