This document discusses cognitive and emotional neuroprostheses and BCI research organizations and trends. It covers volitional prostheses that retrieve neuron activity related to action planning to control prosthetics. Memory prostheses address brain damage causing memory loss by replacing damaged hippocampal cells. Neurofeedback trains subjects to control brain activity using visual/auditory feedback. Major BCI research organizations including HUMAINE, BBCI and Neurobotics are described along with their goals of developing technologies related to emotion, BCI devices, and combining neuroscience and robotics.

1. Cognitive and Emotional NeuroProstheses
&
Research Organizations and current Trends
Presented by : Omer Ali {omerali@gmail.com}
Department of Information and Communication Engineering, DGIST , S.Korea
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2. Contents
• Introduction
• Neuro-Prosthesis
– Volitional Prostheses
– Memory Prostheses
– NeurofeedBack
• BCI Research Organizations and Fundings
– Neurobotics
• Conclusion
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3. Introduction
Over the course of last few weeks we studied:
1. Major Types of BCI sensors
1. Major Challenges for BCI sensor Production
2. BCI Abiotic-biotic Interface
3. Improved Electrode Performance Criteria
4. BMI/BCI Modeling
1. Multimicro-electrode Array
2. EEG / ECoG recordings
5. FES Applications of BCI
6. Non-invasive communication system
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4. Neuro-Prostheses
• Neural-Prostheses are a series of devices that can substitute a motor sensory or
cognitive modality of brain.
• Neural implants are small scale devices to minimize invasive structures and help to
cluster a certain portion of brain’s functioning.
• The most widespread of Neuroprosthetic currently appears as cochlear implants.
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5. NEURAL-PROSTHESES
VOLITIONAL PROSTHESES
MEMORY PROSTHESES
NEUROFEEDBACK
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6. VOLITIONAL PROSTHESES
• Volition is the will to plan or execute an action. Some of the states involved in
volition neurons are: attention, intention, motivation , expectation.
• Volitional prosthesis retrieves the respective neuron from brain regions and
combines them with somatomotor-prostheses to refine controls for robots or
prostheses.
Action planning activities of Brain
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7. Volitional Prostheses – Reach Trials
• Reach Trials are normally conducted on Parietal Reach Regions (PRR) of monkey’s brain
to record spikes of neuron magnitudes in order to reach the target.
• Motor Cortex recordings (as discussed previously) records the whole trajectory (the path and
intended motion to the target)
Reach Trials – Intended for Targets (Spike Decoding)
Brain motor cortex recordings (for overall intended action)
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8. Volitional Prostheses – Recording expected actions
• The Brain Control task is accomplished by Reach Trials while observing the
higher magnitude of spikes for intended actions.
• Neuron firings was found to increase spatial tuning during tasks when the
outcome was preferred by the brain (in terms of magnitude or probability).
• Decoding and classifying these expected values are then formulated to note the
preferences of patients with BCI.
A B C
Preferred Objects
Non-preferred rewards
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9. Cognitive States & Emotions
• BCI users have different needs based on their cognitive states (awake, alert,
frustrated, planning a movement or moving).
• If these cognitive states are not decoded properly, the BCI-controlled device may
result in un-intended action causing patient’s disbelief or discomfort in BCI
system.
• Previously, we saw the decoding of same information from Local Field
Potentials (LFPs) used in monkey’s eye saccade movement
• LFPs tend to act better than spike information because they hold the complete trajectory
information rather than just the object tracking spikes recorded.
• As it was noticed previously, that LFPs information is based in different frequency bands,
thus the decoding of specific information is possible.
• The EU project IDIAP is considering EEG signal deciphering to reduce deciosion making
states thus making BCI devices more cognitively efficient.
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10. MEMORY PROSTHESES
EMOTIONAL ROBOTS
HIPPOCAMPAL NEURAL PROSTHESIS
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11. Memory Prostheses
• Memory prostheses addresses to the central brain damage causing long-term or
short-term memory losses. The Alzheimer disease is still the biggest challenge
for neuro-scientists.
• The central brain region damage (caused due to disease, stroke or epilepsy)
affects the hippocampal cells, leaving the patient highly dependent on family
support.
• The collaboration efforts of University of Southern California, University of
Kentucky and Wake Forest University is focusing towards replacement of
damaged hippocampal cells with micro-chip based systems.
Hippocampus – Consolidates (Short-term,
long term, spatial memory)
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12. Emotional Robots
• Emotions are high-level cognitive states that carry large amount of information.
• An emotionally aware BCI would realize the erroneous cognitive states and
adapts its output accordingly.
• The Human-Machine Interaction Network on Emotion (HUMAINE) is a European
consortium developing systems capable of registering, modeling and influence
human emotional states.
Cortical prosthesis utilizing a VLSI
biomedical implant to record
neurons from damaged
hippocampus
But, where did the idea come from ?
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13. WASEDA Robot, Takanishi Lab - JAPAN
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14. A Hippocampal Neural Prosthesis for Animal
Cornu ammonis (CA) are pyramidal
cells that are responsible to feed input
to Dentate
Dentate Gyrus(DG) is the region of
Hippocampus which forms new
memories
A feedback VLSI system that generates
weak pulses from damaged Dentate ,
amplifies and process them and feeds
them back to CA1; making the
memory formation more abrupt
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15. A Hippocampal Neural Prosthesis for Animal
• Data showing the amplitudes of population EPSPs (excitatory postsynaptic potentials) recorded
from the molecular layer of CA1 in response to electrical stimulation of inputs to the dentate gyrus.
