2nd UK-Japan Workshop

on the

Brain-Machine Interface

Institute of Neuroscience Newcastle University, UK

25-26 February 2010

A bilateral meeting supported by the EPSRC, MEXT and British Embassy, Japan

2nd UK-Japan Workshop on the Brain-Machine Interface

Thursday 25th

February 2010

10.00 ~ 10.30 Registration and coffee 10.30 ~ 11.00 Welcome and introductory remarks 4

Colin Ingram Director, Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University Mitsuo Kawato Director, ATR Computational Laboratories

11.00 ~ 11.30 The Cyborg experiments 5 Kevin Warwick Department of Cybernetics, University of Reading 11.30 ~ 12.00 Integrated silicon microprobe/tube arrays for neural interface 6 Takeshi Kawano Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,

Integrated Circuit Group, Toyohashi University of Technology 12.00 ~ 12.30 A microchannel interface for peripheral nerve repair 7 James Fawcett Cambridge Centre for Brain Repair and Cambridge

Nanoscience Centre, University of Cambridge 12.30 ~ 13.30 Lunch 13.30 ~ 14.00 Mutually adaptable prosthetic hand and power assist system for BMI 8 Hiroshi Yokoi Interdisciplinary Information Studies, University of Tokyo 14.00 ~ 14.30 Brain control strategies to navigate in familiar environments 9 Etienne Burdet Department of Bioengineering, Imperial College, London 14.30 ~ 15.00 Brain-machine interface (BMI) technology opens new frontiers

of rehabilitation 10 Meigen Liu Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Keio University 15.00 ~ 15.30 Tea 15.30 ~ 16.00 Selectivity in peripheral neural interfacing 11 Iasonas Triantis Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College, London 16.00 ~ 16.30 Development of flexible neural probes for neuroprostheses 12 Takafumi Suzuki Graduate School of Information Science and Technology,

University of Tokyo 16.30 ~ 17.00 Bidirectional BMI and intraspinal microstimulation 13 Andrew Jackson Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University 17.00 ~ 17.45 Presentations on UK-Japanese collaborative activities:

Takeshi Sekiguchi Deputy Director, Japan Society for the Promotion of Science

Kevin Knappett First Secretary, Science & Innovation, British Embassy, Tokyo

Tomohiko Arai First Secretary, Science & Technology, Japanese Embassy London 18.00 ~ 22.00 Reception at Great North Museum: Hancock

2

2nd UK-Japan Workshop on the Brain-Machine Interface

Friday 26th

February 2010

09.00 ~ 09.30 Coffee 09.30 ~ 10.00 Carbon nanotube electrodes for epiretinal implants 14 Evelyne Sernagor Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University 10.00 ~ 10.30 The basis of the ECoG signal in visual cortex 15 Isao Hasegawa Department of Physiology, Niigata University School of Medicine 10.30 ~ 11.00 Optogenetic retinal prosthesis 16 Patrick Degenaar Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College, London 11.00 ~ 11.30 Coffee Break 11.30 ~ 12.00 Long-term asynchronous decoding of arm motion using electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals in monkey 17 Naotaka Fujii Laboratory of Adaptive Intelligence, RIKEN Brain Science Institute 12.00 ~ 12.30 Multidimensional BCI control derived from surface EEG potentials and applied through a virtual environment 18 Bernard Conway Bioengineering Unit, Strathclyde University, Glasgow 12.30 ~ 13.00 ECoG Brain-Machine Interface for motor prosthesis 19 Toshiki Yoshimine and Masayuki Hirata Department of Neurosurgery,

Osaka University Medical School

13.00 ~ 14.00 Lunch 14.00 ~ 14.30 Multistage biosignal processing framework for motor imagery-

based non-invasive BCI communication and control 20 Damian Coyle Intelligent Systems Research Centre, University of Ulster 14.30 ~ 15.00 Non-invasive brain measurement technology for BMI: The Development trend of functional near-infrared spectroscopy 21 Yoshihiro Inoue and Akihiro Ishikawa SHIMADZU Corporation

15.00 ~ 16.00 Open discussion session 22 16.00 ~ 16.30 Concluding remarks Tadashi Isa National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki

Stuart Baker Institute of Neuroscience, Newcastle University 16.30 Close

3

Welcome and Introductory Remarks Connecting the brain to physical devices offers enormous opportunities for medicine and for en-hancing our ability to directly control and respond to our environment. In the field of medicine, cochlear implants for deafness, functional electrical stimulation for foot drop, and deep brain stimulators for Parkinson’s Disease, have all established the considerable efficacy of prosthetic devices that augment or replace nervous system function. Furthermore, the ability to extract sig-nals from the nervous system either through surface electrodes recording electroencephalo-graphic (EEG) signals or functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), or through implanted electrodes in brain, spinal cord or peripheral nerves, offers the potential for controlling assistive devices. Furthermore, such brain-machine interfaces (BMI) offer the opportunity to directly con-nect brains and computers, robots and/or even the internet. BMI is a rapidly developing area of research that brings together advances in electronics, MEMS, nanotechnology and biomedical engineering, to develop devices that can interact with the brain. In both the UK and Japan there are a growing number of groups working on improving the interface between the nervous system and physical devices. In Japan the Strategic Research Program for Brain Sciences (SRPBS) is addressing a number of major challenges in neuroscience, with one of its key objectives being the development of more efficient BMI, while in the UK and EPSRC, MRC and Wellcome Trust have identified biomedical engineering as a key area of translational science. The inaugural UK-Japan Workshop on the Brain-Machine Interface was held in Tokyo in February 2009 (http://brainprogram.mext.go.jp/event/item_80.html) and provided the first opportunity to develop a transnational response to this challenge. We are delighted that with the support of MEXT, the EPSRC, and the Science and Innovation Section of the British Embassy in Japan we are able to take this challenge forward with this second workshop. By sharing of our knowledge and exper-tise it is our hope that we can accelerate the pathway to development of novel BMI with important new applications. Professor Colin Ingram is a neurobiologist who obtained his PhD from Cambridge

University in the field of neuroendocrinology. In 1986 he moved to Bristol Univer-

sity where he held successive positions as an MRC Training Fellow and Royal

Society University Research Fellow, before being appointed as Reader in Neurobi-

ology. In 2000 he took up the Chair of Psychobiology at Newcastle University and

in 2004 was appointed the Director of the newly created Institute of Neuroscience.

