Medical Student Patricia Curtin Awarded Prestigious Neurology Research Scholarship
Curtin Will Conduct Research to Identify the Mechanisms Underlying Cognitive Recovery Following a Pediatric Brain Injury
Patricia Curtin, SOM Class of 2028, is one of just 15 medical students nationwide chosen as a recipient of the 2025 American Academy of Neurology Medical Student Research Scholarship. Recipients are provided with a $3,000 stipend to conduct a neuroscience-based research project. This summer, Curtin will join the lab of Sudhin Shah, Ph.D., at Weill Cornell Medicine to participate in research exploring objective markers for cognitive function after a pediatric brain injury.
“In pediatric brain injury, attempts to improve diagnosis and prognosis via neuroimaging and neurophysiology have been very limited and have not reported on brain responses to command-following,” says Curtin. “Despite the large acute and chronic impact of cognitive impairments post-injury, efforts to accurately diagnose, prognosticate, and track therapeutic interventions in pediatric patients remain limited.”
The Shah lab has identified biomarkers of cognitive function despite the heterogeneity of injury superimposed on a developing brain. For her summer work, Curtin will employ a clinically feasible neurophysiological tool—the electroencephalogram (EEG)—to collect cross-sectional and longitudinal patient data to identify mechanisms underlying cognitive recovery following a pediatric brain injury.
“Acquired brain injury (ABI) can happen to anyone, at any time,” she says. “As someone who suffered prior concussions, I draw upon my prior experience dealing with the sometimes debilitating effects mild traumatic brain injury has on cognition and motor function. I hope to contribute to potential prognostic tools to better shape clinical outcomes in children with much more severe ABIs.”
