Cecile Verbaarschot, Ph.D. Titles and Appointments Assistant Professor School Medical School Department Neurological Surgery | Biomedical Engineering | Peter O'Donnell Jr. Brain Institute Graduate Programs Biomedical Engineering, Neuroscience Biography Download Curriculum Vitae Dr. Ceci Verbaarschot, Assistant Professor of Neurological Surgery and Biomedical Engineering, is an emerging leader in brain-computer interfacing (BCI). With her interdisciplinary expertise in artificial intelligence, neuroscience, psychology and philosophy, she develops intuitive intracortical brain-computer interfaces that can assist, restore, or enhance a person’s sensory and movement capabilities. To do so, she makes use of implanted microelectrode arrays that can both record from and stimulate the brain. Her scientific contributions have been awarded with a third place win of the Annual BCI Award (2023), as well as a first place win in the BCI Race of the international Cybathlon competition (2024) – the Olympics for assistive technology in Switzerland. With a passion for consciousness and movement, Dr. Verbaarschot spent her early career on defining the relation between the experience of an intention to move and the neural preparation for movement (Verbaarschot et al., 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019). She brought her research into practice at the University of Pittsburgh (supported by a Rubicon grant from the Dutch Research council). There, she developed a novel interface with which three participants with tetraplegia designed their own sensations by manipulating various parameters of intracortical brain stimulation. In response, participants described object-specific and intuitive sensations reminding them of the warm fur of a purring cat, or the cool smooth surface of an apple (Verbaarschot et al., in press.). For this work, she has received a Trainee Professional Development Award from the Society for Neuroscience (2021) and was invited to talk at the Zuckerman Institute of Columbia University (2023). Dr. Verbaarschot specializes in creating bidirectional BCIs; interfaces that can read from and write to the brain. For example, to investigate the neural communication between somatosensory and motor cortex, she developed a Guitar Hero-like game that enabled participants to ‘play’ the strings via imagined finger movements and ‘feel’ what string they play via intracortical microrecordings and -stimulation, respectively, of their brain (with was selected for a Trainee Spotlight presentation at the international BCI Society conference, 2022). In addition to the societal and clinical relevance of restoring autonomy and social interaction in individuals with limited movement capabilities, this shows how BCIs can be a powerful tool to better understand human cognition. The real-time analysis of ongoing brain activity provides the ideal means to investigate the complex relation between neural processing and conscious experience. At UT Southwestern, Dr. Verbaarschot will (1) investigate the neuroscience of both artificially created and natural touch using intracortical microelectrode recordings, stereotactic EEG and haptics, (2) employ machine learning techniques to develop personalized brain stimulation programs for the restoration of touch and creation of robust self-learning neural decoders, and apply these techniques to (3) bidirectional BCIs for the restoration of sensation and movement in the upper limb of people suffering from paralysis, as well as (4) wearable interfaces that can enhance personalized digital communication and skill learning in people without sensorimotor deficits. In addition to her scientific achievements, Dr. Verbaarschot teaches with great enthusiasm and has received her Dutch University Teaching Qualification in 2021. On a voluntary basis, she has also taken an active role in organizing and conducting public outreach projects. For example, teaching a Python course for beginners and organizing various demonstrations and educational experiments during public events with both kids and adults. Research Interest Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis Artificial Intelligence Brain-Computer Interface Cognitive Neuroscience Consciousness Intracortical microelectrodes and stimulation Movement Multi-sensory integration Perception Philosophy of mind Robotics Spinal Cord Injury Touch Publications Featured Publications Conveying tactile object characteristics through customized intracortical microstimulation of the human