Professor Ingram was responsible for creating the Institute which brings together

over 60 research leaders covering a wide range of basic and clinical neuroscience

fields. His main area of research is in the neurobiology of stress and depression.

He is also lead for the EPSRC-funded neuroinformatics project to develop a web-

based platform for analysis and storage of neurophysiological data, CARMEN.

Professor Ingram is Honorary Secretary of the British Neuroscience Association,

the UK’s principal society serving the neuroscience community.

Professor Mitsuo Kawato received a BS Degree in Physics from Tokyo University

in 1976 and ME and PhD Degrees in biophysical engineering from Osaka Univer-

sity on 1978 and 1981, respectively. From 1981 to 1988 he was a faculty member

and lecturer at Osaka University. From 1988 he was a senior researcher and then a

supervisor in the ATR Auditory and Visual Perception Research Laboratories.

Since 2003 he has been Director of ATR Computational Neuroscience Laborato-

ries. In 2004 he became an ATR Fellow. From 1996 to 2001 he served as director

of the Kawato Dynamic Brain Project, ERATO, JST. From 2004 to 2009 he served

as research supervisor of the Computational Brain Project, ICORP, JST. In 2008,

he was jointly appointed as a Research supervisor of PRESTO, JST. He is now

concurrently working as a visiting professor at Kanazawa Institute of Technology,

NARA Institute of Science and Technology, Osaka University, the National Insti-

tute of Physiological Sciences, Toyama Prefectural University, Kyoto Prefectural

University of Medicine, and National Institute of Informatics.

4

Thursday 10.30~11.00

The Cyborg experiments

Kevin Warwick

School of Systems Engineering,

University of Reading

In this presentation a look is taken at how the use of implant and electrode technology can be em-

ployed to create biological brains for robots, to enable human enhancement, and to diminish the

effects of certain neural illnesses. In all cases the end result is to increase the range of abilities of

the recipients. An indication is given of a number of areas in which such technology has already

had a profound effect, a key element being the need for a clear interface linking a biological brain

directly with computer technology. The emphasis is clearly placed on practical scientific studies

that have been and are being undertaken. The area of focus is notably the use of electrode tech-

nology, where a connection is made directly with the cerebral cortex and/or nervous system. The

presentation will consider the future in which robots have biological, or part-biological, brains and

in which neural implants link the human nervous system bi-directionally with technology and the

internet.

Kevin Warwick is Professor of Cybernetics at the University of Reading,

where he carries out research in artificial intelligence, robotics and biomedi-

cal engineering. He did his first degree in Electrical and Electronic Engi-

neering at Aston University, followed by a PhD and a research post at Impe-

rial College, London. He subsequently held a lectureship at Newcastle Uni-

versity (1982-85), a Fellowship and Research Lecturer post at Oxford Uni-

versity (1985-87) and Senior Lectureship at Warwick University (1986-87),

before taking up a chair at Reading. He has been awarded DSc degrees from

both Imperial College and the Czech Academy of Sciences, Prague, and

honorary DSc degrees from Aston University and Coventry University.

Among his various awards are The Future of Health Technology Award

from MIT, the IEE Senior Achievement Medal, and the National Electron-

ics Council Mountbatten medal. Professor Warwick is on the Advisory

Board to the Instinctive Computing Laboratory, Carnegie Mellon University

and holds a Visiting Professor position at The Czech Technical University,

Prague.

5

Thursday 11.00~11.30

Integrated silicon microprobe/tube arrays for neural interface

Takeshi Kawano

Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering,

Integrated Circuit Group (ICG), Toyohashi University of Technology

In this talk, I will discuss technologies for integration of low invasive, high spatial resolution, silicon

-neuroprobe/tube arrays by a selective vapor-liquid-solid (VLS) growth. Using repeated VLS

growth, we have developed an assemble technique of silicon-microprobe arrays of various

lengths, for use in simultaneous recording of different cell layers in tissue. We have fabricated a

100 μm-length probe and a 50 μm-length probe in the same array for recording in retina (~200 μm

-thick). We have also proposed fabricating silicon-dioxide microtube arrays for drug-delivery.

The fabricated microtube with 4.6 μm inner diameter could be used to administer lidocaine solu-

tion to the rat sciatic nerve. The microtube can also be applicable to electrical neural recordings,

promising the desired properties of low invasiveness and a good signal-to-noise ratio in re-

cordings. Because the electrode system does not consist of a metal-electrolyte interface at the

small tip, the electrical impedance is lower than that of a same diameter silicon-probe. The re-

cording capability of the microtube-electrode was confirmed using a rat sciatic nerve. In addition,

I will discuss other accomplishments, including multisite recording from fish-retina, formation of

nanotip silicon-microprobe arrays, and the CMOS compatibility for integration of microelectronics.

