picture
RJR-logo

About | BLOGS | Portfolio | Misc | Recommended | What's New | What's Hot

About | BLOGS | Portfolio | Misc | Recommended | What's New | What's Hot

icon

Bibliography Options Menu

icon
QUERY RUN:
24 Apr 2025 at 07:18
HITS:
14558
PAGE OPTIONS:
Hide Abstracts   |   Hide Additional Links
NOTE:
Long bibliographies are displayed in blocks of 100 citations at a time. At the end of each block there is an option to load the next block.

Bibliography on: Brain-Computer Interface

RJR-3x

Robert J. Robbins is a biologist, an educator, a science administrator, a publisher, an information technologist, and an IT leader and manager who specializes in advancing biomedical knowledge and supporting education through the application of information technology. More About:  RJR | OUR TEAM | OUR SERVICES | THIS WEBSITE

RJR: Recommended Bibliography 24 Apr 2025 at 07:18 Created: 

Brain-Computer Interface

Wikipedia: A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a neural control interface (NCI), mind–machine interface (MMI), direct neural interface (DNI), or brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device. BCIs are often directed at researching, mapping, assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. Research on BCIs began in the 1970s at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) under a grant from the National Science Foundation, followed by a contract from DARPA. The papers published after this research also mark the first appearance of the expression brain–computer interface in scientific literature. BCI-effected sensory input: Due to the cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. Following years of animal experimentation, the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-1990s. BCI-effected motor output: When artificial intelligence is used to decode neural activity, then send that decoded information to some kind of effector device, BCIs have the potential to restore communication to people who have lost the ability to move or speak. To date, the focus has largely been on motor skills such as reaching or grasping. However, in May of 2021 a study showed that an AI/BCI system could be use to translate thoughts about handwriting into the output of legible characters at a usable rate (90 characters per minute with 94% accuracy).

Created with PubMed® Query: (bci OR (brain-computer OR brain-machine OR mind-machine OR neural-control interface) NOT 26799652[PMID] ) NOT pmcbook NOT ispreviousversion

Citations The Papers (from PubMed®)

-->

RevDate: 2025-04-24

Mansour S, Giles J, Nair KPS, et al (2025)

A clinical trial evaluating feasibility and acceptability of a brain-computer interface for telerehabilitation in patients with stroke.

Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 22(1):91.

BACKGROUND: We have created a groundbreaking telerehabilitation system known as Tele BCI-FES. This innovative system merges brain-computer interface (BCI) and functional electrical stimulation (FES) technologies to rehabilitate upper limb function following a stroke. Our system pioneers the concept of allowing patients to undergo BCI therapy from the comfort of their homes, while ensuring supervised therapy and real-time adjustment capabilities. In this paper, we introduce our single-arm clinical trial, which evaluates the feasibility and acceptance of this proposed system as a telerehabilitation solution for upper extremity recovery in stroke survivors.

METHOD: The study involved eight chronic patients with stroke and their caregivers who were recruited to attend nine home-based Tele BCI-FES sessions (three sessions per week) while receiving remote support from the research team. The primary outcomes of this study were recruitment and retention rates, as well as participants perception on the adoption of technology. The secondary outcomes involved assessing improvements in upper extremity function using the Fugl-Meyer Assessment for Upper Extremity (FMA_UE) and the Leeds Arm Spasticity Impact Scale.

RESULTS: Seven chronic patients with stroke completed the home-based Tele BCI-FES sessions, with high retention (87.5%) and recruitment rates (86.7%). Although participants provided mixed feedback on setup ease, they found the system progressively easier to use, and the setup process became more efficient with continued sessions. Participants suggested modifications to enhance user experience. Following the intervention, a significant increase in FMA_UE scores was observed, with an average improvement of 3.83 points (p = 0.032). The observed improvement of 3.83 points in the FMA-UE score approaches the reported Minimal clinically important difference of 4.25 points for patients with chronic stroke.

CONCLUSION: This study serves as a proof of concept, showcasing the feasibility and acceptability of the proposed Tele BCI-FES system for rehabilitating the upper extremities of stroke survivors. While some participants demonstrated significant improvements in FMA-UE scores, these findings are not generalizable, as they were derived from a small-scale feasibility study. The results should be interpreted cautiously within the study's specific context. Additionally, the intervention was not compared to other therapeutic approaches, limiting conclusions regarding its relative effectiveness. To further validate the efficacy of the proposed Tele BCI-FES system, it is essential to conduct additional research with larger sample sizes and extended rehabilitation sessions. Moreover, future studies should include comparisons with other therapeutic approaches to better evaluate the relative effectiveness of this intervention. Trial registration This clinical study is registered at clinicaltrials.gov https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05215522 under the study identifier (NCT05215522) and registered with the ISRCTN registry https://doi.org/10.1186/ISRCTN42991002 (ISRCTN42991002).

