Half-Day Seminar On Neural Engineering Applications

Hosted Jointly by g.tec and Cortech Solutions

March 16, 2005 - 1 to 5 PM

Plaza Ballroom

Ritz-Carlton Pentagon City

Arlington, VA USA

Held in scenic Arlington, DC just across the Potomac from our nation's capital, this half-day seminar offered insights on the latest technology and current research of interest to scientists involved in neural engineering research. 

Download the Meeting Agenda (Adobe PDF)

Speakers

• Dean Krusienski, PhD - BCI Group, Wadsworth Center, Albany (Download Slides ~ 700 kB)

Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research at the Wadsworth Center concentrates on developing new augmentative communication and control technology for those with severe neuromuscular disorders, such as amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, brainstem stroke, and spinal cord injury.  The immediate goal is to provide these users, who may be completely paralyzed, or ‘locked in’, with basic communication capabilities so that they can express their wishes to caregivers or even operate word processing programs or neuroprostheses.  This talk discusses the use of the P300 evoked potential and the mu and beta rhythms as control signals in a non-invasive BCI, including: techniques, paradigm and algorithm development, current issues and practical considerations, recent progress, and future prospects.

• Mark Pflieger, PhD - Source Signal Imaging, San Diego (Download Slides ~ 1MB)

Real-time, noninvasive estimation of neuroelectric activity in brain regions of interest

Leuthardt and colleagues (J. Neural Eng., vol. 1, pp. 63-71, 2004) reported that a brain-computer interface (BCI) based on invasive electrocorticography (ECoG) may be much more quickly learned, and provide more precise closed-loop control, compared with noninvasive EEG-based BCIs which have been implemented to date.  However, the latter have utilized neither high-density scalp recordings, nor realistic models of head and brain derived from structural MRI scans.  In theory, it may be possible to boost considerably the performance of noninvasive EEG-based BCIs by using real-time brain region of interest (ROI) source activity estimators that have been informed by subject-specific brain and head models.  This talk discusses the theory of designing such ROI activity estimators as 3D spatial filters which, after optimization, may be applied in real-time.  Steps of the method are illustrated concretely via an off-line analysis of previously acquired MRI and EEG datasets.

• Günter Edlinger, PhD - g.tec medical engineering GmbH, Graz, Austria (Download Slides ~ 6 MB)

The Neural Engineering workshop yields insights into g.tec hard- and software components for research in life sciences.  Special topics addressed comprise:  

• The investigation of EEG and ECG changes in the field of  High-Altitude Medicine

• Real-time biosignal processing systems

• Research applications of Brain-Computer Interfaces in the field of  “BCI and music”,  “BCI and the control of a hand orthosis”, and “BCI in the virtual environment”

In the second part of the workshop, a live audience demonstration gave insight in all steps necessary to run a BCI.  The montage of EEG electrodes, the measurement of EEG and the training and application phase to train and successfully run a BCI were demonstrated. A subject controlled a cursor on a computer screen in this Brain-Computer-Interface experiment.