Associate Professor
Areas of Interest
functional and movement disorders
J. Nicole Bentley, M.D., F.A.A.N.S., F.C.N.S., is a board-certified functional neurosurgeon and physician-scientist whose work spans functional neurosurgery, human cognitive neuroscience, and precision neuromodulation. She is an associate professor with tenure in the UAB Department of Neurosurgery and holds a secondary appointment as associate professor of biomedical engineering.
Dr. Bentley specializes in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery, including deep brain stimulation and surgical treatment of movement disorders and epilepsy. Her research is centered on understanding how brain networks support cognition and how those networks are disrupted in neurologic conditions, such as Parkinson’s disease. She uses novel stimulation patterns to modulate these networks toward an ultimate goal of bringing next-generation neurotechnologies to patients for treatment of cognitive decline.
Beyond her laboratory, Dr. Bentley leads multidisciplinary efforts to advance neuroengineering and human neuroscience at UAB. She is Director of the UAB Center for Neuroengineering and Brain-Computer Interfaces (CNBCI) and UAB Site Director for the National Science Foundation Industry-University Cooperative Research Center (NSF IUCRC) for Building Reliable Advances and Innovations in Neurotechnology (BRAIN). In these roles, she brings together clinicians, neuroscientists, engineers, and other investigators to develop collaborative approaches to understanding, interfacing with, and modulating the human nervous system. She also serves as Surgical Director of Movement Disorder Surgery, Director of the CAST-approved Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery Fellowship, and Associate Director of the UAB Neurosurgery Residency Program.
Dr. Bentley's research has been supported by the National Institutes of Health and other federal, foundation, and industry partners. She has served as principal investigator of NIH-funded studies examining cognitive-control networks and sensory filtering in Parkinson's disease and collaborates on federally funded investigations of deep brain stimulation, thalamocortical physiology, and human neural networks. Her scholarship has appeared in journals including Nature Neuroscience, The Journal of Neuroscience, Annals of Neurology, Journal of Neural Engineering, and the Journal of Neurosurgery. In 2023, she received the American Society for Clinical Investigation (ASCI) Young Physician-Scientist Award.
Dr. Bentley is also active nationally in neurosurgical leadership, scientific review, and education. She serves on the Board of Directors of the American Society for Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgery (ASSFN), has held leadership and executive committee roles in the Congress of Neurological Surgeons (CNS) and Southern Neurosurgical Society, and is Past-President of the Neurosurgical Society of Alabama. She has contributed to the national scientific-review process through service on numerous NIH study sections and special emphasis panels, editorial boards, and dissertation committees.
Dr. Bentley received her medical degree from the Medical College of Georgia, where she was elected to Alpha Omega Alpha and received the Merck Manual Award for academic achievement. She completed neurosurgical residency at the University of Michigan, where she also completed postgraduate research fellowship training in biomedical engineering. She subsequently completed fellowship training in stereotactic and functional neurosurgery at Emory University before joining the UAB faculty.
Education
Medical School
Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia
Post-doctoral Research Fellowship
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Residency
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan
Neurosurgery
Postgraduate Fellowship
Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia
Functional Neurosurgery
Contact
Campus Address
JT 727
Patient Appointments and Questions
205-934-7170
Email
jbentley@uabmc.edu