The Parra Lab currently works on interpreting and modulating brain activity in humans non-invasively using electro-encephalography (EEG) and trans-cranial electrical stimulation (TES), or in short, "reading" and "writing" the brain. The work is often coupled with auditory and visual psychophysics and always incorporates computational or mathematical models.
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Contact us
Lab location
Center for Discovery and Innovation
85 Saint Nicholas Ter, 3rd floor South
New York, NY 10031-1246
at front desk, call phone number(s) below
85 Saint Nicholas Ter, 3rd floor South
New York, NY 10031-1246
at front desk, call phone number(s) below
Mailing address
Phone Numbers
+1 (212) 650-7211 - Lucas Parra Direct Extension
+1 (212) 650-8426 - Lab Admin
+1 (212) 650-7000 ext (dial 8) 49045 - Neural Engr 3 South
+1 (212) 650-8653 - Neural Engineering Student Space
+1 (212) 650-8876 - Slice Lab
+1 (212) 650-7000 ext (dial 8) 49012 - CDI G.430 EEG Lab
+1 (212) 650-8426 - Lab Admin
+1 (212) 650-7000 ext (dial 8) 49045 - Neural Engr 3 South
+1 (212) 650-8653 - Neural Engineering Student Space
+1 (212) 650-8876 - Slice Lab
+1 (212) 650-7000 ext (dial 8) 49012 - CDI G.430 EEG Lab
Email
Participate
We constantly recruit subjects to participate in studies for research. For example, some of our experiments involve watching videos or listening to stories while we record EEG signals. Please contact us for more details regarding current studies open to subjects.
Signup
Questions
Participants Needed for a tDCS Study
We are currently recruiting subjects to participate in our study on the Boost of
Motor Learning with tDCS. This study involves learning a finger sequence task as
electrical currents are passed through electrodes on your scalp.
Visit this page for more information and to make an appointment.
If you have any questions, contact us at neuro@ccny.cuny.edu
2019
October 30
New paper published in Brain Stimulation: direct current stimulation boosts hebbian plasticity in vitro
May 9
ROAST paper published in Journal of Neural Engineering.
March 8
February 27
New preprint on boosting Hebbian plasticity with direct current stimulation.
February 26
Plenary talk at the Brain Stimulation Conference in Vancouver expalining how tDCS works is well received Here are slides.
February 26
Our paper on different brain imaging techniques was featured on CUNY SUM.
2018
December 12
Our research on student engagement during online learning was highlighted by CUNY SUM.
November 30
New paper published in Nature Communication on review of neurophysiological effects of transcranial electrical stimulation.
September 26
New paper published in Brain Stimulation speaking for conventional TES for deep brain stimulation.
July 20
June 20
The paper "Finding influential nodes for integration in brain networks using optimal percolation theory" has been highlighted by The City College of New York.
June 11
Our paper "Finding influential nodes for integration in brain networks using optimal percolation theory" has been chosen by the editors of Nature Communications as a featured article in their interdisciplinary collection of recent research on complex systems..
February 15
The corrected version of the eLife 2017 paper on validation of TES models has been published today. The corrected message from the paper is that TES can achieve up to 0.8 V/m electric field under 2 mA stimulation transcranially. See the Correction Notice.
2017
November 11
Today Yu Huang (Andy) released ROAST. This open-source software makes individualized modeling of tDCS/tACS ridiculously easy. Here a video of the presentation at the NIH modeling workshop that day: starting at 3:17:00.
October 31
In our Nature Communications paper we report that a commonly held belief about transcranial electric stimulation is not necessarily true: Transcranial stimulation does not entrain brain-rhythms. The tACS community will now have to work a little harder before making claims about brain oscillations. Here are some reactions from the community, and some quotes from our collaborator in Reuters and Medscape.
June 21
New tutorial on EEG component extraction methods presented at CuttingEEG in Glasgow:
Slides and code.
April 27
Commentary on
new study measuring student engagement in the
classroom.
The
Smithsonian Magazine.
April 20
Short podcast describing the brain reading work in the lap: Brain teaser.
April 7
Andy presented his validation work for TES models at the 7th Annual TMII Symposium at Mount Sinai. Here is the video.
