When:
February 21, 2012 @ 3:00 PM – 4:00 PM
2012-02-21T15:00:00-05:00
2012-02-21T16:00:00-05:00
Where:
Singleton Room
Roberts Engineering Hall

2012 Bioimage & Biosignal Processing Day
Keynote speaker:
Eberhard E. Fetz, Ph.D.
Title: "Bidirectional Interactions Between the Brain and Implanted Computers "
Location: Singleton Room, Roberts Engineering Hall
Abstract:
We are investigating the consequences of bidirectional connections
produced by an autonomous implantable recurrent brain-computer interface
[R-BCI] that operates continuously during free behavior and generates
activity-dependent stimulation of the brain or muscles. This device
consists of battery-powered electronics connected to electrodes that
record the activity of motor cortex cells and/or muscles. The neural
activity is processed by a programmable computer chip and can be
converted in real-time to activity-contingent stimuli delivered to
nervous system sites or muscles. A promising application is to bridge
impaired biological connections, a paradigm recently demonstrated for
cortically controlled electrical stimulation of paralyzed forearm
muscles (Moritz et al, Nature, 2008).  A second application of the R-BCI
is to produce Hebbian plasticity through spike-triggered stimulation,
which can strengthen physiological connections (Jackson et al, Nature,
2006). Recent work has shown that similar plastic changes can be
produced in cortex by EMG-triggered stimulation and in the strength of
corticospinal connections by cortically triggered intraspinal
stimulation. The novel R-BCI paradigm has numerous potential
applications, depending on the input signals, the computed transform and
the output targets.