Dr. Takeshi Kawano received the MS degree in Electrical and Electronic Engi-

neering in 2001, and PhD degree in Electronic and Information Engineering in

2004, all from Toyohashi University of Technology, Aichi, Japan. Since 2004, he

was a postdoctoral research fellow at Toyohashi University of Technology, where

he worked on the development of a sensor device with silicon microprobe elec-

trode arrays for neural recordings. He joined Professor Liwei Lin’s Lab and Berke-

ley Sensor and Actuator Center (BSAC) at the University of California Berkeley

in April 2005, as a postdoctoral researcher with his funding from the Japan Soci-

ety for the Promotion of Science (JSPS), where he worked on a research project

entitled “CMOS Integrated Nanowires/Nanotubes (CMOS-Inn)”. Takeshi Kawano

joined the faculty of Toyohashi University of Technology in May 2007, as an as-

sistant professor of the Electrical and Electronic Engineering Department. His

present research interests focus on the fabrication of micro/nano devices especially

microprobes, nanowires and nanotubes, and the manufacturing of integrated cir-

cuits with sensors as well as the sensor devices to use in neural interfaces (neurons-

electronics interface device).

6

Thursday 11.30~12.00

A microchannel interface for peripheral nerve repair

James FitzGerald, Stephanie Lacour, Natalia Lago, Ed Tarte, Stephen McMahon, James Fawcett

University of Cambridge, University of Birmingham, King’s College London

When peripheral nerves are damaged their axons have the potential to regenerate as long as

they can access a track of Schwann cells along which to grow. However the regenerating axons

are not guided back to their correct target muscles and sensory organs, so reconnection of axons

is random, favouring proximal targets. The clinical result of nerve repair is, therefore, often very

poor. A potential solution is to develop a method which allows axons to regenerate, but also al-

lows for electrophysiological recording from individual axons so that they can be reconnected to

their correct targets artificially using muscle and nerve stimulators. Extracellular electrical re-

cording from axons is very difficult, because the current passing across nerve membranes during

action potentials is very small and the impedance of the extracellular space is very small, leading

to very small extracellular voltage changes which are swamped by noise. We have developed a

novel microchannel regenerative nerve prosthesis which overcomes these problems. If axons are

confined to channels of around 100 µm diameter and 3 mm or more in length the extracellular im-

pedance is greatly increased, increasing the extracellular voltage spike from action potentials to

around 100 µV. Moreover the potential change can be recorded over most of the channel length

rather than just at the node of Ranvier. Using three electrode arrangements, noise reduction, uni-

directional stimulation and collision blockade are possible. We find that axons will regenerate

through channels of 70 µm diameter or greater, with the formation of a complete mininerve with

blood supply in each channel. Devices with 100 µm diameter channels 3 mm or more long im-

planted into rat sciatic nerve show nerve regeneration in the majority of channels, with an average

of 15 axons in innervated channels. From these channels it is possible to stimulate muscle con-

tractions, and to record from both motor and sensory axons.

Professor James Fawcett is Chairman of the Cambridge University Centre for

Brain Repair. He trained in medicine at Oxford University and St. Thomas’ Hospi-

tal London. His early research work was on the formation of connections during

brain development and he then became interested in using developmental biology

principles to promote repair in the adult nervous system. His main interest has been

the part played by molecules of the extracellular matrix in the inhibition of nerve

fibre regeneration and in the restriction of plasticity in the adult nervous system.

Recent work has shown that plasticity becomes restricted by the formation of ma-

trix structures known as perineuronal nets, that plasticity can be reactivated in the

adult CNS by digestion of proteoglycans, and that combining this treatment with

rehabilitation produces robust functional recovery. James Fawcett has worked with

Spinal Research, the Christopher Reeve Foundation and with the international or-

ganization of spinal injury charities, the ICCP, to develop guidelines for the con-

duct of clinical trials in spinal cord injury.

7

Thursday 12.00~12.30

Mutually adaptable prosthetic hand and power assist system for BMI

Hiroshi Yokoi

Interdisciplinary Information Studies,

University of Tokyo

Prosthetic care for the handicapped requires new and reliable robotics technology. This study

investigates the reactions of our brain to an mutually adaptable robot hand and power assist sys-

tem. The proposed technology is a structured EMG (electromyogram)-controlled robot hand with

a learning function for EMG pattern recognition of transradial (below elbow) prostheses. It can be

applied to amputees from the age of 7 to 60. The key topic of this work is the mutual adaptation of

man and an adaptable robot hand. This is analyzed by using fMRI to clarify the plasticity of motor

and sensory area of cortex with the change in prosthesis. A robot hand with 13 degrees of free-

dom has been developed; it has three motors on the thumb finger and two motors on each of the

remaining four fingers; two motors are present for the wrist. Tactile feedback is applied by using

an electric stimulus. The fMRI data shows the illusions and adaptation process of replacement

from a phantom limb image to the robot hand image. The ADL test shows the performance of the

proposed system while operated in a kitchen, for writing, and for holding cups for drinking/eating.

Hiroshi Yokoi is a graduate and PhD of the Department of Precision Engineering

at Hokkaido University. He has held positions in industry (Toyota Motor Corpora-

tion,) and as a researcher at the Institute of Bioscience and Human Technology,

AIST (1993-5). From 1995 until 2004 he was Associate Professor in the Depart-

ment of Complex System Engineering at Hokkaido, and jointly held positions as

Senior Researcher, University of Zurich, AI-Laboratory and Research Fellow Re-

searcher of the University of West England, IAS-Laboratory. Since 2004 he has

been based at the University of Tokyo, initially in the Department of Precision

Engineering and more recently as part of the Interfaculty Initiative in Information

Studies. In 2009 he was appointed as Professor in the Department of Mechanics

and Intelligence at the Electro-Communication University Chofu, Tokyo. Profes-

sor Yokoi’s research spans the fields of robotics, machine learning, neural network,

and medical engineering.

