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Randall R. Benson, M.D. is the only fellowship trained behavioral neurologist at DMC. He has been on the faculty at DMC and WSU since 2001 and is an active member of the teaching faculty, instructing medical students and residents in disorders of cognition and the use of neuroimaging in clinical practice and research.
After a neurology residency at the Boston University School of Medicine and the Boston VA Medical Center (Jamaica Plain), he completed a dual fellowship in cognitive/behavioral neurology and functional neuroimaging at the Massachusetts General Hospital and the MGH NMR-Center where he pioneered the use of functional MRI (fMRI) for the mapping of language and motor cortex in brain tumor and epilepsy patients. Recruited to the University of Connecticut Health Center in 1997 to direct a new functional imaging program, he teamed with internationally recognized researchers in reading and speech perception and the prestigious Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, CT to investigate the neural (brain) basis of speech recognition using fMRI. With the long-term goal of combining new brain mapping techniques such as fMRI with brain stimulation techniques to effect recovery in brain injured patients, Dr. Benson joined the faculty at WSU/DMC in 2001, where he has used fMRI, together with transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS) and electrical stimulation, to induce recovery of function in language and motor impaired stroke victims. In work funded by both the Dana and Wilson Foundations, Dr. Benson showed that focal TMS can improve language function in aphasia. In a separate study of hemiparetic stroke, Dr. Benson and colleagues at DMC/WSU showed that electrical stimulation of motor cortex can improve hand motor function.
A newer research and clinical interest for Dr. Benson is traumatic brain injury (TBI). Since coming to WSU/DMC, where there is a rich history of research and clinical management of TBI, Dr. Benson has spearheaded the use of new MRI techniques (e.g., DTI, SWI, PWI, MRSI, fMRI) to brain trauma which is often occult to clinical imaging. Dr. Benson and a large interdisciplinary team of clinicians and researchers (BLAST Consortium) are now fully engaged in studying both impact (NIH funded) and non-impact (blast) head injury, seeking to understand the biomechanical mechanisms, treatment and prevention of injuries.
Hahnemann University, M.D., 1987
Haskins Laboratories, New Haven, CT, 1998-2001
University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 1996-2001
Disorders of brain and behavior, including stroke, memory disorders, traumatic brain injury, dementia, adult ADD/ADHD, language disorders and other difficult to diagnose affections of the central nervous system. His research interests are focused on the use of newer functional and structural imaging (e.g., MRI, PET) and brain stimulation methods for diagnosis and treatment of brain injury.
BENSON, R. R., MEDA, S. A., VASUDEVAN, S., KOU, Z., GOVINDARAJAN, K. A., HANKS, R. A., MILLIS, S. R., MAKKI, M., LATIF, Z., COPLIN, W., MEYTHALER, J. and HAACKE, E. M. (2007). Global White Matter Analysis of Diffusion Tensor Images is Predictive of Injury Severity in TBI Journal of Neurotrauma. 24, 446-459.
BENSON, R. R., RICHARDSON, M., WHALEN, D. H. and LAI, S. (2006). Phonetic processing areas revealed by sinewave speech and acoustically similar non-speech. NeuroImage. 31, 342-353.
WHALEN, D., BENSON, R., RICHARDSON, M., SWAINSON, B., CLARK, V., LAI, S., MENCL, W., FULBRIGHT, R., CONSTABLE, R. and LIBERMAN, A. (2006). Differentiation of speech and nonspeech processing within primary auditory cortex. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America. 119, 575-581.
CRAMER, S. C., BENSON, R. R., HIMES, D. M., BURRA, V. C., JANOWSKY, J. S., WEINAND, M. E., BROWN, J. A. and LUTSEP, H. L. (2005). Use Of functional MRI To guide decisions in a clinical stroke trial. Stroke. 36, e50-52.
WOLFSON, L., WEI, X., HALL, C., PANZER, V., WAKEFIELD, D., BENSON, R. R., SCHMIDT, J. A., WARFIELD, S. K. and GUTTMANN, C. R. (2005). Accrual of MRI White Matter Abnormalities in Elderly with Normal and Impaired Mobility. Journal of the Neurological Sciences. 232, 23-27.
CRAMER, S., BENSON, R., BURRA, V., HIMES, D., CRAFTON, K., JANOWSKY, J., BROWN, J. and LUTSEP, H. (2003). Mapping individual brains to guide restorative therapy after stroke: rationale and pilot studies. Neurological Research. 25, 811-814.
BENSON, R., GUTTMANN, C., WEI, X., WARFIELD, S., HALL, C., SCHMIDT, J., KIKINIS, R. and WOLFSON, L. (2002). Older people with impaired mobility have specific loci of periventricular abnormality on MRI.[see comment]. Neurology. 58, 48-55.
WEI, X., WARFIELD, S. K., ZOU, K. H., WU, Y., LI, X., GUIMOND, A., MUGLER, J. P., 3RD, BENSON, R. R., WOLFSON, L., WEINER, H. L. and GUTTMANN, C. R. (2002). Quantitative analysis of MRI signal abnormalities of brain white matter with high reproducibility and accuracy. Journal of Magnetic Resonance Imaging. 15, 203-209.
BENSON, R. R., WHALEN, D. H., RICHARDSON, M., SWAINSON, B., CLARK, V. P., LAI, S. and LIBERMAN, A. M. (2001). Parametrically dissociating speech and nonspeech perception in the brain using fMRI. Brain & Language. 78, 364-396.
