The Human Brain Research Laboratory (HBRL) is centered in and administered by the Department of Neurosurgery at the University of Iowa School of Medicine. Matthew A. Howard, MD, Professor and Head of the Department of Neurosurgery, directs the HBRL. The HBRL is also part of the University of Iowa General Clinical Research Center.

The overall aim of research in the HBRL is to gain new knowledge on the neural mechanisms in the human brain that underlie sensory, perceptual and cognitive processes related to hearing, speech, language and emotional behavior.

Research is carried out by a multi-disciplinary team of research scientists from the University of Iowa, University of Wisconsin, University of Oxford and Albert Einstein College of Medicine. Collaboration with researchers at other institutions is continually being sought.