8

Thursday 13.30~14.00

Brain control strategies to navigate in familiar environments

Etienne Burdet

Department of Bioengineering,

Imperial College London

Interfaces available to the disabled, such as BCI, are characterized by a low information transfer

rate: either the waiting time between consecutive commands is long (typically several seconds) or

uncertainty about the command is high. How to use such a poor signal to control a system that

requires real-time specification of its position in space? This talk will describe different possible

solutions that were implemented by our and other groups to control a robotic wheelchair using a

BCI, and evaluate the resulting performances and mental effort.

Dr. Etienne Burdet is Reader in Human Robotics at Imperial College London, and

a Senior Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore. He has obtained

an MS in Mathematics (1990), an MS in Physics (1991), and a PhD in Robotics

(1996) all from ETH-Zurich. Between 1996 and 1999 he was a postdoctoral fellow

with Ted Milner (McGill, Canada), Ed Colgate (Northwestern, USA) and Mitsuo

Kawato (ATR, Japan), where he did research in neurophysiology and human-robot

interaction. From 1999 until 2004 he was Assistant Professor in Robotics at the

National University of Singapore before moving to Imperial College. Dr. Burdet

does research in human robotics and his main interest is in human-machine interac-

tion. His group uses an approach integrating neuroscience and robotics to investi-

gate human motor control and to design efficient assistive devices and virtual real-

ity based training for rehabilitation and surgery.

9

Thursday 14.00~14.30

Brain machine interface (BMI) technology opens new frontiers of rehabilitation

Meigen Liu

Department of Rehabilitation Medicine,

Keio University School of Medicine

BMI is potentially a useful technology in rehabilitation, not only to substitute for lost or limited

functions, but also to induce brain plasticity. As a part of the Strategic Research Program for

Brain Sciences, we have so far achieved the following: Using our originally developed surface

EEG-BMI system that can decode brain activities related with motor imagery with high accuracy,

we succeeded to control an avatar in the virtual 3-dimensional world, Second LifeTR. We demon-

strated facilitation of event-related desynchronization (ERD), an important signal source for BMI,

with transcranial direct current stimulation (t-DCS). Using a BMI-driven hand orthosis in patients

with chronic hemiparetic stroke, we observed an increase in mu rhythm suppression by motor in-

tention and the appearance of voluntary electromyographic activity after 6 months of training. We

believe that these achievements will open new possibilities for BMI in neurorehabilitation.

Professor Meigen Liu graduated from Keio University School of Medicine in 1979

and went on to undertake residency training in physical medicine and rehabilitation

(PM&R) at Keio University (1979-84) and the University of Minnesota (1984-5).

He received his PhD degree in PM&R in 1989 from Keio. After serving as staff

physiatrist at Higashisaitama National Hospital and Saitama Prefecture General

Rehabilitation Center, he was appointed as Associate Professor at Keio in 2002 and

Full Professor in 2004. Academic activities include; Chairperson, Board of Gover-

nors, Japanese Association of Rehabilitation Medicine; Board member of Japan

Stroke Society, Japanese Society of Dysphagia Rehabilitation, Society of Cogni-

tive Rehabilitation, Japanese Society of Higher Cortical Dysfunction, and Japanese

Peripheral Nerve Society. He serves on a number of editorial boards and has pub-

lished over 250 articles in international and domestic journals. Professor Liu’s re-

search interests include development of rehabilitative measures to induce neural

plasticity, functional evaluation of people with disability, and aerospace medicine.

10

Thursday 14.30~15.00

Selectivity in peripheral neural interfacing

Iasonas Triantis

Institute of Biomedical Engineering,

Imperial College London

The use of cuff electrode platforms for neural recording is greatly limited by the inability to identify

the specific nerve fibre groups (fascicles) that are active inside a bundle during a measurement.

Fascicle selectivity would allow the association of the recorded signal with muscle-groups or or-

gans from centrally-implanted cuffs. Various "split-electrode" or "multi-electrode" cuff configura-

tions for fascicle-selective recording have been reported, mostly used stimulation-induced signals

rather than naturally-occurring ENG. Other desirable selectivity forms include sensory-motor sig-

nal discrimination and fibre diameter classification, and these have been addressed by multiple-

ring electrodes. On the other hand cuff-electrode neurostimulation, fibre-type and fascicle selec-

tivity have met various degrees of success, but directional selectivity has not been achieved to a

reasonable level. The development of novel stimulation strategies is crucial to both improving

neuroprosthetic technology and for better accessing the biology, allowing neurostimulators to in-

tergrate into mainstream medical practice. This presentation will outline our research in cuff elec-

trode amplifier configurations for addressing the fundamental problems of multi-electrode plat-

forms and research at developing advanced stimulation strategies in terms of stimulus waveform

shape, stimulus efficiency and electrode topology.

Dr. Iasonas Triantis received his MEng degree from the Department of Electrical

Engineering and Electronics, UMIST. Between 2000 and 2003 he was a Research

Assistant in the Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering at University

College London, completing his PhD in 2005. At UCL he worked with the Ana-

logue Electronics Group and the Implanted Devices Group which is one of the

UK’s pioneering functional electrical stimulation groups. He developed an im-

plantable BiCMOS IC automatic gain control system, to record neural signals from

cuff electrodes for feedback to neurostimulators. The system successfully over-

came conventional neural amplifier limitations, adjusting to the nerve-electrode

interface conditions to amplify microvolt ENG while eliminating millivolt

myoelectric interference. Currently, Dr. Triantis pursues research in advanced

neural recording and stimulation with Professor Christopher Toumazou in

the Institute of Biomedical Engineering, Imperial College London. His research is

directed towards increasing the selectivity in neural monitoring and stimulation,

lower power consumption and closed-loop stimulation systems.