somatosensory cortex. Verbaarschot C, Karapetyan V, Greenspon CM, Boninger ML, Bensmaia SJ, Sorger B, Gaunt RA, Nat Commun 2025 May 16 1 4017 A visual brain-computer interface as communication aid for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. Verbaarschot C, Tump D, Lutu A, Borhanazad M, Thielen J, van den Broek P, Farquhar J, Weikamp J, Raaphorst J, Groothuis JT, Desain P, Clin Neurophysiol 2021 Oct 132 10 2404-2415 Biomimetic stimulation patterns drive natural artificial touch percepts using intracortical microstimulation in humans. Hobbs TG, Greenspon CM, Verbaarschot C, Valle G, Hughes CL, Boninger ML, Bensmaia SJ, Gaunt RA, J Neural Eng 2025 Mar A Roadmap for Implanting Electrode Arrays to Evoke Tactile Sensations Through Intracortical Stimulation. Downey JE, Schone HR, Foldes ST, Greenspon C, Liu F, Verbaarschot C, Biro D, Satzer D, Moon CH, Coffman BA, Youssofzadeh V, Fields D, Hobbs TG, Okorokova E, Tyler-Kabara EC, Warnke PC, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Hatsopoulos NG, Bensmaia SJ, Boninger ML, Gaunt RA, Collinger JL, Hum Brain Mapp 2024 Dec 45 18 e70118 Evoking stable and precise tactile sensations via multi-electrode intracortical microstimulation of the somatosensory cortex. Greenspon CM, Valle G, Shelchkova ND, Hobbs TG, Verbaarschot C, Callier T, Berger-Wolf EI, Okorokova EV, Hutchison BC, Dogruoz E, Sobinov AR, Jordan PM, Weiss JM, Fitzgerald EE, Prasad D, Van Driesche A, He Q, Liu F, Kirsch RF, Miller JP, Lee RC, Satzer D, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Warnke PC, Ajiboye AB, Graczyk EL, Boninger ML, Collinger JL, Downey JE, Miller LE, Hatsopoulos NG, Gaunt RA, Bensmaia SJ, Nat Biomed Eng 2024 Dec A novel robot-assisted method for implanting intracortical sensorimotor devices for brain-computer interface studies: principles, surgical techniques, and challenges. Ikegaya N, Mallela AN, Warnke PC, Kunigk NG, Liu F, Schone HR, Verbaarschot C, Hatsopoulos NG, Downey JE, Boninger ML, Gaunt R, Collinger JL, Gonzalez-Martinez JA, J Neurosurg 2024 Dec 1-9 Microstimulation of human somatosensory cortex evokes task-dependent, spatially patterned responses in motor cortex. Shelchkova ND, Downey JE, Greenspon CM, Okorokova EV, Sobinov AR, Verbaarschot C, He Q, Sponheim C, Tortolani AF, Moore DD, Kaufman MT, Lee RC, Satzer D, Gonzalez-Martinez J, Warnke PC, Miller LE, Boninger ML, Gaunt RA, Collinger JL, Hatsopoulos NG, Bensmaia SJ, Nat Commun 2023 Nov 14 1 7270 Free Wally: Where motor intentions meet reason and consequence. Verbaarschot C, Farquhar J, Haselager P, Neuropsychologia 2019 Oct 133 107156 Probing for Intentions: Why Clocks Do Not Provide the Only Measurement of Time. Verbaarschot C, Haselager P, Farquhar J, Front Hum Neurosci 2019 13 68 Detecting traces of consciousness in the process of intending to act. Verbaarschot C, Haselager P, Farquhar J, Exp Brain Res 2016 Jul 234 7 1945-1956 Results 1-10 of 11 1 2 Next Last Honors & Awards First place winner of the Brain-Computer Interface Race at the Cybathlon competition as team manager of the PittCrew team. (2024-2024) Awarded speaker at ZIPS-X of the Zuckerman Institute at Columbia University in New York with the talk "Conveying tactile object characteristics through intracortical microstimulation of the human somatosensory cortex" (2023-2023) Student award for attending the 10th international BCI Meeting in Brussels (2023-2023) Third place winner of The Annual Brain-Computer-Interface Award with the project "Multichannel biomimetic microstimulation of the human somatosensory cortex can create intuitive and reliable touch sensations for bionic hand control" (2023-2023) Selected for Trainee Spotlight presentation of the BCI Society (2022-2022) Trainee Professional Development Award of the Society for Neuroscience meeting (2021-2021) NWO Rubicon grant for two years of postdoc research at Pittsburg University (2020-2022) Dutch StITPro Foundation grant for developing an educational BCI game (2018-2019) Student award for attending the 7th international BCI meeting in Asilomar (2018-2018) Student Award for attending the Berkeley course in mining and modeling of neuroscience data (2016-2016) Beyond the Frontiers scholarschip of the honours academy of the Radboud University Nijmegen, the Netherlands (2013-2014) Professional Associations/Affiliations Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness (2015-2025) Brain-Computer Interface Society (2018-2025) Society for Neuroscience (2021-2025) Society for the Neural Control of Movement (2024-2025)
