PhD NACS 2005, Advisor: Avis Cohen.
Lewis Wheaton worked in the lab of Mark Hallett MD at NIH studying cortical reorganization after stroke in EEG. His doctoral work was towards discovering the mechanisms that inhibit a stroke survivor's movements. He accepted a joint post-doc in Summer 2005 with the Baltimore Veterans Administration and John Hopkins, studying aspects of post-stroke reorganization of the brain, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) technology.

Why did I choose NACS as my graduate training program?

I developed an interest in neuroscience relatively late in my academic career. While in an undergraduate program, I saw how the brain responded to visual stimuli in rats, and remain fascinated by the complexities of the brain and behavior today. While considering neuroscience programs around the country, I was attracted to the diversity of the interests here. There are many different aspects of neuroscience studied, thus it is easy to learn about what your specific interests are as well as aspects you never considered.

How do I feel so far in the program?

I sincerely enjoyed my time in the program. Getting to learn from the diverse faculty and fellow graduate students was very beneficial to me. The coursework prepared me nicely for my dissertation work. As well, my lab experience prepared me nicely for my post-doc work. The most important thing to me is that the faculty made me feel very comfortable. Being a neuroscience “novice” was no problem, as I was able to learn by very gifted professors in their respective fields. The faculty knows how to take their time if things are difficult to grasp. As well, they actually want you to know their discipline, which is particularly important in an increasingly integrated field such as neuroscience.

What are my current research projects?

My dissertation work was focused on mechanisms of cortical reorganization after stroke. Particularly, I am interested in ideomotor apraxia, a cognitive motor disorder commonly seen after left hemispheric cortical stroke, where patients are not able to make skilled movements with the hand (ex. waving goodbye, pretending to slice a loaf of bread). Research was focused on what brain areas are active in normal subjects making such movements, what cortical circuitry is present in normal subjects, and how the circuitry changes when elements of the network is degraded due to brain injury. This work was done using electroencephalography (EEG) and electrocorticography (ECoG). My advisor was Dr. Avis Cohen, and my research mentor was Dr. Mark Hallett, NINDS, NIH. The ability to work at NIH and be able to be so close to the university has been invaluable in my development as a student and a future researcher.