BRAIN-MACHINE INTERFACES (BMI) TO MACHINE-BRAIN INTERFACES (MBI): THE NEXT FRONTIER

EMBC Conference Workshop,  July 17, 2020, 1:30 - 5:30 EDT

The Workshop will be part of the  42nd Annual International Conferences of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC 2020) and will be held virtually on Friday, July 17, 2020,  between  1:30pm -5:30pm EDT.

Synopsis: The Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) is a thriving and rapidly expanding field. BMIs have been developed during the recent years for people with severe disabilities to restore function or improve their quality of life. Moreover, BMI applications have recently been extended to related research areas, such as rapid functional mapping on the cortical level, and rehabilitation & therapy after disabling injuries. In this direction, incorporating closed-loop, bi-directional brain-to-machine interfaces (BMI), and machine-to-brain (MBI) feedback systems into neuroprosthetic devices holds the promise of bringing major improvements in the restoration of motor and somatosensory function. The MBI stream of the BMI/MBI paradigm, typically used for encoding sensory feedback to the brain has seen recent significant progress, paving the way to a new generation of neuroprostheses with closed-loop capabilities.

The goal of this workshop is to discuss latest advances and challenges on the pathway to translational BMI/MBIs for neurorehabilitation. Speakers will present research work and state-of-the-art, addressing the challenges of (i) real-time neural decoding and encoding, (ii) technological advances for interfacing with the peripheral and central nervous system, (iii) neuromodulation paradigms, covering invasive and noninvasive solutions, (iv) tools for cortical mapping of sensorimotor function, (v) theoretical models and tools supporting translation efforts.

All presentations will be made available to the registrants.

Friday, July 17, 2020 – 1:30pm – 5:30pm EDT

1:30-1:35PM Opening Remarks: Nitish Thakor 

1:35-1:55PM Silvestro Micera (EPFL) - i4LIFE: intraneural neuroprostheses to understand and restore sensory, motor, and autonomic neural functions

1:55-2:15PM Dustin Tyler (Case Western) - Tactile feedback through implantable neural interface

2:15-2:35PM Stanisa Raspopovic (ETH) Enhancing functional abilities and cognitive integration of the lower limb prosthesis

2:35-2:55PM Jennifer Collinger(UPitt) Intracortical control of grasping after chronic spinal cord injury

2:55-3:15PM Jose Contreras Vidal (University of Houston) - Noninvasive brain–machine interfaces for controlling lower-limb powered robotic systems

3:15-3:35PM Mikhail Lebedev (Duke) - Bidirectional neural interfaces based on intracranial implants

3:35-3:55PM Karen Moxon (UC Davis) Beyond neuroprosthetics: the new science of cognitive Neuroengineering

3:55-4:15PM Chet Moritz/David Bjanes (U Wash) - Systems and methods for brain stimulation for recovery from brain injury

4:15-4:35PM Maryam M. Shanechi (USC) Brain–machine interfaces from motor to mood

4::35-4:55PM Andrei Dragomir (NUS) Towards machine to brain interfaces: sensory stimulation and its impact on cortical activity of upper limb amputees 

4:55-5:00PM Synopsis (Nitish Thakor)

5:00-5:30PM Q&A Session  

• Prof. Nitish V. Thakor (Johns Hopkins University and National University of Singapore)
• Dr. Andrei Dragomir (National University of Singapore and University of Houston)