11

Thursday 15.30~16.00

Development of flexible neural probes for neuroprostheses

Takafumi Suzuki

Graduate School of Information Science and Technology,

University of Tokyo

We developed various flexible neural probes to achieve a minimally invasive interface for neuro-

prostheses. Some of these probes have microfluidic channels through which chemicals can be

injected into neural tissues. Some function as electrochemical probes for multidimensional re-

cordings of neural activities. This presentation focuses on the projects concerning: (1) surface

probes for recording electrocorticogram (ECoG) signals, which have mesh structures for im-

proved fitting to the curved surface of the brain and for enabling simultaneous recording of intra-

cortical and ECoG signals; (2) penetrating probes for the brain and spinal cord reinforced with dis-

solvable materials such as polyethylene glycol to increase their mechanical stiffness while insert-

ing into neural tissues; and (3) regeneration-type neural probes mainly for peripheral nerves with

multiple bundled microfluidic channels that serve as guidance tubes for regenerated axons and

also as fluidic pathways for injecting chemicals.

Dr. Takafumi Suzuki received the Bachelor of Engineering degree from the Uni-

versity of Tokyo in 1993 (Department of Mathematical Engineering and Informa-

tion Physics) and received the Master of Engineering degree from the University of

Tokyo in 1995. He received the Doctor of Engineering degree from the University

of Tokyo in 1998. He worked for four years at University of Tokyo Center for

Collaborative Research as a research associate. He is currently an Associate Pro-

fessor in the Department of Information Physics and Computing, Graduate School

of Information Science and Technology, the University of Tokyo. His research

interests include neural engineering and neuroscience. In particular, his research

focuses on nerve electrodes (for CNS and PNS), neural control of artificial hands,

artificial touch sensation for artificial hand, neural control of artificial organs, and

Brain-Machine Interface systems.

12

Thursday 16.00~16.30

Bidirectional BMI and intraspinal microstimulation

Andrew Jackson

Institute of Neuroscience,

Newcastle University

Next generation recurrent Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMI) will not only extract signals from corti-

cal activity but also deliver feedback to the nervous system via electrical stimulation. For example,

stimulation of cervical spinal segments can produce functional arm and hand movements such as

reaching and grasping. We are developing new technologies including chronic electrodes and

implantable electronic circuitry to control stimulation from cortical recordings, constituting an artifi-

cial corticospinal connection which could replace injured motor pathways. I will present evidence

that the motor system can readily acquire the novel neuromotor transformations required to incor-

porate these connections into motor system function. In separate experiments we have shown

that operation of artificial connections can potentiate new motor pathways via activity-dependent

plasticity mechanisms. Together, these results suggest that recurrent BCIs have application not

only as prostheses to replace function, but also as tools for manipulating plastic reorganisation to

restore nervous system function following injury.

Dr. Andrew Jackson graduated from Oxford University with an MPhys in Physics

in 1998, and obtained a PhD in 2002 supervised by Professor Roger Lemon at the

University College London. From 2002 to 2006 he was a post-doctoral researcher

in the laboratory of Professor Eberhard Fetz at the University of Washington, USA.

In 2006 he moved to the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University where

he holds a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development Fellowship. Dr. Jack-

son’s scientific interests include the neural mechanisms of motor control, cortical

plasticity and spinal cord physiology. This basic research informs the development

of neural prosthetics technology to restore motor function to the injured nervous

system.

13

Thursday 16.30~17.00

Carbon nanotube electrodes for epiretinal implants

Evelyne Sernagor Institute of Neuroscience,

Newcastle University

One of the main challenges in designing successful interfaces for retinal implants is electrode bio-

compatibility and durability. Such attributes are reflected by strong cell adhesion and proliferation

and by high quality electrical recording and stimulation. To this end, we are using carbon nano-

tube (CNT) electrodes with high surface area, resulting in superior electrical performance and bio-

compatibility. Using the cone rod homeobox knockout (CRX) mouse, an animal model of retinal

degeneration, we have recorded and stimulated the retina using multielectrode arrays consisting

either of conventional titanium nitride (TiN) or CNT electrodes. CNT electrodes exhibited superior

signal-to-noise ratio and the signal amplitudes increased with time, demonstrating a time-

dependent improvement in coupling with the retina. Using biphasic charge-balanced rectangular

pulses, we found that the threshold to elicit action potentials in retinal ganglion cells (the output

cells of the retina that are coupled to the electrodes in epiretinal configuration) was significantly

lower than for size-matched TiN electrodes. Stimulation thresholds increased with retinal degen-

eration for both types of electrodes, but CNT electrodes were persistently more efficient at stimu-

lating ganglion cells than TiN electrodes, even at advanced stages of retinal degeneration. In

summary, CNT electrodes offer promising perspectives for the development of a new generation

of better performing interfaces for retinal implant technology.

Dr. Evelyne Sernagor is a retinal neurophysiologist with an international reputation

for studies on retinal network plasticity during embryonic and neonatal develop-

ment and she is the main editor of a recent major textbook on retinal development.

