Banks Laboratory

Research in the Banks Laboratory focuses on changes in the brain when we lose and regain consciousness. We use state-of -the-art electrophysiological, pharmaco- and opto-genetic techniques to rodent neocortex, and state-of-the-art analysis techniques to data collected from human neurosurgical patients, to answer fundamental questions about how neocortical circuits are organized, how information processing occurs under normal conditions and how it is disrupted under anesthesia, sleep, and in disorders of consciousness such as delirium. This research has broad implications for understanding the neural basis of consciousness and the relationship between cortical network activity and cognition and perception, and is foundational for developing noninvasive monitors for evaluating awareness in clinical settings and for development of more targeted agents to modulate awareness.