The Case for and Against Biomimetic Brain Machine Interface
- When?
- Wednesday 8 June 2011, 14:00 to 15:00
- Where?
- 39BB02
- Open to:
- Staff, Students
- Speaker:
- Dr Kianoush Nazarpour, Newcastle University
Dr Kianoush Nazarpour from the Motor Control Group at the Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University will be our speaker on this occasion. All are welcome to attend.
Biomimetic brain-machine interfaces (BMI) have evolved from experimental paradigms exploring the neural coding of natural arm and hand movements to mathematically advanced real-time neural firing rates decoders. However, despite recent decoding algorithms with increasing levels of performance and sophistication, BMI control remains slow and clumsy in comparison to natural movements. Therefore, considerable improvements are required if these devices are to have real-life clinical applications.
In this talk, first,Dr Nazarpour will review several attempts in decoding kinematic/kinetics of arm movements, evaluate their performance and explore their shortcomings. He will then introduce an alternative conceptual approach to BMI tracing from early biofeedback experiments in which subjects were trained to volitionally modulate the firing rate of neurons in order to achieve a reward.
Dr Nazarpour contrasts biomimetic and biofeedback approaches, but the ultimate success of BMI applications will likely to require some combination of both. Current biofeedback experiments may be improved by incorporating the sophisticated decoding algorithms already matured in the biomimetic setting. In turn, insights about the mechanisms of neural adaptation from biofeedback experiments may be integrated into new adaptive biomimetic decoders. Such best of both strategies should lead to a new generation of machines that interface with the brain.
Kianoush Nazarpour received the BSc degree in electrical engineering from KN Toosi University of Technology, Tehran, Iran, in 2003, the MSc degree in electrical engineering from Tarbiat Modarres University, Tehran, Iran, in 2005, and the PhD degree in electrical engineering from Cardiff University, UK in 2008. Between 2007 and 2009, he was with the School of Psychology, University of Birmingham, UK as a research fellow. In October 2009, he joined the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University as a research associate.
His main research interest is in biomedical signal processing for neuroprosthetic control and his work is supported by Medical Research Council, UK and The Leverhulme Trust.