For people who suffer from tremors or uncontrollable movements brought on by Parkinson’s disease, deep brain stimulation – a type of therapy in which thin metal wires send electrical pulses to the brain – can offer some relief. But can this treatment negatively impact language function?

Gregory Hickok, UCI professor and chair of language science and professor of cognitive sciences, is teaming up with researchers at the Medical University of South Carolina to better understand possible language-related consequences of this procedure. Funded by a $57,650 sub-award from the National Institutes of Health, Hickok will help design and deploy neuropsychological and neural connectivity testing methods and perform quantitative analysis to understand how DBS impacts language production. Findings will help practitioners develop more precise treatments that target defective brain regions without negatively impacting others.

Funding for this work began in July and runs through March 2024.