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Elisa Kallioniemi

Postdoctoral Researcher

Oskar Huttunen Foundation

UT Southwestern Medical Center, Department of Psychiatry

Biography

Elisa Kallioniemi is a Neuromodulation Scientist. She is interested in understanding the neural effects of non-invasive neuromodulation, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation, magnetic seizure therapy and transcranial direct current stimulation. In addition, she seeks to find biomarkers of response for neuromodulation interventions and develops methods to improve neuromodulation practices.

Interests

  • Non-invasive neuromodulation (TMS, MST, tDCS)
  • TMS-EEG
  • TMS-EMG

Education

  • Postdoctoral training, 2018

    Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford Medicine

  • Ph.D. in Medical Physics, 2016

    University of Eastern Finland

  • M.Sc. in biomedical engineering, 2012

    Aalto University

Research

Elisa’s PhD thesis focused on the TMS-related neurophysiological characteristics of the motor cortex and on developing new TMS methods to study motor function (Assessment of motor cortical excitation-inhibition balance and microstructure - studies combining navigated transcranial magnetic stimulation and magnetic resonance imaging, University of Eastern Finland, 2016). For example, Elisa and her co-authors developed a method to measure the cortical inhibitory state that significantly reduced the commonly observed wide variability in the responses allowing more reliable measurements (Clinical Neurophysiology, 2014). She and her co-authors also found a novel cortical inhibitory motor response, the late-silent period (Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2015). Furthermore, she and her co-authors showed that while TMS is mainly a functional neuromodulation tool, it can also detect structural characteristics from the motor cortex, and they developed a method to do this (Journal of Neuroscience Methods, 2015; Neuroreport, 2015).

In addition, during her PhD, Elisa was also involved in developing methods that improved the accuracy of TMS motor mapping (e.g. The Open Neurology Journal, 2015; Brain Topography, 2017), gain understanding on how brain reacts to repeated TMS pulses (Neuroscience, 2015; PLoS One, 2017), how the primary motor cortex neurophysiology changes with maturation (Human Brain Mapping, 2017) and how epilepsy (Journal of Neurophysiology, 2018), binge drinking (Addiction Biology, 2018) and chronic stroke (Clinical Neurophysiology, 2016) change motor physiology.

During her postdoctoral studies, Elisa has been involved in understanding the therapeutic effects of non-invasive neuromodulation in patients with depression, chronic pain and schizophrenia. In addition, she and her co-authors have gained valuable knowledge on how the neurophysiology of frontal brain areas changes with maturation (Human Brain Mapping, 2019) and how the peripheral motor system interplays with repeated motor cortex TMS pulses (Journal of Clinical Neurophysiology, 2019).

Journal articles

5 most recent shown
See all 38 publications

(2022). TMS-EEG responses across the lifespan: Measurement, methods for characterisation and identified responses. Journal of Neuroscience Methods.

DOI

(2021). Confirmatory Efficacy and Safety Trial of Magnetic Seizure Therapy for Depression (CREST-MST): protocol for identification of novel biomarkers via neurophysiology. Trials.

DOI

(2021). Heavy drinking from adolescence to young adulthood is associated with an altered cerebellum. Alcohol.

DOI

Review articles

(2019). Magnetic seizure therapy: Towards personalized seizure therapy for major depression. Personalized Medicine in Psychiatry.

DOI

(2019). Critical Review and Synthesis of Clinical and Neurocognitive Effects of Noninvasive Neuromodulation Antidepressant Therapies. Focus.

DOI

Book chapters

E. Kallioniemi, S. Määttä S. TMS-EEG. in Kliininen neurofysiologia, First Edition, Edited by E. Mervaala, E. Haaksiluoto, S-L. Himanen, S. Jääskeläinen, M. Kallio, S. Vanhatalo. Published 2019 by Duodecim. Pages: 370–372. (TMS-EEG chapter in a Finnish text book in Clinical Neurophysiology)

E. Kallioniemi, M. Könönen, S. Määttä. TMS-EEG: Methods and Challenges in the Analysis of Brain Connectivity in Biomedical Engineering Challenges: A Chemical Engineering Insight. First Edition. Edited by V. Piemonte, A. Basile, T. Ito, L. Marrelli. Published 2018 by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. Pages: 175–197.

Awards

2020 Rising Star in Engineering in Health, global competition organized by Columbia University
2020 American College of Neuropsychopharmacology Travel Award
2020 Article selected to Editor’s Choice Collection for 2020, Human Brain Mapping
2020 North American Neuromodulation Society Travel Award
2018 International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology Travel Award
2017 European Chapter, International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology Travel Award
2016 Graduation with Distinction (top 5% of all Ph.D. theses)
2016 International Society for Magnetic Resonance in Medicine Educational Stipend
2015 European Chapter, International Federation of Clinical Neurophysiology Travel Award
2015 Finnish Neuroradiology Society Young Investigator Award
2013–2018 The Finnish Society of Clinical Neurophysiology Travel Awards (five times)
2013 Best Poster Award, Second Runner-Up, 5th International Symposium on Navigated Brain Stimulation in Neurosurgery
2013 Best Poster Award, International Doctoral Program in Biomedical Engineering and Medical Physics

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