Ahmad Alhourani, M.D.
Ahmad Alhourani, M.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center. He specializes in the surgical treatment of movement disorders, including essential tremor, Parkinson’s disease, and dystonia; intractable cancer and facial pain and psychiatric disorders.
He joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2025 as a functional neurosurgeon and is focused on understanding brain circuits involved in sensory-motor processing during movement and naturalistic touch for developing brain-computer interfaces for functional restoration. He also uses invasive intraoperative recordings to explore circuit dysfunction in chronic pain to develop novel neuromodulation treatment.
Our Research
We investigate how distributed human brain networks encode movement, somatosensation, and pain. Our studies leverage clinically indicated intracranial recordings (SEEG, DBS, intraoperative micro/field potentials) and controlled stimulation to define circuit mechanisms and translate them to brain–computer interfaces (BCIs) and neuromodulation therapies.
Focus Areas
- Sensorimotor population coding relevant to intention, kinematics, and proprioception
- Somatosensory feedback for BCIs (evoked percepts, stability, and safety)
- Pain network dynamics in thalamo–cortico–basal ganglia loops and their modulation
- Time-locked and adaptive stimulation paradigms for motor and cognitive control
We combine hypothesis-driven experiments with quantitative modeling. Across projects we acquire multiscale neural signals (spikes/MUA, LFP), kinematics, and psychophysics.
Join Us
We are committed to better understanding motor/sensory brain processing with the ultimate goal of developing novel BCI applications and neuromodulation therapies.
A postdoctoral training position is available in the laboratory of Dr. Nader Pouratian, in the Department of Neurological Surgery at UT Southwestern Medical Center to study human intracranial neurophysiology, with a focus on advanced signal analytics of neural and circuit level physiology. Our laboratory has several exciting projects related to circuit level analytics of the human motor system, both in health and disease. Projects include studying the network-based pathophysiology, biomarkers of disease, and studying the physiology of therapeutic neuromodulation. Projects integrate multimodal data sources, including physiology, imaging, and quantitative kinematics. Opportunities for extending analytics to other systems including consciousness and depression are also available. The position requires a 2-year minimum commitment.
Candidates must hold a Ph.D. and/or M.D. degree. Required skills include proficiency with Matlab/Python and experience in neural signal analyses, including analysis of field potential, electrocorticography, and multi-unit activity, preferably in humans. Experience with machine learning and circuit level analytics and modeling is preferred. Proven productivity and team work as evidenced by publication in peer-reviewed journals, is recommended.
We are also recruiting a clinical research coordinator to help with data collection both intraoperatively and extra operatively from patients with movement disorders. Candidates must hold a B.S. degree. Required skills include some basic proficiency with matlab. Experience collecting EMG/EEG data is preferred. Experience with human research is preferred. This position requires a 1-year minimum commitment.
If you are interested in joining out team, please email a cover letter and CV to Dr. Alhourani (email) for further consideration.
Publications
Lee AM, Kist A, Alvarez J, Sellers KK, Khambhati AN, Sugrue LP, Reid LB, Kadlec K, Fan JM, Allawala AB, Racine CA, Norbu T, Astudillo D, Tremblay-McGaw AG, Becker N, Alhourani A, Starr PA, Chang EF, Krystal AD,
2025 Mar
medRxiv
Articulatory Gain Predicts Motor Cortex and Subthalamic Nucleus Activity During Speech.
Dastolfo-Hromack C, Bush A, Chrabaszcz A, Alhourani A, Lipski W, Wang D, Crammond DJ, Shaiman S, Dickey MW, Holt LL, Turner RS, Fiez JA, Richardson RM, 2022 Mar Cereb Cortex 7 32 1337-1349
Alhourani A, Wylie SA, Summers JE, Phibbs FT, Bradley EB, Neimat JS, Van Wouwe NC,
2022 Aug
Neurosurgery
2
91
256-262
Subthalamic Nucleus Activity Influences Sensory and Motor Cortex during Force Transduction.
Alhourani A, Korzeniewska A, Wozny TA, Lipski WJ, Kondylis ED, Ghuman AS, Crone NE, Crammond DJ, Turner RS, Richardson RM, 2020 Apr Cereb Cortex 4 30 2615-2626Subthalamic Nucleus Neurons Differentially Encode Early and Late Aspects of Speech Production.
