Cortical Prosthetics &

Brain-Machine Interface

"By the end of this century, I don't think there

will be a clear distinction between human and
machine" – Ray Kurzweil
 Brain-Machine Interface & Cortical
Prosthetics
 Anatomy of the Brain : Evoked Potentials
 Selecting Signals for BMI
 Non-invasive methods
 Invasive Technology
 Cortical Prosthetics
 Microelectrodes for BMI
 Nano-bioengineering for BMI
 Biomimetic Brain implants
 Challenges & Issues
 Minimally-Invasive Catheters
 Clinical Applications
 Neuroethics
Brain Prosthetics: Brief History
 1950s: Electric stimulation used to influence brain function in
alert monkeys

 Stimulation of basal ganglia used to control tremors, rigidity

and bradykinesia in patients with Parkinson’s disease

 The older methods of brain stimulation simply involced

injecting an electric signal

 New BMIs establish a communication channel between the

human brain and the outside world

 Minitiarisations, advances in signal processing, new

algorithms have led to modern BMIs

 BMIs can lead to a whole host of clinical applications: ?

BMI: The Concept
BRAIN MACHINE

INTENT ACTION
Command

PRECEPT STIMULUS
Coding

Neural Interface Physical Interface

Anatomy of the Brain
Do you know this guy?
HOMONCULUS: The little guy
 Concieved by Canadian
neurosurgeon Wilder Penfield in
1953

 Visualizes the connection

between different bodyparts and
areas in brain hemispheres.

 A geometrically-distorted image
of the human body mapped onto
the primary motor cortex

 Proportional to complexity of
movement

 Ex: Thumb occupies a large

region

 Plays a central role in Phantom

Limb Phenomena
Types of Brain-Machine Interfaces
 Input BMI: Providing sensory input to form
percepts when natural systems are not available
 Ex: Visual Prosthesis

 Output BMI : Converting motor intent to a

command output (physical device, damaged limbs)
 Indirect BMI:Captures signals from outside the cortex through
EEG

 Direct BMI: Intracortical recording devices designed to

capture the action potentials of individual neurons
Designing a Brain Machine Interface
INPUT

• Target the region, select the right

signals
• Invasive or Non-Invasive?
• Sensing or Stimulation ? Or both?
• Design and surface engineering of
electrodes

PROCESSING

• Microelectronics – processing,
filtering of signal
• Extraction algorithms

OUTPUT

• Prosthetic Effector
• Closed-Loop
Brain Signals
 Visual Evoked Potentials
 Slow Cortical Potentials

 P300 evoked potentials

 µ and β rhythms

 Local field Potentials ***

 Evoked vs. Event-related Potentials

 Evoked Potential: Evoked potentials, sometimes called

evoked responses, are tests that record the brain's
responses to sound, touch, and light.

 Event-Related Potential: An event-related potential (ERP)

in the brain is used to investigate the electrophysiological
responses measured from the scalp by the
electroencephalogram (EEG) as a response to a certain
event. This event is usually the exposition of a stimulus

 While evoked potentials reflect the processing of the

physical stimulus, event-related potentials are caused by
the "higher" processes, that might involve memory,
expectation, attention, changes in the mental state etc.
Microelectrodes for BMI
Challenges when designing BMIs
 Scarring at stimulation site
 Neural Plasticity
 Decrease of neural density around
stimulation site
 Recording from multiple sites
 Trade-off between invasive and
non-invasive methods
 Bidirectional interfacing
Possible Enhancements
Culturing and Patterning Neurons
 The Neurovascular & Endonasal
Approaches:

Journal of Nanoparticle Research (2005) 7: 111–127

ENDONASAL APPROACH:
Bypassing the spinal cord ….
Discussion questions
• BMI design to
accomodate neural
plasticity
• BMIs to control
natural limbs
• Alternative
mechanisms of « mind
reading »
• Other clinical
applications
• Ethical Issues