{"id":15213,"date":"2016-12-20T12:00:38","date_gmt":"2016-12-20T17:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/?p=15213"},"modified":"2019-03-12T13:23:14","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T17:23:14","slug":"university-of-minnesota-noninvasive-eeg","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/university-of-minnesota-noninvasive-eeg\/","title":{"rendered":"When Imagination Comes to Real Life: Arms for the Paralyzed"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Imagine you could move an object just by thinking about moving it &#8211; there you go. <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Just by thinking it, you are able to move it.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, people can now control a robotic arm using only their minds, without a brain implant.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Noninvasive EEG-based control of a robotic arm for reach and grasp tasks\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/w6QEGeIKHw0?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>How does it\u00a0work?!<\/strong><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Via a technique called electroencephalography (EEG).<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Subjects wear a noninvasive brain cap fitted with electrodes, and their\u00a0<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u201cthoughts\u201d are converted into action by \u201cadvanced signal processing and machine learning.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The brain-computer interface technology works due to the geography of the motor cortex\u2014the area of the cerebrum that governs movement. When humans move, or think about a movement, neurons in the motor cortex produce tiny electric currents. Thinking about a different movement activates a new assortment of neurons&#8230; Sorting out these assortments using advanced signal processing laid the groundwork for the brain-computer interface used by the University of Minnesota researchers.<\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><b>Experiment &amp; Success Rates<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A series of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/srep38565\" target=\"_blank\">experiments<\/a> (8\u201315 sessions) were performed on a group of 13 healthy human subjects. Subjects were to control a robotic arm and perform complex reach-and-grasp tasks which progressively increased in difficulty. The task was divided into two stages:<\/span><\/p>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The subject was to guide the cursor\/robotic arm within a two-dimensional (2D) plane to a region above a target object within 3D space and hover over it.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the subject selected the correct object s\/he was then to guide the robotic arm down in the third dimension to grasp the object.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-15246\" src=\"http:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/EEG-Exp-1.jpg\" width=\"533\" height=\"364\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Subjects were able to pick up objects in fixed locations with high accuracy &#8211; an average success rate above 80 percent. They were able to move objects from one location to another (the table onto the shelf) with an average success rate above 70 percent.<\/p>\n<p>This shows that with the EEG, we\u00a0can willingly modulate brain activity to control a robotic arm with\u00a0freedom\u00a0within the span of only a few training sessions.<\/p>\n<h4><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><b>Implications<\/b><\/span><\/h4>\n<p>This invention and research has the potential to help the millions of people who are incapable or have little freedom to move their arms due to neuromuscular disorders\/neurodegenerative diseases. This includes individuals who suffer from\u00a0muscular dystrophy, brain stem stroke, and spinal cord injuries.<\/p>\n<p>Done effectively, this\u00a0noninvasive technique can\u00a0bridge the gap not only between the brain and the outside world, but between the physically healthy and the paralyzed.<\/p>\n<p>[divider]<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>Researchers:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Bin He \u00a0-UMN biomedical engineering professor, director of the UMN Institute for Engineering in Medicine\u00a0&amp;\u00a0and lead researcher on the study<\/li>\n<li>Jianjun Meng &#8211;\u00a0biomedical engineering postdoctoral researcher<\/li>\n<li>Bryan Baxter &#8211;\u00a0biomedical engineering graduate student<\/li>\n<li>Angeliki Bekyo &#8211; Institute for Engineering in Medicine staff member<\/li>\n<li>Shuying Zhang &#8211; biomedical engineering undergraduate student<\/li>\n<li>Jaron Olsoe &#8211;\u00a0biomedical engineering undergraduate student<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\"><strong>Funders:<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>National Science Foundation (NSF)<\/li>\n<li>National Center for Complementary and Integrative Health<\/li>\n<li>National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering<\/li>\n<li>National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke of the National Institutes of Health (NIH)<\/li>\n<li>University of Minnesota\u2019s MnDRIVE Initiative\u00a0x Minnesota Legislature<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Imagine you could move an object just by thinking about moving it &#8211; there you go. Just by thinking it, you are able to move it.\u00a0 According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, people can now control a robotic arm using only their minds, without a brain implant. &nbsp; How does it\u00a0work?! Via a [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15253,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_uag_custom_page_level_css":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[231,232,241,230],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15213","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-campus-news","category-technology","category-medical-breakthrough","category-news"],"aioseo_notices":[],"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG.png",794,510,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG-224x144.png",224,144,true],"medium":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG-300x193.png",300,193,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG.png",794,510,false],"large":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG.png",794,510,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG.png",794,510,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG.png",794,510,false]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"Yoora Park","author_link":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/author\/yoora\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"Imagine you could move an object just by thinking about moving it &#8211; there you go. Just by thinking it, you are able to move it.\u00a0 According to researchers at the University of Minnesota, people can now control a robotic arm using only their minds, without a brain implant. &nbsp; How does it\u00a0work?! Via a&hellip;","featured_media_src_url":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/12\/UNM-EEG.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15213"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15213\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15213"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15213"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tun.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}