Lipski WJ, Alhourani A, Pirnia T, Jones PW, Dastolfo-Hromack C, Helou LB, Crammond DJ, Shaiman S, Dickey MW, Holt LL, Turner RS, Fiez JA, Richardson RM, 2018 Jun J Neurosci 24 38 5620-5631
Alhourani A, Ostrov PB, Schwalb JM, Yang AI, Palade AE, Chang EF, Neimat JS,
2025 May
Oper Neurosurg
Alhourani A, Chao LY, Chang EF, Rao VR,
2025 Jun
Neuromodulation
Bowersock JL, Wylie SA, Alhourani A, Zemmar A, Holiday V, Hedera P, Stewart T, Bridwell E, Hattab I, Ugiliweneza B, Neimat JS, van Wouwe NC,
2025
Brain Commun
1
7
fcaf021
Coagulopathy in Penetrating Ballistic Cranial Trauma: A 7-Year Experience.
Alhourani A, Stephenson TL, Bridwell EM, Danehower SE, Walek KW, Smith JW, Sieg E, 2024 Nov Neurosurgery 5 95 1186-1190
Aljuboori Z, Alhourani A, Nuru M, Nguyen C, Yeo H, Williams B, Andaluz N,
2022 Feb
J Neurol Surg B Skull Base
1
83
37-43
Effects of deep brain stimulation target on the activation and suppression of action impulses.
Dietz N, Alhourani A, Wylie SA, McDonnell JL, Phibbs FT, Dawant BM, Rodriguez WJ, Bradley EB, Neimat JS, van Wouwe NC, 2022 Dec Clin Neurophysiol 144 50-58
Dietz N, Sharma M, Alhourani A, Ugiliweneza B, Nuno M, Drazin D, Wang D, Boakye M,
2021 May
J Neurol Surg A Cent Eur Neurosurg
3
82
232-240
Trends in the Management Paradigms of Intracranial Meningioma.
Aljuboori Z, Alhourani A, Woo S, Hattab E, Yusuf M, Nelson M, Andaluz N, Ding D, Savage J, Williams B, 2021 Apr J Neurol Surg B Skull Base 2 82 208-215
Alhourani A, Fish KN, Wozny TA, Sudhakar V, Hamilton RL, Richardson RM,
2020 Jan
J Neurophysiol
1
123
392-406
Ugiliweneza B, Guest J, Herrity A, Nuno M, Sharma M, Beswick J, Dietz N, Alhourani A, Wang D, Drazin D, Boakye M,
2019 Nov
Cureus
11
11
e6156
Alhourani A, Aljuboori Z, Yusuf M, Woo SY, Hattab EM, Andaluz N, Williams BJ,
2019 Jun
Neurosurg Focus
6
46
E4
Duraplasty Type as a Predictor of Meningitis and Shunting After Chiari I Decompression.
Farber H, McDowell MM, Alhourani A, Agarwal N, Friedlander RM, 2018 Oct World Neurosurg 118 e778-e783
Lipski WJ, Wozny TA, Alhourani A, Kondylis ED, Turner RS, Crammond DJ, Richardson RM,
2017 Sep
J Neurophysiol
3
118
1472-1487
Wozny TA, Lipski WJ, Alhourani A, Kondylis ED, Antony A, Richardson RM,
2017 Aug
Exp Neurol
294
68-77
Alhourani A, Wozny TA, Krishnaswamy D, Pathak S, Walls SA, Ghuman AS, Krieger DN, Okonkwo DO, Richardson RM, Niranjan A,
2016 Oct
J Neurophysiol
4
116
1840-1847
Movement-related dynamics of cortical oscillations in Parkinson's disease and essential tremor.
Kondylis ED, Randazzo MJ, Alhourani A, Lipski WJ, Wozny TA, Pandya Y, Ghuman AS, Turner RS, Crammond DJ, Richardson RM, 2016 Aug Brain Pt 8 139 2211-23
Alhourani A, McDowell MM, Randazzo MJ, Wozny TA, Kondylis ED, Lipski WJ, Beck S, Karp JF, Ghuman AS, Richardson RM,
2015 Oct
J Neurophysiol
4
114
2105-17