#neuroengineering

[neurosciencenews]

Synthetic nerve conduit bridges the gap in arm nerve repair

A new synthetic conduit can bridge large nerve gaps by guiding the regrowth of neurons. When implanted into the arms of macaques with nerve defects in their arms, the conduit boosted neurogenesis and the nerve’s ability to conduct signals for a year.

[txchnologist]

Neuromorphic Chips Bring Artificial Brain Closer

by Ysabel Yates

Building the artificial brain 

Their neuromorphic chips resemble neurons in size, and are able to solve the same types of cognitive tasks humans can.

"The network connectivity patterns closely resemble structures that are also found in mammalian brains," study coauthor Giacomo Indiveri, a professor at the Institute of Neuroinformatics of the University of Zurich and ETH Zurich, stated in a press release.

The first challenge their device successfully completed: identifying which direction bars moved across a computer screen. The task was chosen because it requires real-time visual processing, memory and context-dependent decision making, elements which are regarded as signatures of cognition, explains Indiveri.

(One of the neuromorphic chips used by the researchers. Each silicon chip is comparable in size to an actual neuron. Photo courtesy of Emre Neftci / Institute of Neuroinformatics, University of Zurich and ETH Zurich.)

The team chose this simple task because the network they built was small―on the order of 4,000 silicon neurons, with an average of 100 connections between neurons. This is paltry compared to the billions of neurons that make up a human brain.

But as Emre Neftci, a coauthor of the study and researcher at the Institute of Neuroinformatics, explains, the lab isn't interested in building a network made of billions of neurons just yet. The first step is learning how to configure and combine the small chips to solve simple problems. As the researchers understand more about the brain, and gain greater technological insight into how to build these chips, the goal is to extend the networks into larger chips capable of solving more complex tasks.

Ultimately, they hope to build processors on par with our own in computational power, efficiency and speed, and to better understand how our biological computers work.

Efficiency and real-time processing  

There are two main benefits of using neuromorphic chips in computing over traditional processors, Neftci says. The first is efficiency; neuromorphic chips consume very little power. The new devices “consume thousands, or even up to ten thousand times less power than the chips in your computer,” he says.

The second benefit is that the chips can compute in real time, which is similar to how the brain works. This is key. It means that, if the chips are connected to sensors, they could be employed to develop artificial retinas or cochleas that would allow computers to sense the world around them.

The chips might also take us a step closer to artificial intelligence, says Neftci. But he cautions that there are still many technological hurdles to be overcome. The biggest challenge, he says, is teaching the chip how to learn. The current system does not yet learn how to complete the cognitive task―it is only programmed to do so.

The other part of this research, he says, is to understand how the brain works. “The rationale is that if you’re able to build it, you’re able to understand it,” he says.

The study was published last week in PNAS.

Top image: Rendering of a neuron matrix, courtesy Nicolas P. Rougier via Wikimedia Commons. 

[lunaticlabs]

Neuralink: Beyond the hype

Neuralink: Beyond the hype

The sewing machine like robot that is the linchpin for neuralink.

Brain machine interfacing, as someone who does research in the field and is getting a PhD in a brain machine interface lab, I think I’m qualified to comment on the progress neuralink. There’s a lot of hype out there, curing disease, ending paralysis, a world where we are part of the machine and the machine is part of us. Is it…

[neuroengineering]

Bionic Eyes

Australian based consortium, Bionic Vision Australia, recently performed a successful implantation of a prototype bionic eye. Outfitted with 24 electrodes, the bionic eye does not by any means provide clear vision to the user, but it does however allow scientists to understand how to best implement this technology. The recipient of the implant, Ms Diane Ashworth, suffers from retinitis pigmentosa which has caused severe vision loss. Ms Ashworth said she hoped to "make a contribution" by being the first recipient of such an implant. Upon completion of the surgery, Ms Ashworth could see varied shapes appearing in front of her eye as the stimulation of her implant changed. 24-electrode most likely translates to 6X4 bit resolution, which is far shy of the resolution scientists hope to be able to obtain with such implants in the coming years.

[max-clyde]

Paraplegic Man Walks Using Own Legs With Brain Signals Re-Routed to Knees

by  Jamie Condliffe

A team of scientists has successfully re-routed the signals from a paraplegic man’s brain to his knees, allowing him to walk using his own legs for the first time in five years.