GUTTMANN, C. R., BENSON, R., WARFIELD, S. K., WEI, X., ANDERSON, M. C., HALL, C. B., ABU-HASABALLAH, K., MUGLER, J. P., 3RD and WOLFSON, L. (2000). White matter abnormalities in mobility-impaired older persons. Neurology. 54, 1277-1283.
TALAVAGE, T. M., LEDDEN, P. J., BENSON, R. R., ROSEN, B. R. and MELCHER, J. R. (2000). Frequency-dependent responses exhibited by multiple regions in human auditory cortex. Hearing Research. 150, 225-244.
BENSON, R. R., FITZGERALD, D. B., LESUEUR, L. L., KENNEDY, D. N., KWONG, K. K., BUCHBINDER, B. R., DAVIS, T. L., WEISSKOFF, R. M., TALAVAGE, T. M., LOGAN, W. J., COSGROVE, G. R., BELLIVEAU, J. W. and ROSEN, B. R. (1999). Language dominance determined by whole brain functional MRI in patients with brain lesions. Neurology. 52, 798-809.
CRAMER, S. C., NELLES, G., BENSON, R. R., KAPLAN, J. D., PARKER, R. A., KWONG, K. K., KENNEDY, D. N., FINKLESTEIN, S. P. and ROSEN, B. R. (1997). A functional MRI study of subjects recovered from hemiparetic stroke. Stroke. 28, 2518-2527.
FITZGERALD, D. B., COSGROVE, G. R., RONNER, S., JIANG, H., BUCHBINDER, B. R., BELLIVEAU, J. W., ROSEN, B. R. and BENSON, R. R. (1997). Location of language in the cortex: a comparison between functional MR imaging and electrocortical stimulation. Ajnr: American Journal of Neuroradiology. 18, 1529-1539.
BENSON, R. R., LOGAN, W. J., COSGROVE, G. R., COLE, A. J., JIANG, H., LESUEUR, L. L., BUCHBINDER, B. R., ROSEN, B. R. and CAVINESS, V. S., JR. (1996). Functional MRI localization of language in a 9-year-old child. Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences. 23, 213-219.
WOODRUFF, P. W., BENSON, R. R., BANDETTINI, P. A., KWONG, K. K., HOWARD, R. J., TALAVAGE, T., BELLIVEAU, J. and ROSEN, B. R. (1996). Modulation of auditory and visual cortex by selective attention is modality-dependent. Neuroreport. 7, 1909-1913.
BELLIVEAU, J. W., KWONG, K. K., KENNEDY, D. N., BAKER, J. R., STERN, C. E., BENSON, R., CHESLER, D. A., WEISSKOFF, R. M., COHEN, M. S. and TOOTELL, R. B. (1992). Magnetic resonance imaging mapping of brain function. Human visual cortex. Investigative Radiology. 27 Suppl 2, S59-65.
GATTU, R., BENSON, R. R., MYRTHEUNJAYAN, B., KENNEDY, K., RAZ, N., KOU, Z. and HAACKE, E. M. (in press). Ageing and Fractional Anisotropy: Global and Regional Results. JMRI.
ELFAKHANI, M., KANG, A., GREENWALD, M., FUERST, D. and BENSON, R. (2007). Case Report of Aphasia Responding to a 6-Week 10 Hz rTMS Protocol. Electrophysiology and Clinical Neuroscience 38, 190.
GOVINDARAJAN, K., MEDA, S., LATIF, Z., HAACKE, E. M. and BENSON, R. (2006). Reliability of Language paradigms in fMRI for Pre-operative Mapping. JMRI.
KOU, K., SHEN, Y., KALLAKURI, S., ZAKARIA, N., YU, Y., HU, J., CAVAVAUGH, J., BENSON, R. and HAACKE, E. M. (2006). Ex Vivo diffusion tensor imaging detects impairments of white matter Tract of Rat Brain after Trauma Using Marmarou Model. Journal of Neurotrauma. 23, 1020.
MEDA, S., BENSON, R. R., VASUDEVAN, S., GOVINDARAJAN, K., HANKS, R., MILLIS, S., KOU, Z., MAKKI, M., COPLIN, W., MEYTHALER, J. and HAACKE, E. M. (2006a). Diffusion Tensor MRI of Whole Brain White Matter is Predictive of Severity of TBI. Journal of Neurotrauma. 23, 1001.
MEDA, S., GOVINDARAJAN, K., HANKS, R., MEYTHALER, J., MILLIS, S., LATIF, Z., MAKKI, M., COPLIN, W., HAACKE, E. M. and BENSON, R. R. (2006b). Whole Brain FA Histogram analysis for improved detection of DAI. JMRI.
MEDA, S., KOU, Z., GOVINDARAJAN, K., HANKS, R., MEYTHALER, J., MILLIS, S., LATIF, Z., MAKKI, M., COPLIN, W., HAACKE, E. M. and BENSON, R. R. (2006c). Diffusion Tensor MRI of White Matter Correlates with Traumatic Brain Injury Severity. Journal of Neurotrauma. 23, 754.
MEDA, S., GOVINDARAJAN, K., HAACKE, E. M. and BENSON, R. (2005). Localization of Eloquent Cortex using Functional MRI. JMRI.
- 2004 Detroit's Best Doctors - Hour Magazine
- 2005 Member Metropolitan Professional Honor Society