Two upcoming events

I wish I could go to both, but I just don't have time...

First, back in Rome, Italy, there is:
NEUROREHABILITATION AND ROBOTICS. Changing environment to train the function, Dec 13-14. I couldn't find a site that linked directly to the program I received, but here is the Children's Hospital it is associated with.

- I'll be the jerk to say it. Please run titles past native English speakers. This title makes no sense, but I think we get the idea, kinda. Is this supposed to be changing the function of the environment by changing said environment, or changing the environment to change some other 'function'? I think the idea is changing the user's environment such that it assists techniques unique to neurorehabilitation. Either way, it would be nice to get back to Italy, but there's no way I'll be able to make it.

Next, in Naples, FL, there is:
The Neural Control of Movement Society meeting, April 28-May 4 (abstract submission open now)

- I might try to go to this one, but we'll see.

No time for love, Dr. Jones!

I thought I would be all good and update during SfN regularly. Nope. Not happening. Check back this Friday. Something about the acute liver cirrhosis and information overload...

I survived my poster presentation and only had a few minor hiccups, so I was happy. I was actually kinda hoping to get grilled a little more, which is disappointing. A few great questions were asked and some good ideas about future directions were discussed. It was nice to meet a few of you folks reading, including kids from the Nicolelis and Schwartz labs, CalTech, and a few others that I don't remember the institutions of.

It is kinda strange presenting, at least for me. I switch from slightly awkward research mode into showmanship mode, and during that time, everything is a blur. At one point Leigh Hochberg was watching me present, and having seen Leigh on at least a weekly basis while in 'research mode', it completely disrupted my flow. I got caught switching states back and forth, and it was oddly paralyzing. (Not his fault, obviously. It was just a very strange feeling.)

It was great to see so may people from Brown stop by just to say, "hi!" And it was also nice to see all of you NIH folks as well (though I missed Ilya's presentation because I had my poster at the same time).

Anyhow, enough rambling. Tonight: Dinner, Grad student/Post-Doc Social, Recovery/Notetaking/Brainstorming.

Oh, and the line for the MIT party was just frickin ridiculous. That venue was just too damn small (but nice inside).

I made it!

Look out San Diego! The air here is horrible, btw. You could see all the scorched ground on arrival.

Sf'nN baby

As a site note, sorry about not returning emails and responding to posts this last week. I've been really stressed with SfN material due for various approvals on a daily basis lately. I am hoping to get back to all of you Wednesday or Thursday before I leave for San Diego.

Here are the details for mine and Wilson's poster. Stop by and say "hi!"

Poster #: 517.15/VV1
Section: 517. Brain Machine Interface: Neuroprosthesis I

Motor cortex local field potentials and multi-unit activity during intended movements in humans with tetraplegia
*B. KING, W. TRUCCOLO, G. M. FRIEHS, J. STEIN, J. P. DONOGHUE, L. R. HOCHBERG

Monday, Nov 5 2007 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM

I will be there during my assigned time, and probably roaming the area for a few hours before and after. Hey, my friggin picture's on the site here, so you can find me if you want to.

STRESS!!!

Neurobotics 2007 pictures

Here's a link to my Flickr set.

Here's a link to Walid's Picasa album.

And one more note

Back in the States. My train from Boston to Providence broke down at 12:30am, and I had to get a cab, which meant I got in at around 3am. Ugh.

Updates coming late tomorrow. Pictures from Neurobotics all made it to my PC without issue, but now I need to do some touching up and processing. 8GB worth of pics! I'll post a link to my Flickr account when things are up for display.

And one last thing. I've noticed a pretty big spike in traffic this week. I don't know if it is from Neurobotics members or the Biomechanics class I spoke to at Campus Biomedico in Rome, but I thought I would repeat the site's philosophy/tone. The purpose of this site is primarily to keep track of current events, research reports, and general coverage of BCIs (Brain Computer Interfaces) in the media (scientific and popular). The tone is on the lighthearted side generally (ala Gizmodo, though more tame), and intended to be a a decent "radar" for BCI outside the walls of a general lab setting. Some of it is very topical, some very technical, but there is an even balance (hopefully) of off-topic and general/no-science-background-needed material. Right now it is just me running the show, but I have a feeling that I will soon be adding a few other contributors. If you have any suggestions/questions/concerns, feel free to email me.

Last Day in Volterra

Of course I didn't bring my cable to upload pics, but hopefully I'll find on in Rome. I apparently caught a nasty little cold on the plane over, and it is just starting to die down.

