Editors Choice Article | Neurology International

Recently, our review paper “Pain and the Brain: A Systematic Review of Methods, EEG Biomarkers, Limitations, and Future Directions”, was selected as one of the editors choice articles and promoted for its high number of citations.

Read the cover story (https://lnkd.in/dpwkuNSk) or check out the full article (https://lnkd.in/dWC9_UHc).

Our systematic review addresses three main topics: (1) experimental electroencephalographic (EEG) approaches that are being used to study pain states compared to pain-free control states, and the neurophysiological insights they provide, (2) electrical brain signal responses in individuals experiencing chronic pain compared to those undergoing experimentally induced pain, as measured by neurophysiological techniques, (3) methodological limitations in studies investigating human pain states, and how they affect the reliability and interpretation of the findings.

2026 September Round Up!

Bayan Ahmad and Maria Leyba Mesa were both session chairs for CoDIT 2026 and also presented their work! Bayan Ahmad presented “Comparing the Neural and Behavioral Outcomes of Fine and Gross Motor Language Intervention in Children with DLD: An Exploratory Study” doi: 10.1109/CoDIT70676.2026.11630949 and Maria Leyba Mesa “Compact ResNet18 with Test-Time Adaptation: Balancing Accuracy and Latency for Parkinson’s Disease Screening” doi: 10.1109/CoDIT70676.2026.11631215.

We also attended another conference where Bayan Ahmad, Maria Leyba Mesa, and Rachael Amira Brimm presented their work! Bayan Ahmad presented “Foundations for Generalizing Cortical Current Density Predictions From High-Density EEG Using Gradient Boosted Decision Trees,” Maria Leyba Mesa presented “A Multimodal Deep Network for Parkinson’s Disease Assessment from Handwriting Kinematics and Visual Task Traces,” and Rachael Amira Brimm presented “Explainable AI and EEG for Cognitive Load Monitoring in Pediatric Language Therapy.”

Everyone did an amazing job this month, and hopefully we have more work to come!

Catch Us Monday 08/24 in the Student Union!

We’re kicking off the semester with outreach! Come find us in the Student Union from 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM on 08/24, where we’ll be promoting our EEG study and collecting handwriting data. With so many new students around campus, we’re excited to spark interest in our research and welcome anyone who wants to contribute to our study! We can’t wait to see you all there. Here’s a sneak peek from our last outreach event so you know where to spot us!

New Member Meherin Tasfia Joins in August 2026!

A lot of things have changed since our last update! We’re excited to share that we recently welcomed a new graduate student to the lab. Meherin Tasfia, who joined at the start of August! She will be taking over the entotic cells project.

We hope they feel welcomed to the lab, and we’re looking forward to all that’s to come

International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society 2026

We’re delighted to share that Dr. Barkana attended the International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) in Toronto, Canada, held July 26-30, 2026. She had the wonderful opportunity to present her outstanding research, “High-Sensitivity Detection and Quantification of Entotic Cell-in-Cell Structures in Cancer Histopathology Using YOLOv8 and Geometric Reasoning.”

It was a fantastic conference to attend, filled with inspiring discussions and connections with fellow researchers. We’re so proud to have had the chance to share our work with the global community and can’t wait to see where these conversations lead next!

CoDIT 2026

At CoDIT 2026, Bayan Ahmad presented her work, “Comparing the Neural and Behavioral Outcomes of Fine and Gross Motor Language Intervention in Children with DLD: An Exploratory Study,” in the Signal Processing Session, while Maria Valentina Leyba Mesa presented her work, “Compact ResNet18 with Test-Time Adaptation: Balancing Accuracy and Latency for Parkinson’s Disease Screening,” in the Image Processing Session. They both did an amazing job presenting and also helping chair sessions!

New Members Julia Ehnot May 2026!

We’re excited to share that we recently welcomed new undergrad to the lab. We’re happy to introduce our newest undergrad, Julia Ehnot, who joined in May 2026 and is now helping out Bayan and Rae in the EEG lab.

We hope she enjoys working with us!

Journal Cover Feature!

Our publication Pain and the Brain: A Systematic Review of Methods, EEG Biomarkers, Limitations, and Future Directions has recently been featured on the cover of Neurology International Vol.17 Iss.4!

K-12 Outreach Activities: Western Reserve Academy Visits The Signals Research Lab

We invited the Western Reserve Academy to visit and learn more about our Department of Biomedical Engineering. They toured our different labs, including The Signals Research Lab. We showcased some of our new equipment and discussed current and ongoing research being conducted.

K-12 Outreach Activities: NIHF STEM Career Day (Akron, OH)

We were invited to represent the Department of Biomedical Engineering of The University of Akron during the NIHF STEM career day. We had a great opportunity to engage with the student and share insights about our program and the responsibilities of being a biomedical engineer.