The Guardian reports that researchers from the University of California at Irvine have developed a system that captures brain waves using an electroencephalogram (EEG) electrode cap, sending them wirelessly to a computer. There, a series of algorithms process the data to work out if the wearer wishes to stand still or walk, before beaming commands to micro-controllers which sends impulses to nerves that then move muscles in the legs.

The system has been tested on a 26-year-old man who has been wheelchair-bound since an accident left him paralysed from the waist down five years ago when his spinal cord was severed. He underwent 20 weeks of training during the build-up to the experiments, improving muscle tone in his legs as well as learning how to create the right brain signals to reliably trigger the device.

But it worked: using a walking frame and harness to stop himself from falling over, the man was able to use his own legs to walk a 3.5-meter course. The experiment demonstrates that it’s possible to take brain signals and re-route them around an area of damage using just electronics. The research is published today in the Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation.

The researchers do point out, though, that they’ve only tested the technique in one patient and that many more trials will be required in order to assess whether it can be used successfully by a wider number of people. While the patient managed to walk the 3.5-meter course, the computer occasionally faltered: the researchers claim that the brain signals required to aid balance can become confused with those which stimulate the walking motion.

And if it’s to be used to help people walk freely, then the team must also overcome the fact that an external computer is currently required. But the researchers write in their reports that “the cumbersome nature of the current noninvasive system... can potentially be addressed by a fully implantable brain-computer interface system, which can be envisioned to employ invasively recorded neural signals.”

We’re still some way off restoring full walking abilities to the paraplegic, then — but today, researchers just took a step closer to making it happen.

[Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation via Guardian]

[neurosciencenews]

First Synthetic Retina For the Visually Impaired Created

A synthetic, soft tissue retina developed by an Oxford University student could offer fresh hope to visually impaired people.

The research is in Scientific Reports. (full open access)

[txchnologist]

Could Broadband Radio Beaming from Your Brain Control Robots Remotely?

by Charles Q. Choi

Researchers have developed a novel brain radio implant that can wirelessly broadcast signals from up to 100 brain cells for well over a year. They say the apparatus could one day help lead to improved robotic limbs and perhaps even remote control of devices.

A Brown University research team developed the rechargeable implant that can record neuron activity and wirelessly broadcast that data like a cell phone for the brain.

Herculean effort from idea to prototype

The device uses a pill-sized chip of electrodes implanted on the cortex to record signals from up to 100 neurons. These electrodes then relay this data into a laser-welded, hermetically sealed titanium can about the size of a box of Tic Tacs. This box holds the battery, infrared transmitters, a copper coil for recharging, and microchips that convert neural signals into digital data. The wireless and charging signals pass through an electromagnetically transparent sapphire window.

"In an absolutely herculean effort, we went from drawing board to device ready for in vivo testing in exactly one year," Borton says. "It integrated many individual innovations into a complete system with potential for neuroscientific gain greater than the sum of its parts."

Neurosurgeons implanted the device in three pigs and three rhesus macaque monkeys. The implants have helped scientists observe complex brain signals in real time for as long as 16 months so far, "and we fully expect that the device will last even longer without failure," Borton says.

Neuroprostheses rising

Increasingly, brain implants are enabling people to control robotics using only their minds. The hope is that soon people will be able to overcome disabilities using bionic limbs or mechanical exoskeletons.

Currently, scientists are recording what brain cells do when experimental animals move their natural limbs. They hope this data will guide strategies that will help patients with disabilities mentally control robotic limbs. However, brain implants usually tether subjects to computers via wires, significantly constraining the actions that investigators can record.

Past research has devised wireless methods of recording brain activity, but these have proven relatively limited in scope or duration. For instance, electronic tattoos that one can stick on the skin can read brain waves, but control of limbs requires far more details about brain activity that extends down to the level of neurons.

Others have invented wireless brain sensors that gather comparable amounts of data from roughly as many brain cells. However, these were only tested for a few hours, and not for more than a year in the corrosive environment of the body like the implant from Borton and his colleagues.