• After formulating a nonlinear input-output model for CA3, CA3 was removed surgically and replaced
with an FPGA-based input-output. The FPGA hardware and the slice communicated bi-directionally
via the multisite electrode arrays
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16. NEURO-FEEDBACK
NEUROFEEDBACK FOR EPILEPSY
NEUROFEEDBACK FOR ADHD
NEUROFEEDBACK FOR CONTROL OF EMOTIONS
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17. Neuro-feedback
• It is an operand based brain activity conditioning with feedback to guide control ;
varying as compared to reward-based training
• Subjects are trained with visual, auditory feedback of their EEG.
• Recent Neuro-feedback is based on Blood-Oxygen-level-Dependent (fMRI BOLD)
signal to control brain to a desired state.
• Neuro-feedback devices act as non-invasive neural prostheses that helps patients
control their brain activity to stable neural states.
• There are two main types of signal generation:
– Sensorimotor Rhythm (SMR): generating a controllable rhythm with spectral peak between 12Hz and
14Hz that is mapped to sensorimotor cortex of the brain
– Slow Cortical Potentials (SCP): SCPs < 2Hz can be modulated through neurofeedback training conditions
marked by epilepsy and attention deficit syndromes.
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18. Neurofeedback for Epilepsy
• Epilepsy is normally characterized by Seizures; resulting from abnormal or
excessive hypersynchronous neural activity in the brain.
– The excitation threshold of neurons is decreased to the point where they fire in synchronous
and more often in oscillatory bursts leading to seizures.
• Epilepsy reduction by SMR training is attributed to an increased threshold of
excitation in somatosensory pathways causing less epileptic occurrences.
• Currently, combined EEG and fMRI study explains a reduction in BOLD signal
which was spatially correlated with SCP.
• These SCPs are then used as training tools and it was found that patients having
SCP training showed a decrease in frequency of epileptic occurrences.
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19. Neurofeedback for ADHD
• Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder ADHD is the problem with inattentiveness, over-activity
or impulsive behavior.
• Earlier investigations on EEG biofeedback training on a hyperkinetic child reported an
increase in motor inhibition when the child succeeded in producing 12 – 14 Hz without 4
– 7 Hz activity.
• The Spectral Power of EEG activity in ADHD children is characterized by:
– Theta: 4 – 7 Hz
– Alpha: 8 – 12 Hz
– Beta: 12- 22 Hz
• Theta-band supressions and SMR and beta rhythms enhancements through
neurofeedbacks training were found to have ameliorative effects on children.
• On the commercial side, neurofeedback games for improved intelligence are being
marketed under the trade name of S.M.A.R.T that is also capable of ADHD treatment by
rigorous training exercises.
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20. S.M.A.R.T Learning Game
Neurofeedback task screen display
• The upper panels show a task where the objective is the highlighted upper
rectangle, and the subject must create negative SCP potentials to move the ball
upward while it traverses the screen from left to the right. A successful trial is
rewarded with a smiley and a reinforcing tone.
• The lower panel shows a transfer session,where the user must create a similar
negative potential, without the visual feedback
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21. BCI RESEARCH ORGANIZATIONS
RESEARCH TRENDS
NEUROBOTICS
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22. BCI Research Organizations & Projects (1)
• HUMAINE: The Human-Machine Interaction Network on Emotion (HUMAINE), funded by the EU
Information Society Technology program, aims toward the development of systems that can register,
model, and/or influence human emotional and emotion-related states and processes.
• BrainNet: It consists of 19 established brain banks across Europe and is coordinated by the Centre
for Neuropathology and Prion Research at Ludwig-Maximilians-University, Munich, Germany. Its
main goal is the collection and distribution of well-characterized, high-quality, post mortem brain
tissue for basic research in neuroscience.
• EURON: The EUropean RObotics research Network (EURON) consists of European robotics groups
and resources in research, industry, and education joined by a common interest in working to make
better robots.
• BACS: Bayesian Approach to Cognitive Systems (BACS) is an integrated project under the EC Sixth
Framework Program that has been allocated €7.5-million in funding. It brings together researchers
and commercial companies working on artificial perception systems to model neuronal functions
and cognitive processes.
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23. BCI Research Organizations & Projects (2)
• BBCI: The Berlin Brain Computer Interface (BBCI) project is a collaboration between the
Fraunhofer-Institut fürRechnerarchitektur und Softwaretechnik (FIRST) Institute, Charité University
of Medicine, Technical Institute of Berlin, and the Bernstein Institute for Computational
Neuroscience to develop BCI technology for commercial and medical uses.
• NEUROBOTICS: NEUROBOTICS is a 2004–2008 €6.7 million project under the European Sixth
Framework Programme focused on basic research fusing neuroscience and robotics to design,
develop, and test tele-operated robotic systems to help restore personal autonomy to sensory-motor-
disabled persons.
• CYBERKINETICS:
focuses on BCI device manufacturing
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24. NeuroProstheses - Conclusion
• Cognitive prostheses holds high-level dense cognitive process information that
can reduce the computational load to control and adapt to BCI devices.
• Memory prostheses is a very strong point towards mitigating the diseased or
damaged hippocampal cells thus reducing the agitation towards a BCI system
• Deep-Brain Stimulation DBS treats for cognitive disorders by fixed stimulations
to activate or deactivate certain pathways in specific regions of brain
• BCI with Neural-prostheses records specific neural activity and enhances the
control of intended cognitive state by adapting its feedback
• Neuroprostheses enables patients to regain control over their brain activity and
can also improve BCI implementation.
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