David Darrow, MD

David Darrow, MD Functional Neurosurgeon practicing at the University of Minnesota treating movement disorders (Parki

New episode in our trigeminal neuralgia guideline stakeholder series.Vishad Sukul and I spoke with Ajay Malhotra about h...
05/18/2026

New episode in our trigeminal neuralgia guideline stakeholder series.

Vishad Sukul and I spoke with Ajay Malhotra about how imaging shapes diagnosis and surgical decision-making in trigeminal neuralgia.

We discuss:

• dedicated trigeminal MRI protocols
• neurovascular contact vs compression
• secondary causes of trigeminal neuralgia
• MS-related trigeminal neuralgia
• recurrence after MVD
• imaging standardization and AI

This conversation is part of the AANS/CNS Joint Section on Pain effort to develop evidence-based surgical guidelines for trigeminal neuralgia. The goal is to include stakeholder perspectives early, before finalizing the questions that will guide the systematic review.

Full episode at the link in bio.

PainMedicine EvidenceBasedMedicine AANS CNS Neuromodulation

Brain disorders are network disorders.Epilepsy, depression, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and other neuro...
05/18/2026

Brain disorders are network disorders.

Epilepsy, depression, Parkinson’s disease, traumatic brain injury, and other neurologic and psychiatric conditions may begin in one brain region — but their effects can spread across connected brain networks.

The challenge is that the “map” we build of those networks depends on the metric we choose.

Our new open-access paper in Journal of Neural Engineering tests commonly used effective connectivity metrics against simulated brain networks where the true connections were known. We asked a practical question: which methods actually reconstruct the network accurately when the data include real-world challenges like noise, limited recording time, incomplete network coverage, and time-delayed communication?
The key takeaway: metrics matter.

When brain regions communicate with time delays, zero-lag methods can miss the true network. Multivariate transfer entropy was the most reliable overall, but computationally slow. Mutual information and Granger causality performed well in smaller networks, while partial cross-correlation was useful for larger networks.
In other words: choosing the wrong metric is like trying to understand disease using a map with made-up streets.
Better metrics can help us build better brain-network maps — and better maps can help us better understand brain disease.

Paper: Metric validation for detection of delayed and directed coupling
Published in Journal of Neural Engineering
DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/ae5fd7
Psychiatry ComputationalNeuroscience EffectiveConnectivity BrainResearch UMN

An amazing time in lisbon at the international neuromodulation society with amazing talks, friends, colleagues and hop...
05/14/2026

An amazing time in lisbon at the international neuromodulation society with amazing talks, friends, colleagues and hope for our patients with , epilepsy stroke and more
So can we do even better in Minnesota? We will continue to take it to the next level

Great time at with amazing students and residents representing .pena94
05/04/2026

Great time at with amazing students and residents representing .pena94

While it was certainly different to attend a spine conference as a pain and functional neurosurgeon, I was honored to ...
03/01/2026

While it was certainly different to attend a spine conference as a pain and functional neurosurgeon, I was honored to contribute to the stellar momentum for the future of functional in spine surgery brought about by a fantastic course led by and
Modulating the spinal cord for amongst many other disorders is just the beginning for a true partnership of functional and spine.

Anesthesia dolorosa isn’t always “complete numbness.”There may be a spectrum of deafferentation — where partial sensory ...
02/23/2026

Anesthesia dolorosa isn’t always “complete numbness.”
There may be a spectrum of deafferentation — where partial sensory disruption still drives central pain.
If residual afferents remain, could we modulate thalamic circuitry through them?
Our case report explores trigeminal ganglion stimulation as one step in that direction. From
And 🔗 Link in bio

Thank you for inviting me to talk about the future of for . It is always a different view from the stage! put togeth...
02/17/2026

Thank you for inviting me to talk about the future of for . It is always a different view from the stage!
put together such a compelling program with weaving together a plan for SCI advocacy culminating today with the descent on the capital. Such an amazing group at this meeting.

Thank you to for inviting me to talk about the history and future of for especially nonmotor up in in this beauti...
10/22/2025

Thank you to for inviting me to talk about the history and future of for especially nonmotor up in in this beautiful fall 🍂

Congratulations 🎉 to Sanjay Dhawan and Dr. Tummala 3rd place winners at the SANS competition!
10/14/2025

Congratulations 🎉 to Sanjay Dhawan and Dr. Tummala 3rd place winners at the SANS competition!

Celebrating another year of missing Dr. Hubbard but with a 5k.
08/18/2025

Celebrating another year of missing Dr. Hubbard but with a 5k.

Address

420 Delaware Street SE
Minneapolis, MN
55455

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when David Darrow, MD posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Contact The Practice

Send a message to David Darrow, MD:

Shortcuts

Share

Category