Overview
Dr. Nicholas Schiff directs an integrative translational research program with a primary focus on understanding the process of recovery of consciousness following brain injuries. This research program links basic systems and clinical neuroscience with the goal of developing novel neurophysiologic and neuroimaging diagnostics applied to human subjects and therapeutic strategies. Dr. Schiff and his research group have contributed several landmark advances, including the first demonstrations of brain structural alterations occurring in the setting of very late recovery from severe brain injury.
More recently, Dr. Schiff and his colleagues have taken insights into the neurophysiological mechanisms of arousal regulation and of deep brain electrical stimulation techniques to demonstrate evidence that long-lasting, severe cognitive disability may be influenced by electrical stimulation of the human central thalamus. Dr. Schiff received the 2007 Research Award for Innovation in Neuroscience from the Society for Neuroscience for this research. This work provides an important foundation for developing further understanding of both the mechanisms of recovery of consciousness and basic mechanisms underlying consciousness in the human brain.
Dr. Schiff and his colleagues demonstrated that long-lasting, severe cognitive disability may be influenced by electrical stimulation of the human central thalamus.
Dr. Schiff’s research involves close collaboration with investigators at the Citigroup Biomedical Imaging Center and with long-standing colleagues Drs. Keith Purpura and Jonathan Victor in the Systems Neuroscience group. In collaborative studies with Dr. Purpura, animal models of central thalamic deep brain stimulation are providing fundamental understanding of the circuit mechanisms underlying this novel therapeutic method and insight into the thalamocortical mechanisms underlying arousal regulation and conscious behavior. In collaboration with Dr. Victor, methods of advanced signal processing are being developed and applied to the study of human brain electrical signals obtained from normal subjects and patients recovering from severe brain injuries.
Highlights
- 1The New England journal of medicine · 2024
- 2Nature medicine · 2023
- 3
Publications
Funding
Active
3 grants- PIJSMF 2020-1412JSMF Covid-19 Consortium for Recovery of ConsciousnessJames S. McDonnell Foundation · 2020–2026
- KPS10OD034271-01New PET/CT System for Human and Non-human Primate ImagingOffice of the Director, NIH · 2023–2026
- PI220020156.01A Collaborative Study of Recovery of Consciousness After Severe Brain Injury: Phase IIJames S. McDonnell Foundation · 2013–2025
Completed grants (17)
- Sub-PIUH3NS112826-05Thalamic stimulation to prevent impaired consciousness in epilepsyNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2019–2025 · via Yale University
- KPS10OD027039-01A17T Magnetic Resonance Imaging System for Basic, Translational and Clinical ResearchOffice of the Director, NIH · 2021–2025
- Co-IR01NS111019-01A1Central thalamic deep brain stimulation to regulate arousal and cognitionNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2020–2025
- Co-IR01NS102646-05Multi-Modal Imaging of the Mechanisms Underlying Impaired Executive Attention After Traumatic Brain InjuryNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2017–2024
- PIUH3NS095554-05Central Thalamic Stimulation for Traumatic Brain InjuryNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2015–2024· 3 renewals
- Co-IRF1MH121378-01Cognitive Restoration: Neuroethics and Disability RightsNational Institute of Mental Health · 2019–2024
- Co-IR01NS106014-01A1RECONFIG- REcovery of CONsciousness Following Intracerebral HemorrhaGeNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2019–2024 · via Columbia University
- Co-IR21NS109697-01A1Evaluation of pharmacologically-induced changes in excitatory glutamatergic neurotransmission of severe TBI patientsNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2020–2023
