Topic

Neural Interface Technology for Neurorehabilitation and Electrical Neuromodualtion

Introduction of Lecturer

Dr. Sui’s research interests focus on electrical neuromodulation and neural interface technologies together with their application in movement neurorehabilitation and visual restoration. These technologies include implantable neural electrodes, neural interface computational modelling, in-vivo animal electrophysiological experiments, and magnetoencephalography (MEG), etc. In recent five years, for accomplishing tactile sensory feedback for the myoelectric prosthetic hands, Dr. Sui and her colleagues presented an approach to produce artificial tactile sensation of lost fingers through transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) in the phantom finger territories near the stump for the forearm amputees. A novel computational model about TENS was proposed to estimate the Aβ fiber recruitment. In addition, Dr. Sui in cooperation with Dr. Durand at CWRU explored a carbon nanotube (CNT) yarn electrode which is promising for a next-generation neural interface technology.

Abstract

   Neural interface technology plays a significant role in neurorehabilitation including visual restoration and artificial tactile sensation, etc. Dr. Sui has explored different kinds of MEMS-based electrode arrays for implantation in the optic nerve, epi-retina, and suprachoroidal space in the recent decade. In addition, to realize the tactile sensory feedback in the state-of-the-art prosthetic hands to achieve dexterous manipulation over objects, Dr. Sui and her cooperators have made endeavors on artificial tactile sensation during the past five years by using phantom finger sensation (PFS), also called referred sensation of lost fingers. The PFS can be noninvasively evoked by transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation (TENS) of the phantom finger territories (PFTs) near the stump for upper-limb amputees. Psychophysical experiments are conducted in upper- limb amputees to characterize the tactile sensory feedback based on TENS of phantom finger territories on the stump skin. The magnetoencephalography (MEG) neuroimaging method is utilized to observe the tactile sensation in brain and to underlie the neural mechanism underlying phantom finger sensation under TENS. Additionally, a neural interface technology based on the carbon-nanotube (CNT) yarn electrode is explored for chronic intrafascicular implantation. Finally, the computational modeling work as to the electrical neuromodulation was also presented.

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