Jeff C. Liu

Director of the Human Brain Function Lab
Research Associate Professor of Neurosurgery
University of Virginia School of Medicine

Scientific Background and Research Interests:
Brain mechanisms of pain perception in humans • Human brain mapping • Individual differences in pain • Neuromodulation for chronic pain

Dr. Liu investigates the neural mechanisms of pain perception in humans, focusing on how specific brain regions engage, disengage, and interact during painful experiences. His work combines multiple neurophysiological techniques, including intracranial recordings, single-neuron activity, and scalp EEG, to examine pain processing across spatial and temporal dimensions. In parallel with his basic research, Dr. Liu develops neuromodulation approaches for chronic pain. His lab leads NIH-funded first-in-human clinical trials of deep brain stimulation (DBS) and MRI-guided focused ultrasound (HIFU mesencephalotomy), targeting the anterior insular cortex and spinothalamic tract to advance novel therapies for medically intractable pain. The lab also investigates noninvasive methods, such as transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), to study cortical contributions to pain. By bridging fundamental neuroscience with clinical translation, the lab aims to identify objective biomarkers of pain sensitivity and treatment response to guide the development of personalized, mechanism-driven interventions.

Dr. Liu’s scientific career began with graduate research on seizure prediction and seizure control under the mentorship of Panos M. Pardalos (Operations Research), J. C. Sackellares (Neurology), and Basim M. Uthman (Neurology). In this work, he applied operations research methods—including optimization and nonlinear dynamic modeling—alongside early machine learning techniques and chaos theory to analyze neural signals and forecast epileptic events. This interdisciplinary foundation reflects his longstanding interest in complex brain systems and the integration of computational approaches with clinical neuroscience.

During his postdoctoral training and early faculty career, Dr. Liu participated in numerous of neurosurgical procedures for movement disorders and epilepsy under the mentorship of Dr. Fred Lenz, a leading authority on thalamic mapping and human pain systems. In this role, he contributed to thalamic targeting, intraoperative brain mapping, and the physiological characterization of pain-related brain structures in humans. He also gained extensive experience using laser stimulation to investigate the cortical representation of pain. In parallel, Dr. Liu developed substantial expertise in quantitative sensory testing (QST) and noninvasive brain stimulation through training with the late Dr. Joel Greenspan, a pioneering figure in pain research and experimental neuromodulation.

Dr. Liu completed a Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Neurological Surgery at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and subsequently served as Assistant Professor of Neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Virginia.