She received her BSc, MSc and PhD from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem

(Biology, Physiology and Neurobiology) and subsequently held posts at NIH, Be-

thesda and at the Smith-Kettlewell Eye Research Institute, San Francisco. In recent

years, using optical and multielectrode array recordings, she has concentrated her

attention on to the cellular mechanisms underlying oscillatory propagating activity

patterns and synaptic inhibition in the developing retina. More recently, she be-

came involved in projects related to the development of retinal implant technology,

focusing on novel nanomaterials for electrodes (mostly in collaboration with Yael

Hanein, Tel-Aviv University). She is also involved in a project for recording retinal

activity using the Active Pixel Sensor array consisting of 4,096 electrodes (in col-

laboration with Luca Berdondini, Italian Institute of Technology). She is Section

Editor for Systems and Computational Neuroscience for Brain Research Bulletin

and is on the editorial board of Visual Neuroscience

14

Friday 09.30~10.00

The basis of the ECoG signal in visual cortex

Isao Hasegawa

Department of Physiology,

Niigata University School of Medicine

Electrocorticogram (ECoG) records global brain activity with high signal fidelity and minimal inva-

siveness. The basis of ECoG at single neuronal resolution, however, remains poorly understood.

We report a technique for simultaneous recording of ECoG, intracortical local field potentials, and

neuronal spikes within a single animal by developing a flexible multichannel “electrode-mesh”.

This approach enabled to obtain reliable trial-wise spatiotemporal profiles of visual cortical activa-

tion through individual eye stimulation in Long-Evans rats. In terms of ocular dominance index

and signal waveforms, ECoG was estimated to reflect ensemble intracortical neuronal activity

within less than 0.3 mm, both horizontally and in depth. Signal amplitudes, gamma-frequency

powers, and local coherency of ipsilateral-eye-induced ECoG responses were consistently

smaller than contralateral-eye-induced responses even in the binocular visual cortex, a cortical

region without apparent columnar structures in rodents. Moreover, single-trial ECoG signals car-

ried sufficient information for predicting the stimulated eye with a correct performance approach-

ing 90 %.

Professor Isao Hasegawa obtained his MD (1991) and PhD (1999) from the Uni-

versity of Tokyo School of Medicine, and became a certified neurosurgeon in

2007. He held positions of Assistant Professor (1996-2000) and lecturer (2000-

2003) in the Department of Physiology, University of Tokyo School of Medicine,

and in 2003 was appointed as Chief Neurosurgeon, Sumida Chuo Hospital. In 2006

he became Lecturer in the Department of Neurosurgery, Teikyo University Chiba

Medical Center, and since 2007 has been Professor in the Department of Physiol-

ogy, Niigata University School of Medicine. Professor Hasegawa’s main research

interests are in the dynamics of distributed cortical networks for visual and cogni-

tive functions, the use of brain-machine interfaces to decode visual images in the

association cortex, and the integration of system neuroscience and clinical neuro-

surgery.

15

Friday 10.00~10.30

Optogenetic retinal prosthesis

Patrick Degenaar

Institute of Biomedical Engineering,

Imperial College London

The advent of the optogenetic neural photosensitization since 2003 has led to a revolution in the

way with which we communicate with neurons. For the first time we can not only stimulate individ-

ual action potentials and spike at will, but we can also inhibit neural firing. Furthermore we can

target specific sub-circuits to be sensitive to different chromatic stimuli allowing for a level of con-

trol which is simply not possible with present electrical stimulation technologies. The use of such

electrical stimulation has been attempted for retinal prosthesis for 20 years, but still results are

disappointing. We are, therefore, bypassing the biocompatibility and coding issues with this new

optogenetic technique to truly restore useful visual function to the blind.

Dr. Patrick Degenaar is a Senior Lecturer in Neurobionics at Imperial College. He

holds a PhD in bioelectronics from the Japan Advanced Institute for Science and

Technology (AIST), and an RCUK Fellowship. Prior to his lectureship appoint-

ment at Imperial in 2005, he spent time as a software engineer in industry before

carrying out two interdisciplinary post-doctoral positions, also at Imperial College.

Dr. Degenaar has published over 35 journal and international conference papers,

and has four patents granted and pending. His key interests are in optoelectronic

retinal prosthesis and augmented sensory systems, and is pioneering the use of mi-

cro LED arrays to perform optical neural stimulation. Dr. Degenaar is coordinating

a European project to develop a retinal prosthesis and is supported by grants from

both the BBSRC and EPSRC.

16

Friday 10.30~11.00

Long-term asynchronous decoding of arm motion using electrocorticographic (ECoG) signals in monkey

Naotaka Fujii

Laboratory for Adaptive Intelligence,

RIKEN Brain Science Institute, Wako

Decoding motor variables based on single unit activity has been the main stream of the BMI re-

search. However, their invasive implementation suffers from high surgical risks and poor long-

term stability. Decoding exploiting other less-invasive recording techniques, such as ECoG, was

widely considered as with limited capability due to lower signal fidelity. In this presentation we

overturn this conception. Performance of our ECoG-based decoder was comparable to existing

decoders using single unit activity, and yet with significantly superior stability and durability. Our

decoder could be used for months without recalibration, and without compromising its accuracy.

Furthermore, multiple motor parameters could be decoded simultaneously and continuously.

These characters of ECoG-based decoding system will be appreciated by users and developers,

and accelerate development of future BMIs.

Dr. Naotaka Fujii is head of the Laboratory for Adaptive Intelligence and unit

leader of BSI-TOYOTA Collaboration Center Interactive Brain Communication

Unit at RIKEN BSI since 2008. He was granted MD in 1991 and PhD in 1997 at

Tohoku University School of Medicine. He started his career as an ophthalmologist

after graduating from medical school and later switched to working as a neurosci-

entist. His first post-doctoral position was in the laboratory of Professor Ann Gray-

biel at MIT, USA. At MIT, he conducted research revealing the neural mechanism

of sequential oculomotor behavior in monkeys. Then, he returned to Japan in 2004

and joined Dr. Atsushi Iriki’s laboratory at RIKEN (Laboratory for Symbolic Cog-

nitive Development) as deputy head and started studies of social brain function and

development of an interactive brain machine interface.

