Ethan R. Buch, Ph.D.

Photo of Ethan R Buch
Staff Scientist
Address
Human Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section, Medical Neurology Branch

BG 10 RM 7D51
10 CENTER DR
BETHESDA MD 20814

Dr. Ethan Buch completed his undergraduate and master’s degree at the University of Maryland, College Park, and received his Ph.D. from the University of Oxford in 2012 where he investigated brain network interactions underlying reaching and grasping behaviors in humans with Dr. Matthew Rushworth. He completed postdoctoral training under Dr. Leonardo Cohen where he pursued the use of brain-computer interface (BCI) approaches for the rehabilitation of hand motor function in patients following stroke (NINDS IRP) and traumatic brain injury (Center for Neuroscience and Regenerative Medicine). In 2016, Dr. Buch was appointed as a Staff Scientist for the Human Cortical Physiology and Neurorehabilitation Section. His current work is focused on spatiotemporal brain network dynamics underlying skill learning in humans.

Dr. Buch is interested in the neural mechanisms underlying motor skill learning in healthy humans, how neuromodulation can be used to improve learning, and how motor skills can be rehabilitated following brain injury or disease.  Dr. Buch investigates these areas of interest using several neuroimaging (EEG, MEG, PET, fMRI and diffusion-weighted MRI) and non-invasive brain stimulation (TMS and TES) techniques that are used to characterize structural and functional brain networks, and the compensatory changes that occur during learning, or rehabilitation following injury or disease.

Dr. Buch’s long-term research goals are to: (1) define spatiotemporal brain network dynamics underlying motor skill learning in healthy humans, as well as in patients following brain injury; (2) define systems-level plasticity mechanisms supporting recovery in patients following brain injury or disease; and (3) develop novel non-invasive interventions for improving skill learning in healthy humans and therapeutic outcomes in individual patients suffering from motor deficits.

Buch ER, Claudino L, Quentin R, Bönstrup M, Cohen LG (2021)
Consolidation of human skill linked to waking hippocampo-neocortical replay.
Cell Rep, 35:109193. PubMed ID: 34107255

Hussain SJ, Vollmer MK, Stimely J, Norato G, Zrenner C, Ziemann U, Buch ER, Cohen LG (2021)
Phase-dependent offline enhancement of human motor memory.
Brain Stimul, 14:873-883. PubMed ID: 34048939

Hussain SJ, Hayward W, Fourcand F, Zrenner C, Ziemann U, Buch ER, Hayward MK, Cohen LG (2020)
Phase-dependent transcranial magnetic stimulation of the lesioned hemisphere is accurate after stroke.
Brain Stimul, 13:1354-1357. PubMed ID: 32687898

Quentin R, King JR, Sallard E, Fishman N, Thompson R, Buch ER, Cohen LG (2019)
Differential Brain Mechanisms of Selection and Maintenance of Information during Working Memory.
J Neurosci, 39:3728-3740. PubMed ID: 30833510

Hussain SJ, Claudino L, Bönstrup M, Norato G, Cruciani G, Thompson R, Zrenner C, Ziemann U, Buch E, Cohen LG (2019)
Sensorimotor Oscillatory Phase-Power Interaction Gates Resting Human Corticospinal Output.
Cereb Cortex, 29:3766-3777. PubMed ID: 30496352

Buch ER, Santarnecchi E, Antal A, Born J, Celnik PA, Classen J, Gerloff C, Hallett M, Hummel FC, Nitsche MA, Pascual-Leone A, Paulus WJ, Reis J, Robertson EM, Rothwell JC, Sandrini M, Schambra HM, Wassermann EM, Ziemann U, Cohen LG (2017)
Effects of tDCS on motor learning and memory formation: A consensus and critical position paper.
Clin Neurophysiol, 128:589-603. PubMed ID: 28231477

Buch ER, Liew SL, Cohen LG (2017)
Plasticity of Sensorimotor Networks: Multiple Overlapping Mechanisms.
Neuroscientist, 23:185-196. PubMed ID: 26985069

Guggisberg AG, Nicolo P, Cohen LG, Schnider A, Buch ER (2017)
Longitudinal Structural and Functional Differences Between Proportional and Poor Motor Recovery After Stroke.
Neurorehabil Neural Repair, 31:1029-1041. PubMed ID: 29130824

Buch ER, Rizk S, Nicolo P, Cohen LG, Schnider A, Guggisberg AG (2016)
Predicting motor improvement after stroke with clinical assessment and diffusion tensor imaging.
Neurology, 86:1924-5. PubMed ID: 27164664

Censor N, Buch ER, Nader K, Cohen LG (2016)
Altered Human Memory Modification in the Presence of Normal Consolidation.
Cereb Cortex, 26:3828-3837. PubMed ID: 26271110

Johnen VM, Neubert FX, Buch ER, Verhagen L, O'Reilly JX, Mars RB, Rushworth MF (2015)
Causal manipulation of functional connectivity in a specific neural pathway during behaviour and at rest.
Elife, 4 PubMed ID: 25664941

Buch ER, Modir Shanechi A, Fourkas AD, Weber C, Birbaumer N, Cohen LG (2012)
Parietofrontal integrity determines neural modulation associated with grasping imagery after stroke.
Brain, 135:596-614. PubMed ID: 22232595

Buch ER, Johnen VM, Nelissen N, O'Shea J, Rushworth MF (2011)
Noninvasive associative plasticity induction in a corticocortical pathway of the human brain.
J Neurosci, 31:17669-79. PubMed ID: 22131427

Higo T, Mars RB, Boorman ED, Buch ER, Rushworth MF (2011)
Distributed and causal influence of frontal operculum in task control.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 108:4230-5. PubMed ID: 21368109

Buch ER, Mars RB, Boorman ED, Rushworth MF (2010)
A network centered on ventral premotor cortex exerts both facilitatory and inhibitory control over primary motor cortex during action reprogramming.
J Neurosci, 30:1395-401. PubMed ID: 20107065

Reis J, Schambra HM, Cohen LG, Buch ER, Fritsch B, Zarahn E, Celnik PA, Krakauer JW (2009)
Noninvasive cortical stimulation enhances motor skill acquisition over multiple days through an effect on consolidation.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A, 106:1590-5. PubMed ID: 19164589

Buch E, Weber C, Cohen LG, Braun C, Dimyan MA, Ard T, Mellinger J, Caria A, Soekadar S, Fourkas A, Birbaumer N (2008)
Think to move: a neuromagnetic brain-computer interface (BCI) system for chronic stroke.
Stroke, 39:910-7. PubMed ID: 18258825

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