"Our device certainly represents the longest implanted broadband wireless neural recordings," Borton says. "Just like a sailboat needs to keep saltwater out of the cockpit, we must protect the nested active electronics inside the device from the saline environment in the body. We worked tirelessly with industry leaders in hermetic sealing technologies to design custom titanium packaging that not only allowed 100 individual wires from the neurosensor into the device, but also allowed zero saline ingress."

Neural Broadband Radio

The device records all frequencies of neural activity and broadcasts at 24 megabytes per second. After a two-hour charge, it can operate for about seven hours.

In the future, the implant could monitor the activity of even more neurons. The researchers hope to reduce the size of their device and prolong its battery life. "We have already made significant innovations on the more power-hungry components in the system," Borton says.

The device was designed to get approval for use in humans one day. It could be used to monitor the brains of mobile volunteers to help scientists better understand how brains work normally and in those with disorders. "We must still understand a great deal more about how the brain encodes and decodes information" before these signals can be used to control robotics, Borton says.

"We are becoming laser-focused on following the regulatory pathway to bring devices like the one discussed in this paper into clinical use," he says. "This is a long and extremely expensive road, but one that leads to a potential change in a patient’s life. So, obviously, worth it."

The scientists detailed their findings online Feb. 21 in the Journal of Neural Engineering.

Top Image: Engineers Arto Nurmikko and Ming Yin examine their prototype wireless, broadband neural sensing device. Courtesy Fred Field/Brown University.

Charles Q. Choi has written for Scientific American, The New York Times, Wired, Science and Nature, among others. In his spare time, he has traveled to all seven continents, including scaling the side of an iceberg in Antarctica, investigating mummies from Siberia, snorkeling in the Galapagos, climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro, camping in the Outback, avoiding thieves near Shaolin Temple and hunting for mammoth DNA in Yukon.

[lunaticlabs]

The art in science

One of the easiest ways to turn even the most advanced scientific paper into something accessible is through carefully crafted figure design. Figures are a way to tell a story, but to also capture the readers imagination. The difference between a scientific figure and a drawing from a story is really just the difference in the information you are conveying. However, as is the case with most…

[jry-aihub]

Neuroengineering - The Future is Now [Playlist]

Neuroengineering – The Future is Now [Playlist]

Lecture I: Ed Boyden, Associate Professor, MIT Media Lab on optogenetics, and stunning advancements in our understanding of cognition and memory.

Lecture II: Dr. Theodore Berger’s research is currently focused primarily on the hippocampus, a neural system essential for learning and memory functions.

  (Source: MIT Technology Review)

[neuroengineering]

Amputees who experience phantom limb pain can sometimes get relief from an optical illusion. This trick involves looking in a mirror at the reflection of a healthy limb from a certain angle, which causes it to appear where the missing limb should be. Seeing the limb move freely fools the brain into relieving the pain. Now a study suggests this technique might also work for arthritis pain. Cognitive scientist Laura Case, working in the lab of Vilayanur S. Ramachandran (a member of Scientific American Mind’s board of advisers) at the University of California, San Diego, used a modified version of the mirror technique to superimpose a researcher’s healthy hand over a subject’s arthritic hand, which was painfully constricted or contorted. Subjects mimicked the slow, purposeful movements of the researcher’s hand with their own unseen hand. After experiencing the illusion of their hand moving smoothly, subjects rated their arthritis pain slightly lower than before and had an increased range of motion. The result suggests that the toxic soup of inflammatory molecules bathing an arthritic joint is not the only source of painful sensations. “The brain has learned to associate movement with pain,” says Case, who presented her results at the Society for Neuroscience meeting last November in Washington, D.C. The illusion provides the brain with a way to disconnect the sight from the sensation. Next, the group will investigate whether this type of mirror therapy might provide long-term benefits for arthritis, a condition that affects about 50 million Americans. This article was published in print as "Brain Trick Relieves Pain."

[chmenerd]

To Science Bloggers!

I do not have enough sciencey things on my dash! Like/reblog if you are a science blog! Special points to Chemical Engineering blogs, and a gold star for Neuroengineering :)

[stanfordbioe]

Stanford Bioengineering Bootcamp: Second day

We started off the day with a lecture on neuroengineering by Shrivats Iyer and Holly Liske from the optogenetics lab in the department of bioengineering. They're doing some really amazing projects that have the potential to change the way we see the brain. 