17

Friday 11.30~12.00

Multidimensional BCI control derived from surface EEG potentials and applied through a virtual environment

Barnard Conway, Heba Lakany, Gopal Valsan, Bartlomiej Grychtol

Department of Bioengineering,

University of Strathclyde, Glasgow

This talk will present results from experiments investigating the potential to develop multidimen-

sional control in a EEG based BCI system that exploits differences in the cortical pre-movement

potential associated with the production, imagination and observation of rapid wrist motion to dif-

ferent targets. Satisfactory and robust classification rates have been achieved and the work has

progressed to testing navigation within a virtual environment using EEG control over a realistic

model of a standard electric wheelchair and its user interface.

Professor Bernie Conway is Head of the Department of the Bioengineering Unit at

the University of Strathclyde, one of the UK’s longest established bioengineering

departments. He is also Director of Research for the Scottish Centre for Innovation

in Spinal Cord Injury which is a research collaboration involving five universities

and operates research facilities based at the Queen Elizabeth National Spinal Inju-

ries Unit in Glasgow. He is a neurophysiologist whose main research activities

relate to the study of human movement in normal, disabled and elderly subjects.

The goal behind his work is to generate improved understanding of how the nor-

mal, injured or diseased central nervous system regulates the muscle activation

patterns that are needed to perform everyday movements, such as walking, reach-

ing and object manipulation, and to apply this knowledge to the development of

assistive technologies and rehabilitation strategies that can be used for the treat-

ment and support of people with motor impairments. Professor Conway is a mem-

ber of the EPSRC Strategic Advisory Teams for Healthcare and Medical Engineer-

ing (M3E programme).

18

Friday 12.00~12.30

ECoG Brain-Machine Interface for motor prosthesis

Toshiki Yoshimine and Masayuki Hirata

Department of Neurosurgery,

Osaka University Medical

Electrocorticogram (ECoG) recorded with the subdural electrodes represents a sum of dendritic

activity and postsynaptic potentials from neurons in the underlying cerebral cortex. Since the sub-

dural electrodes can be implanted chronically for years with clinically-acceptable safety, ECoG

could be a practical candidate for brain signal source for human invasive BMI. Decoding the

ECoG signals from the primary motor cortex, especially from the anterior bank of the central sul-

cus, can classify the type of hand/arm movements by use of support vector machine. Although

the motor-related cortical potentials contain enough information for high-accuracy classification of

several types of movements (80% or over), we continue to improve the discrimination of many

types of finer movements because outstanding high performance is an essential prerequisite for

invasive BMI when compared to non-invasive BMI.

Professor Toshiki Yoshimine is chairman of the Department of Neurosurgery,

Osaka University Medical School. He is specialized in the surgical treatment of

brain tumor and epilepsy. He is also a director of Japan Neurosurgical Society and

a member of the Neurotrauma Committee of World Federation of Neurosurgical

Societies (WFNS). To improve the quality of brain surgery, he has been involved

in the research of brain function by functional mapping with subdural grid elec-

trodes or by non-invasive technique with magnetoencephalograpy (MEG). His

recent work focuses on the development of brain-machine interface (BMI) for mo-

tor or language prosthesis by decoding electrocorticography (ECoG)

Dr. Masayuki Hirata obtained his BA (Engineering) and MEng from the School of

Engineering at the University of Tokyo. He subsequently obtained an MD from

Osaka University Medical School where he also obtained a PhD in Neurosurgery.

From 2003 until 2009 he held the positions as Assistant Professor in the Depart-

ment of Neurosurgery, Osaka University Medical School, and Assistant Professor

in the Division of Functional Diagnostic Science, Osaka University Graduate

School of Medicine. Since 2009 he has been Associate Professor, Department of

Neurosurgery. Dr. Hirata’s research interests have been to develop less invasive

neurosurgical technical for eloquent areas, functional neuroimaging with magne-

toencephalography and electrocorticography, and functional restoration using brain

machine interface.

19

Friday 12.30~13.00

Multistage biosignal processing framework for motor imagery-based non-invasive BCI communication and control

Damien Coyle

Intelligent Systems Research Centre,

University of Ulster

BCI research at the Intelligent Systems Research Centre, University of Ulster is focused around

developing signal processing tools for motor imagery-based continuous control strategies in syn-

chronous and self-paced BCI applications. The main emphasis is on two-class BCI development

with recent research also aimed at multiclass systems. Details of various novel signal processing

developments integrated in a multistage signal processing framework for BCI will be presented

along with a range of offline results and online analysis of subjects using the BCI to control two

newly developed BCI games.

Dr. Damien Coyle obtained his degree in computing and electronic engineering in

2002 and a PhD in Intelligent Systems Engineering in 2006 from the University of

Ulster where he is now a lecturer at the School of Computing and Intelligent Sys-

tems and a member of the Intelligent Systems Research Centre. His research and

development interests include biosignal processing, bio-inspired cognitive, adap-

tive systems and brain-computer interface technology. More recently he has been

investigating computational models of neural systems and neurodegeneration re-

lated to Alzheimer's disease. Dr. Coyle chairs the UKRI chapter of the IEEE Com-

putational Intelligence Society.

