Dr. Johnson's research addresses critical questions regarding the brain mechanisms underlying Parkinson's disease and how to develop new and more effective strategies to deliver DBS therapies. His new methods and techniques will also have broader importance and will impact the development of other applications (e.g. brain-machine interfaces) and therapies for additional brain conditions (e.g. epilepsy, depression and dystonia).
He is utilizing neurophysiology (single unit, multi-unit and local field potentials) and behavioral approaches in models of Parkinson's disease (PD) to advance the understanding of PD pathophysiology and mechanisms of deep brain stimulation (DBS).
He is also investigating stimulation paradigms that use neural biomarkers for closed-loop control of DBS for the treatment of motor and non-motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease.
