18. Major BCI methodological approaches and design of BCI applications for communication, neurorehabilitation, neurological assessment and functional mapping with EEG and ECoG

Organizers:  Christoph Guger, Dean Krusienski

The Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research area is a thriving and rapidly expanding field. BCIs have been developed during the last years for people with severe disabilities to improve their quality of life. However, BCI applications have recently been extended to different research areas, such as rapid functional mapping on the cortical level, virtual reality and rehabilitation & therapy after stroke. The workshop will discuss prerequisites to successfully perform both invasive and non-invasive BCI experiments, and discuss progress in relevant medical domains. Live demonstrations of BCI control will help attendees understand the technology.

Many studies over the past decade have shown that ECoG activity in the high gamma band is a reliable indicator of local task-related cortical activity, and could thus complement existing methods for functional mapping. Further highlights of the workshop are new approaches of semiautomatic mapping of the sensorimotor cortex using somatosensory evoked potentials and cortico-cortical evoked potentials for brain mapping in intraoperative scenarios. The workshop will also describe techniques for direct-brain stimulation in Parkinson patients to reduce tremor and to improve treatment opportunities.

Attendees will get insights into state-of-the-art hardware and software for BCI research enabling participants to run their own experiments. Advantages and disadvantages of dry and wet biosignal sensors will be discussed as well as differences between invasive and non-invasive BCI applications. Participants will be able to understand the most commonly used methodological approaches (auditory, visual, vibrotactile P300, SSVEP, motor imagery) underlying the design of BCIs and will have the opportunity to operate BCI based medical systems for neurorehabilitation, communication and consciousness assessment. The speakers of this workshop provide a competent mix between neurosurgery, neurology, scientific and technical expertise.

List of Speakers

Dean J. Krusienski PhD, Old Dominion University, Norfolk, VA

Characterization and Decoding of Speech Processes from Intracranial Recordings

 Dean J. Krusienski is a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Old Dominion University. He received the B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, in 1999, 2001, and 2004, respectively. He completed his postdoctoral research at the New York State Department of Health’s Wadsworth Center Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Laboratory in Albany, NY. His primary research focus is on the application of advanced signal processing and pattern recognition techniques to brain-computer interfaces, which allow individuals with severe neuromuscular disabilities to communicate and interact with their environments using their brainwaves. His research interests include decoding and translation of neural signals, digital signal and image processing, machine learning, evolutionary algorithms, artificial neural networks, and biomedical and musical applications. His research is supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the National Institute of Aerospace (NIA)/NASA.

José M. Azorín, PhD, Universidad Miguel Hernández de Elche, Spain

Brain-Computer Interfaces for Neurorehabilitation

Jose M. Azorin is the Director of the Brain-Machine Interface Systems Lab and Associate Professor of the Systems Engineering and Automation Department at Miguel Hernández University of Elche (Spain). He holds a M.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Alicante (1997, Spain) and a Ph.D. in Robotics (Award for the Best Thesis of the Department) by the UMH (2003, Spain).

He has been a visiting professor at the University of Houston (USA) and at Imperial College London (United Kingdom). His current research interests are Brain-Machine Interfaces, Neuro-robotics and Rehabilitation Robotics. Over the last years, his research has been funded by prestigious grants from the European Union and Spanish government agencies. He has been the PI of more than 10 research projects, and his research has resulted in more than 150 technical papers and 3 patents. Currently, he is a Distinguished Lecturer of the IEEE Systems Council.