April 3
"Plugging
electrodes into your brain like 'Matrix' the movie --
that's not going to happen for a long time ... we're
focused on what we can do today." -- Lucas Parra.
Commentary
on brain reading technology at Circa.com.
March 16
NSF award
3
year grant for "Assessing student attentional
engagement from brain activity during STEM instruction".
Feb 12
New paper on
modulation of synaptic plasticity with direct current
stimulation:
Kronberg
et al. Brain Stimulation 2017
Feb 7
Transcranial electric stimulation measured in the living
human brain in over 1300 electrodes:
eLife
paper,
video, and
commentary.
2016
Nov 30
Nov 22
Child Mind Institude released EEG and eye gaze from 126
kids and adults during multiple tasks, rest and video.
Data
and code free for all here. We found interesting
age
and gender effects on the video data.
Oct 6
Our study on the
balance
between novelty and regularity in bird song inspires
analogies with human music:
Research
finds that birds behave like human musicians.
Sep 29
Lucas Parra explains how tDCS works at the the NIH
symposium on trancranial electric stimulation. Here the talk, and here
These
all the talks from that day.
Jun 5
NIH-NINDS awarded a 5-year R01 grant entiteled "Effects
of direct-current stimulation on synaptic
plasticity". This project will investigate the effects
of tDCS on the strength of connections between neurons,
which may inform the treatment of neurological or
psychiatric decease.
2015
June 29
NIH-NINDS awarded a 3-year R44 grant entiteled "Targeted
Transcranial Electrotherapy to accelerate Stroke
Rehabilitation". This project will test the
effectiveness individually targeted high-definition TDCS
as adjunctive treatment to language rehabilitation in
aphasia.
April 23
Several students (at various levels including HS, UG,
MS) have been playing in the lab with
Human-Computer
Interfaces using eye-tracking. This caught the
attention of the media when it was submitted to the New
York City Science and Engineering Fair:
NYC
teen's eye-tracking computer project, Fox 5 News.
2014
July 29
Our
Nature
Communication paper showing that inter-subject
synchrony of EEG is a good predictor TV audience
response attracted quite a bit of press: Interview on
channel
NTN24 (Spanish),
LA
Times,
The
Guardian,
Vocative,
Philly.com,
Hazlitt,
Business
Insider Australia,
Sci
Tech Today,
South
China Morning Post,
Quartz,
Newsfactor,
Nature
Highlights,
The
Munich Eye,
Tech Times .
2012
October
The finding that
EEG signals can be
boosted by puting subjects on their head was written up here:
"Getting
The Position Right For EEG", Discover, (October 7,
2012). "Tilt
your head to improve brain signals", NewScientist, (November
30, 2011).
June
Our study on
measuring
engagement with EEG during movies generated quite a buzz:
Zombies,
Twitter, And Braaiiins!: The Neuroscience of The Walking Dead,
FastCompany, Co.Create blog (Nov 14, 2012)
"New
Research Could Help Advertisers Read Your Mind" Reuters TV,
(July 10, 2012).
"Your
brain on horror movies"
Discovery News, (July 13, 2012).
"Alfred
Hitchcock, Your Brain, and DARPA"
Neuromarketing, (June 13, 2012). and the list goes on:
Scientific
American, and more.
2011
and prior ...
Our work on brain-reading technology has generated a few articles
over the years:
Mind
Reading Machines, Discover Magazine (October 2011).
BreakOut!:
Your Brain's Search Engine, Forbes.com Video Network
(January 2010).
Documentary:
The Brain, History Channel (November 10, 2008).
"Tapping the
Computing Power of the Unconscious Brain" IEEE Spectrum
Video (August 2008).
"A Brainy
Approach to Image Sorting", IEEE Spectrum (April 2008).
"When the brain is a component of
the computer", Politiken (Danish newspaper, July 2007).
"Brain-Computer
Interfaces: Where Human and Machine Meet", IEEE Computer
Magazine (January 2007).
"Subliminal Search", MIT Technology Review (July 2006).
"Man and machine vision in perfect harmony", New Scientist,
(July 2006)