His own experience with epilepsy is leading Erik Brown to a career in the field of neurology, with the possibility of playing a role in international medicine.

The first year M.D./Ph.D. student became interested in neurology while in high school because of his own experiences with epilepsy. “I decided that I definitely wanted to go to medical school one day while working as an electrical engineering co-op student with the biomedical company Cyberonics, makers of the Vagus Nerve Stimulator,” he said.

Mr. Brown, 26, is originally from Allen Park. Now living in Dearborn, he completed his undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan.

This year, Mr. Brown captured first place in M.D./Ph.D. competition and first place in the 2008 Medical Student Research Symposium with research he conducted with Dr. Eishi Asano, M.D., Ph.D., assistant professor of pediatrics and neurology in the Electrophysiology/Neurosurgery departments of Children's Hospital of Michigan at Children's Hospital of Michigan. A manuscript associated with the research, on which Mr. Brown is first author, was accepted for publication by the journal NeuroImage.

The Medical Student Research Symposium competition requires participants to orally present their research within 15 minutes to a diverse audience. The best presentations are technical but understandable.

The goal of the research, associated with the School of Medicine’s Department of Anatomy and Cell Biology, was to determine whether gamma-oscillations induced by auditory communication localized language areas in pre-surgical evaluation of children with focal epilepsy. Four children with intractable left-hemispheric focal epilepsy who underwent two-stage epilepsy surgery were studied. All patients underwent preoperative MRI, extraoperative electrocorticography and language mapping using neurostimulation as well as gamma-oscillations. Patients received 60 question-and-answer tasks that were recorded and integrated with ECoG. The ECoG traces were transformed into a time-frequency matrix, enabling analysis of gamma-oscillations in relation to the onset of vocalization of answers. The research concluded that recording of auditory-language-induced gamma-oscillations may identify cortex participating in language activity consisting of comprehension and word retrieval followed by vocalization. The technique may supplement language mapping by neurostimulation in children with focal epilepsy.

After graduation, Mr. Brown, who also has a developing interest in emergency medicine, plans to immerse himself in a neurology or neurosurgery residency. He also wants to keep active in international medicine.

Mr. Brown served as team captain of a World Health Student Organization trip to Costa Rica in March. He raised more than $2,000 and a small truckload of donated supplies. In Costa Rica, Brown, who now serves on the WSHO board as a trip leader for next year’s mission, performed duties from packing medications to taking patient histories.

He said that one aspect of medical school that has surprised him is the level of student involvement in extracurricular activities. He plays intramural ice and floor hockey, as well taking part in the Humanistic Medicine Co-curricular program. The program strives to expose medical students to experiences other than coursework, such as volunteering and shadowing. Brown explained that the program helps medical students further their knowledge of different forms of Complementary Alternative Medicine such as yoga, tai-chi, healing touch and acupuncture.