José del R. Millán, PhD Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)

Translating Brain-Computer Interfaces to End Users

Dr. José del R. Millán joined the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in 2009 to help establish the Center for Neuroprosthetics. He holds the Defitech Foundation Chair and directs the Brain-Machine Interface Laboratory. He received a PhD in computer science from the Technical University of Catalonia, Barcelona, in 1992. Previously, he was a research scientist at the Joint Research Centre of the European Commission in Ispra (Italy) and a senior researcher at the Idiap Research Institute in Martigny (Switzerland). He has also been a visiting scholar at the Universities of Berkeley and Stanford as well as at the International Computer Science Institute in Berkeley. Dr. Millán has made several seminal contributions to the field of brain-machine interfaces (BMI), especially based on electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Most of his achievements revolve around the design of brain-controlled robots. He has received several recognitions for these seminal and pioneering achievements, notably the IEEE-SMC Nobert Wiener Award in 2011 and elevation to IEEE Fellow in 2017. During the last years Dr. Millán is prioritizing the translation of BMI to end-users suffering from motor disabilities. As an example of this endeavour, his team won the first Cybathlon BMI race in October 2016. In parallel, he is designing BMI technology to offer new interaction modalities for able-bodied people.

Christoph Guger, PhD, g.tec medical engineering GmbH, Austria

BCIs for stroke rehabilitation and assessment of patients with disorders of consciousness

Christoph Guger, PhD studied biomedical engineering at the University of Technology Graz and Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, USA. Then he carried out research work at the Department of Medical Informatics (Prof. Pfurtscheller) at the University of Technology Graz and received his PhD degree in 1999. The topic of his PhD work was the design of an EEG- based brain-computer interface. This was the first real-time BCI system with continuous feedback. He also developed the real- time analysis with common spatial patterns which is still the fastest and most accurate approach for oscillatory BCIs and developed also a P300 BCI with very high accuracy and speed. He is co-founder of g.tec where he works since 1999. g.tec is active in more than 10 international research projects in the BCI domain and neurotechnology.

Kyousuke Kamada, MD, PhD, Asahikawa Medical University, Japan

Stroke treatment with BCI technology in the acute phase and validation of brain plasticity with fMRI

Kyousuke Kamada, MD, PhD is professor and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Asahikawa Medical University in Hokkaido, Japan since 2010. His professional career includes research periods at the Hokkaido University, Japan from 1988-1991, the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany from 1997-1997, where his research was about the clinical application of MEG, fMRI and MR spectroscopy. Furthermore he was research associate at the Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA from 1997-1998 and an associate professor of neurosurgery, at the University of Tokyo, Japan from 2003-2009. His main research interests include functional brain mapping and brain-computer interfaces.

 Nuri Firat Ince, PhD University of Houston, Texas, USA

Towards Automated and Real-Time Prediction of STN-DBS Electrode Implantation Track in Parkinson’s Disease by Using Local Field Potentials

Nuri Firat Ince, PhD is professor and head of the Clinical Neural Engineering Lab, Cullen College of Engineering at the University of Houston, Texas, USA. His activities include a variety of basic and translational research in neural engineering and biomedical signal processing. Areas of special interest are: neural decoding for neuroprosthetics; machine learning for neuromarker discovery in cognitive and movement disorders; development of embedded wearable wireless sensors and their integration to intelligent systems for healthcare and assisted living. In particular, the development of novel algorithms and machine learning techniques to explore neural activity recorded in clinical setting is in focus. Dr. Firat and his group contribute not only to algorithm development but also to the discovery of new methods for diagnosis and therapy that can be applied in clinical practice. In this scheme, the group works closely with clinicians and researchers from diverse fields such as neuroscience, neurosurgery and neurology.

Christoph Guger, PhD, g.tec medical engineering GmbH, Austria

High-gamma mapping and control of brain-computer interface technology

See above for Dr. Guger’s bio

Kyousuke Kamada, MD, PhD, Asahikawa Medical University, Japan

Evidence for functional and anatomical specificity of face and color processing in the human brain

Kyousuke Kamada, MD, PhD is professor and chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery at the Asahikawa Medical University in Hokkaido, Japan since 2010. His professional career includes research periods at the Hokkaido University, Japan from 1988-1991, the University of Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany from 1997-1997, where his research was about the clinical application of MEG, fMRI and MR spectroscopy. Furthermore he was research associate at the Georgetown University, Washington D.C., USA from 1997-1998 and an associate professor of neurosurgery, at the University of Tokyo, Japan from 2003-2009. His main research interests include functional brain mapping and brain-computer interfaces.