Dr. Matthew Burke’s research focuses on trying to understand and treat disorders at the interface between neurology and psychiatry. These include concussion or traumatic brain injury, functional neurological disorders, migraine and other neuropsychiatric disorders.

Prior to joining Sunnybrook Research Institute, he completed the Sidney R. Baer, Jr. Foundation Fellowship in the Clinical Neurosciences at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical School. This clinical research fellowship provided him with training in novel noninvasive brain stimulation techniques and brain network mapping analyses. His current research looks to apply such approaches to investigate these complex and poorly understood brain disorders.

Dr. Burke also has an active line of research interrogating the neurobiology of placebo effects and how placebo effects may meaningfully modulate brain networks. Though placebo effects were once considered a nuisance in medicine, he believes that they offer new insights for translational research and can be leveraged to optimize clinical practice. His work in this area has led to international media attention on platforms like CNN and BBC.

His research is funded by many local and national grants has resulted in multiple high-level peer-reviewed publications. He has made many meaningful academic contributions in the field of neuropsychiatry and has been recognized with the American Neuropsychiatric Association’s 2019 Young Investigator Award and 2023 Career Development Award.