To my fellow students, it was a blast. Feel free to email or Skype anytime, and if you make it to The States, let me know!
(Skype will complain that my version doesn't support text chat, but it does. My home phone has Skype built in and cannot use chat, but my computer can.)

To the profs reading this... why the Hell are you reading a blog? Get your grad students to read it, and summarize the contents at lab meeting.

As a side note, Super Paper Friday will be slightly postponed until later. I will try to get it up after I arrive in Rome, but traveling always exhausts me.

And to all my bellissimas - Ciao bella! (There is a classic picture with Silke that I will post when I get my hands on it.)

A moment

So I finally grabbed a moment to post. Things here are packed from 8am-11pm every day, but it isn't a high stress situation, which is good. Lots of interesting folks, good speakers, great food and wine (okay, tonight I will know more about the wine, but last night's was decent), and a beautifully scenic country location. I will have to post some pics later.

As I said the other attendees are really all around nice folks, and even after the slight culture shock when I got off the plane, things have been pretty smooth. I didn't really prepare myself well for the trip in general, since I had so much work due right before I left, and walking around the busy airport in a foreign country can be a little overwhelming. But, I think I got the hang of it.

One thing that is somewhat strange is that I feel thrust into the middle of some quiet wars between different philosophies and techniques. Everyone wants to say that their system/algorithm/sensor/whatever is the best, and not insult others, so there are small smirks and whispers here and there between cohorts and the air of punches being pulled for the sake of civility. I don't know if that is for the best or not, or if things will slowly devolve as the week goes on, but people need to be, perhaps, a little less worried about one upping each other. I know I said some things because I felt I was a representative of the lab, and the discussion between the speakers was basically circling around things I already knew. In other words, questions were being asked that no one else seemed to know the answers to, and rather than speculate without all the data, get some other opinions first.

There was also one thing I really want to rail against, but will hold it until later. It was just, well, crap, and I felt bad for some of the students.

I'm excited about Rome now, and want to again thank Giovanni for hosting me. I'm sure we'll have a great time next week!

Neurobotics Day l

I made it in one piece to Italy. 3 days, 3 hours sleep.

Everyone here is awesome. Oops. Back to lecture!

Neurobotics

It's finally sinking in that I'll be in Italy in two days. See some of you folks at the Neurobotics Workshop! I will be in Rome the week after in case anyone wants to grab a drink.

Sf'nN

The abstract search whirley gig thingy is up for SfN, which means public disclosure, which means I can post info.

In case you're interested, two posters from our lab have been chosen for the SfN Press Book:
- (517.4/UU20) Directional tuning in motor cortex of a person with ALS (Simeral, Kim, ...)
- (517.15/VV1) Motor cortex local field potentials and multi-unit activity during intended movements in humans with tetraplegia (King, Truccolo, ...)

The lab has several great posters on display, so do a search for 'Donoghue' or 'Hochberg' for more. I'll post a list later with all the kids' posters linked.

Here's mine and Wilson's:

Program#/Poster#:	517.15/VV1
Title:	Motor cortex local field potentials and multi-unit activity during intended movements in humans with tetraplegia
Location:	San Diego Convention Center: Halls B-H
Presentation Start/End Time:	Monday, Nov 05, 2007, 3:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Authors:	*B. KING1, W. TRUCCOLO1, G. M. FRIEHS2,3, J. STEIN4, J. P. DONOGHUE1,5,6, L. R. HOCHBERG1,5,7; 1Dept. of Neurosci., 2Dept. of Clin. Neurosciences, Brown Univ., Providence, RI; 3Dept. of Neurosurgery, Rhode Island Hosp., Providence, RI; 4Dept. of Physical Med. and Rehabil., Spaulding Rehabil. Hospital, Harvard Med. Sch., Boston, MA; 5Rehabil. Res. and Develop. Service, Dept. of Veterans Affairs Med. Ctr., Providence, RI; 6Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., Foxborough, MA; 7Dept. of Neurology, Massachusetts Gen. Hospital, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, and Spaulding Rehabil. Hospital, Harvard Med. Sch., Boston, MA
We examined the relationships between motor cortex (MI) local field potentials (LFP) and multiunit activity (MUA) and intended movement in two humans with tetraplegia due to spinal cord transection (participant S1) or pontine stroke (S3). As part of a pilot clinical trial of the BrainGate Neural Interface System (IDE), a microelectrode array was chronically implanted in the dominant MI arm (knob) area in each participant. We investigated LFP and MUA activities offline in two main tasks: imagined pursuit tracking of a cursor moving on a computer monitor, and a 4 or 8-direction ‘neural cursor’ center-out step tracking task in which the cursor position was driven by the participant’s motor intention, decoded from MI spiking activity via a neural interface system. Recorded intra-cortical LFPs during the center-out task had features similar to those previously observed during reaching movements in monkeys. Typical attenuation of beta-oscillation (~20 Hz) and ‘motor’ event related potentials (ERPs) appeared 200-500ms after the instruction to move to the target. ERPs were statistically different (p<0.05)>
Disclosures:	B. King, None; W. Truccolo, None; G.M. Friehs, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., B. Research Grant (principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received); Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., E. Ownership Interest (stock, stock options, patent or other intellectual property); Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., F. Consultant/Advisory Board; J. Stein, None; J.P. Donoghue, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., E. Ownership Interest (stock, stock options, patent or other intellectual property); Chief Scientific Officer: Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., Other; L.R. Hochberg, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc., B. Research Grant (principal investigator, collaborator or consultant and pending grants as well as grants already received).
Support:	Office of Research and Development, Rehabilitation Research and Development Service, Dept. of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Providence, RI
	National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Neural Prosthesis Program, NINDS Grant NS25074
	Office of Naval Research (award N00014-06-1-0185)
	Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems, Inc.

Catching up on old-ish news

Over the next day I'll be catching up on stories that slipped by me as I was setting this blog up. For tonight here are a few...

Our lab/CKI were mentioned in the media lately for our multiple papers are the recent IEEE conference in Hawaii. When our 'troops' returned for our usually Friday meeting, we asked how the meeting went. They started into how the weather was great and they went to the beach and played golf, but didn't realize we were asking how their presentations went. Ah, I tried to offer myself up to "fall on this grenade" but, alas, no data = no hula girls. From RedOrbit:

Three presentations on Saturday, May 5, 2007, by engineers from the Company and collaborators at Brown University highlighted advances in Cyberkinetics' BrainGate Neural Interface System included:

"Multi-State Decoding of Point-and-Click Control Signals from Motor Cortical Activity in a Human with tetraplegia." Authors include Sung-Phil Kim; John Simeral; Leigh Hochberg (VA/Harvard Medical School); John Donoghue; Gerhard Friehs; and Michael J. Black. All authors are affiliated with Brown University. This presentation described the development of "point and click" computer cursor control, which would be necessary to control medical and other devices, including wheelchairs; "Decoding Grasp Aperture from Motor-Cortical Population Activity." Authors include Panagiotis Artemiadis of the National Technical University of Athens; as well as Gregory Shakhnarovich; Carlos Vargas-Irwin; John Donoghue; and Michael J. Black, all of Brown University. This presentation described decoding neural activity to achieve "continuous motion", which would be important in the ability to provide more natural control of a person's own arm and hand movement, as well as prosthetic limbs; and "Automatic Spike Sorting for Real-Time Applications." Authors are Daniel Sebald, a consultant to Cyberkinetics, and Almut Branner, of Cyberkinetics. This presentation described automatic sorting of brain signals, which significantly reduces the time between a person's thought about movement and the ability to put the thought into action, which is aimed at providing "real-time" performance.

I am posting at 3am right now, which means I could really use a device that would just put me to sleep with the press of the button. Hrm, where could I find one of those? Oh, here!



Interestingly, is basically forces subcortical structures to into a delta oscillation using TMS and you just fall asleep. There is a series of rhythm changes they refer to as Sleep on Command, and a beta oscillation mode to aid student in studying. My lord. I could be the Ultimate Grad Student! Imagine a grad student that never slept! PIs around the world begin drooling. From PR.com...

The sequenced frequency system called Sleep on Command™ was first released to the public in May 2005 and provides clients with an extraordinary sleep experience. The Sleep on Command™ trademark was filed in early 2006. An Alert Mode (low Beta wave) program was added in 2006 to aid students in studying, and to aid drivers in maintaining alertness and reducing physical and mental fatigue on long trips. It works equally well in desk job
environments.

The device costs $500 and can be purchased directly from the company website (with a 1-year warranty). I think I might order one. *counting pennies* Actually, this is the gimmicky device version which you put under your mattress - so it doesn't penetrate your skull. And here I thought I had found a sleep on/off switch. *sigh*