Kolloquiumsvortrge:

Ort: Know Center, Inffeldgasse 13/VI, Besprechungsraum

Dienstag, 11. Mrz:

10:30 12:30: Dr. Vadim NIKULIN Charit - University Medicine Berlin Neurophysics Group, Department of Neurology Bernstein Center for Computational Neuroscience

Spatio-temporal neuronal dynamics: complexity, functional/clinical significance, investigation techniques

Understanding brain functioning strongly relies on taking into account a complexity of neuronal operations distributed in space and time. In our EEG/MEG studies we showed that neuronal dynamics in the human brain display long range temporal correlations (LRTC), which are hypothesized to be beneficial for processing of information in the bran. In addition, we showed that LRTC can serve as clinical biomarkers reliably describing pathological neuronal activations in Schizophrenia, Parkinsons Disease and Essential Tremor. In addition to studying temporal dynamics we also investigated spatial neuronal interactions using Cortico-Muscular Coherence (CMC) as a model for cortico-spinal interactions. We developed an optimal method for the detection of CMC and using it demonstrated that neuronal oscillations, originating from the sensorimotor cortex, can transmit not only their phase but also amplitude dynamics through the spinal motoneurons down to peripheral effectors. We also showed that CMC can serve as a sensitive measure for affected neuronal dynamics in stroke. In an attempt to unite ongoing neuronal oscillations and event-related responses we developed a novel generic mechanism for the generation of evoked responses baseline shifts. The generality of this mechanism makes it directly applicable to cognitive, sensory and motor responses in the human brain. Finally, in order to advance methodology for studying neuronal dynamics, we introduced an array of different methods such a combination of EEG with Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation, novel neuro-cognitive phenomenon quasi-movements (for boosting BCI performance), new type of EEG electrodes for optimal wearing comfort and novel analytic techniques for optimal extraction of neuronal oscillations.

Mittwoch, 12. Mrz:

11:00 13:00: Dr. Michael TANGERMANN Junior Research Group Leader BrainLinks-BrainTools Excellence Cluster

University of Freiburg Dept. Computer Science

Single-trial decoding as a key ingredient for the breakthrough of neurotechnology The analysis of multivariate single-trial brain signals is a hard problem. It has largely been intractable in realtime, until machine learning methods have allowed to deal with high-dimensional data of unfavorable signalto-noise ratio. As an early adopter and driver of these data analytical approaches, the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCI) has experienced a substantial success story: Recent BCI systems have demonstrated, how the decoding of mental states can be realized robustly and in real-time in order to run closed-loop applications like the control of devices and communication applications. In the first part of my talk, I will provide examples of successful BCI solutions and novel paradigms. I will highlight the role of novel machine learning algorithms to cope with specific challenges of the field, namely dealing appropriately with non-stationarities of brain signals, the exploitation multimodal recordings, the transfer of classifiers between users, individually tailored solutions for patients, and the avoidance of calibration recordings. The second part addresses the current emergence of great opportunities for the BCI field: having matured, it can contribute substantially to realize novel neurotechnological solutions in neighboring scientific fields. While the use in motor rehabilitation after stroke is the most obvious one, I see additional great chances in the assessment and rehabilitation of cognitive defects after stroke, for the improvement of hearing aid technology and as a tool in basic neuroscience research.

Donnerstag, 13. Mrz:

10:00 12:00: Assoc.Prof. Dipl.-Ing. Dr. techn. Gernot R. MLLER-PUTZ Graz University of Technology, Institute for Knowledge Discovery, BCI-Lab

From Thought to Action

Communication is one of the most important needs of human beings. When people receive a tremendous injury or disease (e.g., neurodegenerative diseases, spinal cord injury, stroke, ) activities of daily living will be reduced or even lost. This means that those persons suffer not only from primary consequences of the injury or disease, which could mainly be a complete paralysis of the body without being able to speak, but they also suffer from not being able to maintain the contact with their family members and friends or to perform simple actions with their own body. With the help of a brain-computer interaction system, known as Brain-Computer Interface (BCI), a loss could be moderated or even removed. With such a system the willful modulation of brain activity, recorded as brain patterns in the electroencephalogram (EEG), can be recognized and means for communication and control can be realized without the need of any muscular activation. In the first part of the talk, an overview of the research achievements in the interdisciplinary field of braincomputer interfacing is given. It reaches from basic investigations of non-invasive brain patterns, methodological developments, and hybrid systems to applications for communication and control. The second part of the talk will be about the research and development of an EEG-controlled neuroprosthesis for the restoration of hand and arm movements in persons with high spinal cord injury. Final conclusions and future prospects for this technology will complete the talk.