20

Friday 14.00~14.30

Non-invasive brain measurement technology for BMI: The development trend of functional near-infrared spectroscopy

Yoshihiro Inoue and Akihiro Ishikawa

Research and Development Department,

Medical Systems Division, SHIMADZU Corporation

For medical and welfare use, robotics, information engineering and so on, brain-machine inter-

faces (BMI), brain-computer interfaces (BCI) and brain-network interfaces (BNI) are expected as

new man-machine interfaces. One of the important component technologies for BMI/BCI/BNI is

brain-measurement technology. As a non-invasive brain-measurement system, we have been

developing a multi-channel functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) system. fNIRS can ex-

amine the brain function localization by the response of stimulation because it measures the con-

centration change of oxygenated and deoxygenated hemoglobin on the surface of the brain. In

addition, we integrated electroencephalograph (EEG) and the fNIRS, and developed an

fNIRS+EEG system that implied simultaneous measurement and data integration. It contributed

to improving the accuracy of the decoding of the brain signal by using the advantages of the two

data types. In this talk, we will report the on-going development of fNIRS, such as a high perform-

ance NIRS system with high spatial resolution and a large number of channels and a portable

NIRS system which is expected to be more unrestricted for the practical measurement.

Yoshihiro Inoue received an ME degree in analytical chemistry from Doshisha

University in 1989. Since 1989, he has been developing medical equipment at

SHIMADZU corporation. He is a deputy director of Research & Development

Department Medical System Division and a senior researcher of Technology Re-

search Laboratory at SHIMADZU Corporation. He is in charge of development of

medical electronic equipment, fNIRS, PET, US and electronic health record sys-

tem. He won OHM Technology Award in 2007 and his team won Award from The

Laser Society of Japan in 2009.

Akihiro Ishikawa received a BE degree from Ehime University in 1990. Since

1990, he has been developing medical equipment, fNIRS, MRI and PET at SHI-

MADZU corporation. He is a senior engineer of Research & Development Depart-

ment Medical System Division. He won the New Face Award from The Japanese

Society of Radiology Technology in 2005 and an award from The Japanese Society

of Nuclear Medicine in 2007.

21

Friday 14.30~15.00

Open Discussion and Concluding Remarks As well as the opportunity to present our individual projects this workshop aims to identify some of the challenges, solutions, and applications for BMI. Discussion will have taken place throughout the workshop but this final session will be an opportunity to draw this together. The outcome of the discussion will form the basis of a report that will be circulated to relevant funding agencies and government agencies in the UK and Japan, and will help shape the future development in the field of BMI. Professor Tadashi Isa graduated in medicine from the University of Tokyo in 1985.

He then undertook his PhD at the University of Tokyo Institute for Brain Research,

studying the neural substrates for the control of orienting head movements. In 1988

-90 he worked in the Department of Physiology, University of Göteborg, Sweden,

in the laboratory of Professor Anders Lundberg, studying the role of corticospinal

and propriospinal systems in the control of target reaching and food taking move-

ments of the forearm of the cat. In 1990-1993, he returned to the Department of

Neurophysiology at the Institute for Brain Research, Tokyo, as assistant professor

and continued his work on the neural control of orienting head movements. In

1993-1995, he moved to the Department of Physiology, Gunma University and

worked on the molecular physiology of AMPA-type glutamate receptors, espe-

cially in hippocampal interneurons. In 1996, he became a professor at the National

Institute for Physiological Sciences in Okazaki. Since then, his studies are centered

on the neural mechanism of saccadic eye movements and dexterous hand move-

ments, mainly by using the non-human primate model. He has expanded these lines

of study to the neural mechanism of functional compensation after brain and spinal

cord injury, the neural mechanism of attention, awareness and consciousness, de-

velopment of brain-machine interfaces, and development of novel technologies for

manipulation of gene expression with viral vectors.

Professor Stuart Baker obtained his MA in Natural Sciences from the University of

Cambridge in 1992 and PhD from Cambridge in 1995. From 1995 until 1998 he

was a research associate in the laboratory of Professor Roger Lemon at the Institute

of Neurology in London and held a research fellowship at Christ’s College, Cam-

bridge. In 1999 he was awarded a Wellcome Trust Research Career Development

Fellowship to establish his own laboratory in the Department of Anatomy in Cam-

bridge. In 2003 he moved to the Institute of Neuroscience at Newcastle University

where he is a Wellcome Trust Senior Research Fellow and Professor of Movement

Neuroscience. Professor Baker has established a laboratory for multiple single

electrode recording from sensorimotor cortex, brainstem and spinal motor centres.

His research interests include the role of oscillatory activity in motor control, neu-

ral circuits regulating bimanual coordination, the role of reticulospinal pathways in

recovery from injury, and the development of assistive devices to aid functional

motor recovery.

22

Friday 15.00~16.30

23

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the EPSRC for providing financial support for a bilateral N+N meeting. The SRPBS Program is supported by MEXT which has also provided travel support for some of the participants from Japan. We are indebted to the members of the Science and Innovation Section of the British Embassy in Japan for their support in establishing this UK-Japan collaboration in BMI. We are particularly grateful to Kaoru Kambe, Ichiko Fuyuno, Edward Wright, Robert Morini and Kevin Knappett for all the support and assistance they have provided over the last two years. We would also like to thank members of the Japanese Embassy in London who have helped with arrangements in the UK, particularly Tomohiko Arai. We would like to thank Yuko Furukawa and Takeshi Sekiguchi of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) for their continued endeavours in promoting UK-Japan partnerships.

Local Organisers: Andrew Jackson and Colin Ingram Secretariat: Laura Batty (Newcastle) and Meiko Namba (ATR) Institute of Neuroscience Web: www.ncl.ac.uk/ion Email: ion@ncl.ac.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 191 222 6648 Fax: +44 (0) 191 222 5227