Restoring sensation to limb-loss individuals through peripheral nerve stimulation was the focus of my recently completed PhD work.
My current research focuses on applying the stimulation waveform concept from the sensory restoration work to other fields of clinical neuromodulation, namely movement disorders and pain management.
The conventional stimulation pattern is a constant train of identical pulses at a constant frequency. Unique patterns of stimulation pulses, such as bursting, may be closer to the normal firing patterns of the target nerve and increase the efficacy of therapies such as deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson’s disease and spinal cord stimulation (SCS) for pain management.
This work is conducted under the advisement of and collaboration with neurosurgeons Dr. Jonathan Miller and Dr. Jennifer Sweet at UH Case Medical Center.
Publications (Select)
- Tan DW, Schiefer MA, Keith MW, Anderson JR, Tyler DJ. Stability and selectivity of a chronic, multi-contact cuff electrode for sensory stimulation in human amputees. J Neural Eng. 2015 Apr;12(2):026002. PMID: 25627310
- Tan DW, Schiefer MA, Keith MW, Anderson JR, Tyler J, Tyler DJ. A neural interface provides long-term stable natural touch perception. Sci Transl Med. 2014 Oct 8;6(257):257ra138. PMID: 25298320