16:00 18:00: Dr. Robert LEEB

cole Polytechnique Fdrale de Lausanne Center for Neuroprosthetics Multi-modal Brain-Computer Interaction beyond the Laboratory Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are no longer only used by healthy participants under controlled conditions in laboratory environments, but also by patients and end-users, controlling applications in ecological situations at their homes or clinics. Especially the successful operation of applications requires a good level of BCI control. But are the technology and the field mature and reliable enough for this and how much training is needed to achieve such a level? It will be shown that it is possible to train naive end-users in 10 days to successfully control applications like text entry systems or assistive mobility devices, even to the same level as healthy trained BCI user can operate them. Although BCI technology has shown an impressive progress in the last years it cannot be compared to non-BCI control channels in terms of performance and interaction speed. Therefore, the development of practical BCIs for disabled people should allow them to use all their remaining functionalities as control possibilities in parallel with the BCI and to use the currently best available ones for control. Generally these control channels can operate different parts of the assistive device or all of them could be combined to allow users to smoothly switch from one control channel to the other, depending on their preference and performance. In the presented hybrid BCI framework for the first time the parallel usage of electroencephalographic (EEG) and electromyographic (EMG) activity is explored, whereby the control abilities of both channels are fused. Results showed that the participants could achieve a good control of their hybrid BCI independently of their level of muscular fatigue. Furthermore, it will be demonstrated that the multi-modal BCIs are possible and the use of a secondary motor task, is not deteriorating the BCI performance, so that BCI user can even perform other tasks in parallel, which is paving the way for the future in the BCI research field.

Freitag, 14. Mrz:

10:00 12:00: Prof. Dr. Ranganatha SITARAM, PhD, ME

University of Florida, USA,Principal Faculty, Department of Biomedical Engineering

Multiple Modality of Brain-Computer Interfaces in Neuroscience Research and Clinical Rehabilitation There is an emerging emphasis towards the application of neuroimaging techniques based on hemodynamic brain signals from functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) and functional near infrared spectroscopy (FNIRS), to complement BCIs based on electro/magnetoencephalography (EEG/MEG). In this short talk, Dr. Sitaram will present his work on BCIs based on FNIRS, real-time FMRI and MEG/EEG with example-studies in cognition, emotion and motor function applied to neurological and psychiatric disorders. Finally, Dr. Sitaram will highlight his new initiatives in multimodal BMI research in primates to elucidate the neural bases of brain self-regulation and its effects on behavior.

16:00 18:00: Dr. Andrea CARIA

Eberhard Karls Universitt Tbingen Institut fr Medizinische Psychologie und Verhaltensneurobiologie

Direct manipulation of brain activity using real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging

Presently, real-time functional magnetic resonance imaging (real-time fMRI) based technique represents the only available non-invasive method permitting to online assess as well as manipulate activity in cortical and subcortical brain areas. One of the most challenging applications of real-time fMRI is the possibility of acquiring volitional control of localized brain activity using real-time fMRIbased neurofeedback protocols. Several findings have shown that this method allows researchers to assess a causal relationship between specific brain activations and behavior. Learned regulation of blood oxygenated level dependent (BOLD) response in circumscribed brain regions can be used as an independent variable to observe its effects on behavior. Furthermore, effects of real-time fMRI training were also demonstrated in terms of brain networks reorganization. I will first describe the implementation of real-time fMRI technique and I will then summarize results from a series of experimental investigations that I conducted. These results demonstrate that real-time fMRI represents a promising new approach to cognitive neuroscience and neurorehabilitation.