Anli A. Liu, MD

Memory dysfunction represents one of the most common cognitive complaints in patients with epilepsy, and it significantly impairs their quality of life. By flexibly engaging the tools of neurostimulation, electroencephalography (EEG), and electrocorticography (ECoG), my research goal is to describe the neural networks involved in memory processing and their disruption during wakefulness and sleep. In particular, I am interested in the critical role that sleep plays in memory consolidation, learning, and insight.

In collaboration with a dynamic group of basic scientists, cognitive neuroscientists, biomedical engineers, neuropsychologists, and physicians, I am pursuing several lines of research:

• investigating the role of sleep in memory and learning and how it may be disrupted in epilepsy patients
• developing methods of neurostimulation—including transcranial electrical stimulation (TES), transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), transcranial direct cortical stimulation (tDCS), and acoustic stimulation—for therapeutic use such as cognitive remediation and seizure control
• understanding how neurostimulation methods affect brain activity