Volunteering as a research participant.
This page is for people who want to volunteer for the lab's research — either as a patient already scheduled for surgery, or as a healthy control. For the same information from a clinical-care angle (with conditions, procedures, and how to be referred), see the Translation page.
Who can participate
Most of the lab's research takes place during procedures already scheduled for clinical reasons — for example, additional intraoperative recordings during a planned DBS implantation. We do not perform separate research-only surgeries. Specific eligibility varies by study; the most direct way to find out is to email the lab.
- Adults 18–75 already scheduled for awake craniotomy or burr-hole brain surgery (e.g. DBS, SEEG, supratentorial craniotomy)
- Adults 18–75 already scheduled for an SCS implant or percutaneous trial
- Patients with chronic ischemic stroke (≥6 months out) considering paired VNS — see Track D — Stroke recovery
What participation looks like
For the awake-craniotomy and SCS implant/trial studies, the research portion happens during a portion of the surgery (or an externalized-lead recording session) already planned for clinical reasons. Active research participation is typically 15–30 minutes during surgery, plus 25 minutes of pre-surgical setup that runs in parallel with the surgical preparation (so it doesn't lengthen the procedure). There are usually no follow-up research visits and no direct benefit to participants — but many participants feel meaningfully connected to the broader work.
How consent works
Research participation is always optional, separately consented from clinical care, and reviewed by Penn's Institutional Review Board (IRB). Choosing not to participate — or withdrawing later — does not change anything about your clinical care. The team will explain exactly what data is collected, what's done with it, and how it's protected before you sign any research consent form.
Email iahn.cajigas@pennmedicine.upenn.edu with the study you're interested in (or "general inquiry"). The team will get back to you with the relevant IRB protocol number, eligibility checklist, and next steps.
// This page is a scaffold — fuller per-study consent-process detail will be added when each study's consent forms are finalized.