Stephen M. LaConte, Ph.D.
“It’s a pretty cool question. Can we take a snapshot of the brain and see what emotion the person is interpreting?”
Capturing images of the brain as it works
Can seeing the brain in action lead to rehabilitation and therapies?
Stephen LaConte’s lab is devoted to advanced neuroimaging acquisition and data analysis approaches, aimed at improving basic understanding of normal brain function and exploring the potential for rehabilitation and therapy for neurological and psychiatric conditions. LaConte has applied his methods to fields ranging from alcohol abuse to traumatic brain injury.
A major focus of the lab is an innovation in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) that we developed and call “temporally adaptive brain state,” or TABS fMRI.
The inception of TABS arose from two major recent advances in neuroimaging. The first is recognition that multi-voxel patterns of fMRI data can be used to decode brain states – to determine what the volunteer was “doing,” such as receiving sensory input, affecting motor output, or otherwise internally focusing on a prescribed task or thought. The second is continued advances in magnetic resonance imaging systems and experimental sophistication with fMRI that have led to the emergence of real-time fMRI as a viable tool for biofeedback.
slaconte@vtc.vt.edu
540-526-2008
R-1112, Riverside 2
- Professor, Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC
- Professor, Department of Biomedical Engineering and Mechanics, College of Engineering
- Professor, Departments of Emergency Medicine and Radiology, School of Medicine
Li T, Murphy S, Kiselev B, Bakshi KS, Zhang J, Eltahir A, Zhang Y, Chen Y, Zhu J, Davis RM, Madsen LA, Morris JR, Karolyi DR, LaConte SM, Sheng Z, Dorn HC. (2015). A New Interleukin-13 Amino-Coated Gadolinium Metallofullerene Nanoparticle for Targeted MRI Detection of Glioblastoma Tumor Cells. Journal of the American Chemical Society 137(24): 7881-8.
Eklund A, Dufort P, Forsberg D, LaConte SM. (2013). Medical image processing on the GPU – Past, present and future. Medical Image Analysis 17(8): 1073-94.
Craddock RC, Milham MP, LaConte SM. (2013). Predicting intrinsic brain activity. Neuroimage 82: 127-36.
Baylor College of Medicine
Assistant Professor, Neuroscience
- University of Denver: B.S, Biomedical Science and Electrical Engineering
- University of Minnesota: Ph.D., Biomedical Engineering
- Dean’s Award for Outstanding New Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech College of Engineering, 2014
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Article Item‘Stimulants are coming back’: Addiction scientists seek to better understand cocaine use disorder , article
Warren Bickel and Stephen LaConte at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute hope the study will inform demand and cravings for a substance involved in nearly one in five overdose deaths
Date: May 14, 2023 - -
Article ItemFralin Biomedical Research Institute expands Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship program , article
More than 30 undergraduate and high school students worked behind the curtain of biomedical research this summer at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC.
Date: Aug 16, 2022 - -
Article ItemNIH grant will fund graduate student’s study of human brain activity in alcohol use disorder , article
Jeremy Myslowski, a doctoral student working in the lab of Stephen LaConte at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, will use the award to study new ways to quantify severity of alcohol use disorder with neuroimaging and to test whether this disorder also impairs brain regulation.
Date: Apr 15, 2022 - -
Article ItemVirginia Tech scientists find link between microorganisms and early brain development , article
The study, published in Frontiers in Cellular Neuroscience, indicates that bacteria, viruses, and fungi are critical to early brain development, and their absence has been speculated to be possibly related to disorders including autism, schizophrenia, depression, and ADHD.
Date: Feb 23, 2022 - -
Article ItemVirginia Tech launches ‘next generation’ human brain imaging lab , article
Researchers at the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC have received a $2.4 million grant from the National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering, part of the National Institutes of Health, to measure the brain’s subtle magnetic signals in two research volunteers simultaneously as they interact, capturing the rich complexity of the brain’s signaling during face-to-face social interactions in real-time.
Date: May 12, 2021 - -
Article ItemScientists explore new method to help people with alcohol use disorder , article
New ways to help people resist the siren call of alcohol have not kept pace — which leaves health care providers stuck with the same intervention and rehabilitation options they have been using for decades. But now, Virginia Tech scientists are studying whether people battling alcohol use disorder might gain some relief by “pre-experiencing” the future.
Date: Feb 14, 2020 - -
Article ItemFDA deems molecular test for concussions ‘breakthrough device’ , article
BRAINBox Solutions, a molecular diagnostics innovator that works extensively with the Fralin Biomedical Research Institute at VTC, announced it has been granted U.S. Food and Drug Administration Breakthrough Device Designation to speed development of a product that includes a blood-based test to aid in prognosis and diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury.
Date: Jun 17, 2019 -
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