- Sub-PIUH3NS100543-05Deep Cerebellar Electrical Stimulation for Post-Stroke Motor RecoveryNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2017–2022 · via Cleveland Clinic Health System
- PIDFI 180827-02Dynamic multi-lead deep brain stimulation of the central thalamus to treat chronic cognitive deficits in severe-to-moderate traumatic brain injured patients.Daedalus Fund for Innovation (Weill Cornell) · 2017–2021
- KPR21NS093268-02 EWOFSpecification of Background Dopaminergic Synaptic Activity in Disorders of Consciousness Following Severe Traumatic Brain InjuryNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2015–2018
- PIR01NS067249-05EWOCentral Thalamic Deep Brain Stimulation ModelsNational Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke · 2009–2015
- PIR01HD051912-05EWOMechanisms of Recovery Following Severe Brain InjuryEunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development · 2008–2014
- MPIM01RR000047-47NEUROPHYSIOLOGIC STUDIES OF NEUROLOGICAL DISORDERS OF CONSCIOUSNESSNCRR · 2005–2007 · via NIH RePORTER
- PIK02NS002172-05INTRALAMINAR THALAMIC INFLUENCES ON VISUAL AWARENESSNINDS · 2000–2005 · via NIH RePORTER
- PIR21NS043451-03MULTIDISCIPLINARY ASSESSMENT OF SEVERE BRAIN INJURYNINDS · 2001–2005 · via NIH RePORTER
Available technologies
News mentions
- Improving Lives Through Academic Innovation, Commercialization and EntrepreneurshipDecember 5, 2025
Weill Cornell Medicine’s Ninth Annual Dean’s Symposium on Innovation and Entrepreneurship celebrated and fostered the entrepreneurial spirit on Nov. 17 at Weill Cornell's Griffis Faculty Club.
- Conference Showcases Biomedical Innovation at the Intersection of Business and ScienceMarch 7, 2024
The 2024 Startup Symposium & InvestConnect Conference celebrated scientific inquiry and the entrepreneurial spirit.
- Deep Brain Stimulation Improves Cognition During Chronic Recovery Phase of Brain InjuryDecember 4, 2023
Five people who had life-altering, seemingly irreversible cognitive deficits following moderate to severe traumatic brain injuries showed substantial improvements in their cognition and quality of life after receiving an experimental form of deep brain stimulation (DBS) in a phase 1 clinical trial.
- New Theory Explains Recovery Delays in COVID-19 and Cardiac PatientsNovember 7, 2022
COVID-19 patients placed on ventilators can take a long time to regain consciousness. New research from Weill Cornell Medicine, NewYork-Presbyterian, MIT, and Massachusetts General Hospital is now illustrating that these delays may serve a purpose: protecting the brain from oxygen deprivation.
- Delayed Recovery of Consciousness Is Common for COVID Patients on RespiratorsMarch 14, 2022
Most patients with severe COVID who are put on ventilators regain consciousness after removal of respiratory support, but recovery may take weeks after the period of mechanical ventilation has ended, according to a new study by investigators at Weill Cornell Medicine, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons, Harvard Medical School,.NewYork-Presbyterian and Massachusetts General Hospital.
Show 2 more mentions
- Mind & Body: From Cognitive Deficits to Stroke, Some COVID Patients Face Serious Neurological SymptomsMarch 4, 2021
Last spring, as the COVID-19 pandemic hit New York City with full force, Dr. Daniel MacGowan, a neurologist specializing in neuromuscular disease, was asked to consult in a COVID recovery ward.
- Doctors Detail Unexpected Recoveries from Long-Term Coma After Cardiac ArrestMay 13, 2020
Neurologists traditionally have expected that patients who remain in coma after cardiac arrest have almost no chance of making a meaningful recovery if they fail to emerge from coma within a week.
Mentoring
- CRChagit ReichenbachTri-I Program in Computational Biology & Medicine (PhD) · Class of 2016
- JGJackie GottshallNeuroscience (PhD) · Class of 2021
- VPVruj PatelMD mentee · Class of 2024
- SPSarah ParaudaMD mentee · Class of 2018
External relationships
Ownership
Cognitive Signals INC · Enspire DBS Therapy, Inc. · QuantalX Neuroscience Ltd · ReEmergeDBS INC
Advisory/Scientific Board Member
QuantalX Neuroscience Ltd