ASCI / Young Physician-Scientist Awards, 2023

J. Nicole Bentley, MD is a neurosurgeon-scientist with clinical and research appointments as an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham Heersink School of Medicine. Her primary research interest is in understanding brain network dysfunction underlying cognitive impairment, using signal processing techniques and sophisticated imaging modalities to characterize both physiologic and pathophysiologic brain activity. She has previously been awarded an NIH Career Development (K) award to investigate these brain networks and has received foundation funding from the American Parkinson’s Disease Association. Dr. Bentley's laboratory has performed first-in-human intracranial cortical and subcortical recordings in Parkinson’s disease patients during an intraoperative cognitive control task. They have shown that theta-frequency power increases during response inhibition, which is not seen during the control condition. As Surgical Director of the UAB Movement Disorders Program and Co-Director of the Consortium for Neuroengineering and Brain-Computer Interfaces UAB, her clinical and research interests are closely aligned. Dr. Bentley performs deep brain stimulation and epilepsy surgeries, leveraging the unique environments allowed by these surgeries to study cognitive network neurophysiology. She is also highly active in extramural roles. These include serving on NIH study sections as part of the early-career reviewer program, serving on her sub-specialty’s scientific program committee, participating as invited faculty at the Kavli Summer Institute in Cognitive Neuroscience, serving on the Editorial Board for Journal of Neurosurgery: Case Lessons, and serving on the Executive Committee of the Congress of Neurological Surgeons. As a woman in neurosurgery, Dr. Bentley represents only 12% of all neurosurgeons in the United States and Canada. Furthermore, as a surgeon-scientist, her role is markedly underrepresented in academic neurosurgery. Despite these challenges, Dr. Bentley's commitment to neuroscience is unwavering. Her laboratory looks forward to continuing rigorous scientific inquiry into cognitive brain networks, and they greatly appreciate the support and sponsorship of their academic communities.