Jaime Pineda Jaime Pineda (Ph.D.) Board Board Jaime A. Pineda, Ph.D. received his doctorate in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience at UCSD, as well as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. His current research interests range from neural plasticity and brain-computer interfaces to, most recently, the relationship between EEG mu rhythms, mirror neurons, action comprehension and autism.

Jaime Pineda Jaime Pineda, Jaime A. Pineda, Ph.D. received his doctorate in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience at UCSD, as well as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. His current research interests range from neural plasticity and brain-computer interfaces to, most recently, the relationship between EEG mu rhythms, mirror neurons, action comprehension and autism.

Jaime Pineda (Ph.D.) Jaime Pineda Jaime A. Pineda, Ph.D. received his doctorate in neuroscience from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD). He is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience at UCSD, as well as Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory. His current research interests range from neural plasticity and brain-computer interfaces to, most recently, the relationship between EEG mu rhythms, mirror neurons, action comprehension and autism.

Jaime Pineda, Ph.D., Chair - Scientific Advisory BoardDr. Pineda is a scientific co-founder of Otosonics.Dr. Pineda's research experience includes the etiology of addiction, the role of monoamines in behavioral arousal, orienting, and attention, neuronal plasticity, and brain-computer interfaces.His work as a cognitive neuroscientist has helped identify specific brain electrical signals in normal and patient populations that correlate with memory and attentional deficits.Dr. Pineda has extensive collaborations with a number of university researchers and during the past five years has been Principal Investigator on several large grants from the Air Force, National Institute of Health, and the National Institute on Drug Abuse.Dr. Pineda is also founder and Chief Science Officer for Zybernetix, an information technology company involved in the creation and application of technologies necessary for recording and interpreting brain signals to communicate with computers. Dr. Pineda received his Ph.D. in Neuroscience in 1987 from UCSD.He did postdoctoral work in the Department of Psychiatry at UCSD and is currently an Associate Professor in the Departments of Cognitive Science and Neuroscience at the University of California, San Diego.He has been the Director of the Cognitive Neuroscience Laboratory at UCSD for the past 12 years.He has served on a variety of National Institute of Health committees and is a reviewer for several scholarly journals including the EEG Journal, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, National Science Foundation, Experimental Neurology, International Journal of Neuroscience, and Psychophysiology.Dr. Pineda has been an author in 62 peer-reviewed publications.

One promising therapy, being explored by Jaime Pineda, professor of cognitive science at the University of California, San Diego, involves electrical activity in the sensorimotor cortex, called the mu rhythm, which can serve as an index of mirror neuron activity. Although the mu rhythm is normally suppressed when someone observes or makes a movement as neurons fire randomly relative to one another, the oscillation of this wave is strongest when you are idle and neurons are in a synchronous firing pattern. In autistic children that may not happen. Pineda has been using video games to train autistic children to change their mu rhythms. To move a car around a track or fire lasers at asteroids, the youngsters must enhance that signal-and subsequently engage the mirror neuron system. It seems to be working. "We think the mirror neurons are firing when they weren't firing before," Pineda says. And parents and teachers have noted improvements in the kids' attention spans and interactions with others.