We broke for lunch, then came back and went through PRL (lab safety) training at the Stanford Product Realization Lab. We're going to be able to use the lab to build prototypes of our projects. They have a 3D printer, power tools (though we're not going to use them), laser cutters, tons of materials, and pretty much anything you would want to build a model with. 

After completing training, we walked back to the Li Ka Shing Center, and we started working on our projects with our mentors.

Our project idea is to build a device that produces liposomes with different ligands that will bind to specific organs and facilitate targeted drug delivery. We might also write a software program on the side that will allow the medicine to be monitored throughout the body. 

We started putting together a presentation for our proposal, and we even came up with a name for our product: LiPort. 

There's also a great view from our room!

[prachicmi2]

Brain Computer Interface Market Anticipated to Witness High Growth Owing to Advancements in Neurotechnology

The Global Brain Computer Interface Market is estimated to be valued at USD 2.40 Bn in 2025 and is expected to exhibit a CAGR of 14.4% over the forecast period (2025 to 2032).

The Brain Computer Interface (BCI) market is experiencing rapid growth as it offers revolutionary solutions for direct communication between the human brain and external devices. BCIs enable individuals to control computers, prosthetics, and other devices using their thoughts, providing immense potential for medical applications, assistive technologies, and enhanced human-computer interaction. These interfaces interpret brain signals and translate them into commands, offering hope for patients with severe motor disabilities and neurological disorders. Brain-Computer Interface Market Insights are also finding applications in gaming, virtual reality, and cognitive enhancement, expanding their market reach beyond medical use. The technology's ability to restore communication and mobility for individuals with paralysis or locked-in syndrome has garnered significant attention from healthcare providers and researchers. As the field of neurotechnology advances, BCIs are becoming more sophisticated, less invasive, and more user-friendly, driving their adoption across various sectors.

Get more insights on,Brain Computer Interface Market

[neurosciencenews]

Engineers Build Brain on a Chip

Researchers at The Australian National University (ANU) have developed a suitable material to allow brain cells to grow and form predictable circuits, which could lead to the development of prosthetics for the brain.

The research is in Nano Letters. (full access paywall)

[txchnologist]

A Long History of Keeping Your Head Safe

by Michael Keller

Over the next couple of weeks, Txchnologist will be diving deep into the brain. We'll be looking at cutting edge neuroscience and neuroengineering research, along with the technologies being developed now that will push our understanding of our most complex organ into the future.

For as long as people have been hurling things at each others' heads, though, the best ideas in folk neuroscience have been focused on protecting the brain and the thin shell it is encased in from sharp and blunt trauma.

First we have some examples of historical military helmets taken from the New York Public Library's digital collection.

The first picture is an engraving of 28 ornamented military helmets from the mid to late 1700s. Some were made to protect just the top of the head while others extended all the way past the wearer's throat.

The next two show examples of Russian military helmets. These were printed in a book about Russian arms from the fourteenth to second half of the seventeenth century.

Here is a picture of old firefighting helmets worn in New York City from 1842 to 1853. These work hats were meant to protect the wearer from falling debris and embers.

Here is a head protector developed by Robert W. Turner and patented in 1882 meant to drape netting other other material to protect against bees, mosquitoes or flying objects.

Life isn't all work and war, though. Here is the picture of a patent that was granted to Dennis O'Sullivan in 1888 for a face mask to protect baseball catchers.

Frederick Willson and Harry Shindel applied for their patent in 1932 for a protective helmet that shielded industrial workers from flying abrasive debris and dust.

Finally, here is the invention drawing for Vernon B. McMillan's 1938 patent for a nose guard to be worn on football helmets to protect players.

Top Image: Fencing masks. Photo courtesy Steven Scherbinski via Compfight cc

[pattyspatio]

A society of cyborg citizens is closer than we think.

Cognitive Neuroengineering: A society of cyborg citizens is in the future. My review of Mind Over Matter. “In any case, there is little doubt that advances achieved and underway mean that we are almost certainly headed to a BCI-wired society in which the boundaries between brain and machine are increasingly blurred. Scary? Perhaps. But, if we succeed in building an appropriate regulatory…