RevDate: 2025-04-23

Decker J, Daeglau M, Zich C, et al (2025)

Nature documentaries vs. quiet rest: no evidence for an impact on event-related desynchronization during motor imagery and neurofeedback.

Frontiers in human neuroscience, 19:1539172.

Motor imagery (MI) in combination with neurofeedback (NF) has emerged as a promising approach in motor neurorehabilitation, facilitating brain activity modulation and promoting motor learning. Although MI-NF has been demonstrated to enhance motor performance and cortical plasticity, its efficacy varies considerably across individuals. Various context factors have been identified as influencing neurophysiological outcomes in motor execution and MI, however, their specific impact on event-related desynchronization (ERD), a key neurophysiological marker in NF, remains insufficiently understood. Previous research suggested that declarative interference following MI-NF may serve as a context factor hindering the progression of ERD. Yet, no significant changes in ERD within the mu and beta (8-30 Hz) frequency bands were observed across blocks in either a declarative interference or a control condition. This raises the question of whether the absence of ERD modulation could be attributed to the break task that was common to both declarative interference and control condition: watching nature documentaries immediately after MI blocks. To investigate this, we conducted a follow-up study replicating the original methodology while collecting new data. We compared NF-MI-ERD between groups with and without nature documentaries as a post-MI condition. Participants completed three sessions of kinesthetic MI-NF training involving a finger-tapping task over two consecutive days, with quiet rest as the post-MI condition (group quiet rest). 64-channel EEG data were analyzed from 17 healthy participants (8 females, 18-35 years, M and SD: 25.2 ± 4.2 years). Data were compared to a previously recorded dataset (group documentaries), in which 17 participants (10 females, 23-32 years, M and SD: 25.8 ± 2.5 years) watched nature documentaries after MI blocks. The results showed no significant main effects for blocks or group, though a session-by-group interaction was observed. Post-hoc tests, however, did not reveal significant differences in ERD development between the groups across individual blocks. These findings do not provide evidence that nature documentaries used as a post-MI condition negatively affect across-block development of NF-MI-ERD. This study highlights the importance of exploring additional context factors in MI-NF training to better understand their influence on ERD development.

RevDate: 2025-04-22
CmpDate: 2025-04-23

Li X, Dai P, Y Yuan (2025)

[Perioperative safety assessment and complications follow-up of simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation in young infants].

Lin chuang er bi yan hou tou jing wai ke za zhi = Journal of clinical otorhinolaryngology head and neck surgery, 39(5):413-418;424.

Objective:To evaluate the perioperative safety and long-term complications of simultaneous bilateral cochlear implantation(BCI) in young infants, providing reference data for clinical BCI in young children. Methods:Seventy-four infants aged 6-23 months with congenital severe to profound sensorineural hearing loss who were candidates for cochlear implantation at the Department of Otolaryngology, Chinese PLA General Hospital between August 2018 and August 2019 were consecutively enrolled. Parents made the decision to implant either unilaterally or bilaterally. Participants were divided into unilateral cochlear implantation(UCI) group(before and after 12 months of age) and simultaneous BCI group(before and after 12 months of age). Safety indicators, including perioperative risk variables, complications, and other postoperative adverse events were monitored, with complications followed up for 5-6 years. Comparisons were made between the BCI and UCI, as well as between implantation before and after 12 months of age regarding perioperative safety and long-term complications. Results:A total of 40 BCI patients(23 before 12 months, 17 after 12 months) and 34 UCI patients(20 before 12 months, 14 after 12 months) were included in the study. Regarding perioperative risk variables, the BCI group showed significantly longer anesthesia duration, operative time, and greater blood loss compared to the UCI group, though less than twice that of the UCI group; no anesthetic complications occurred in either group; and there was no significant difference in postoperative hospital stay between the groups. Regarding surgical complications during the 5-year follow-up period, the BCI group experienced 7 complications(2 major, 5 minor), while the UCI group had 7 complications(1 major, 6 minor), with no statistical differences between groups. Regarding other postoperative adverse events, the BCI group demonstrated significantly higher total adverse event rates than the UCI group(80.0% vs 38.2%), with higher rates of moderate to severe anemia(60.0% vs 20.6%) and lower mean hemoglobin levels[(92.35±12.14) g/L vs(102.39±13.09) g/L]. No significant differences were found in postoperative fever rates(50.0% vs 52.9%) or C-reactive protein levels between groups. Within the BCI group, patients implanted before 12 months indicated notably higher rates of total adverse events(91.3% vs 64.7%), high fever(26.1% vs 0), and moderate to severe anemia(78.3% vs 35.3%) compared to those implanted after 12 months. Conclusion:Simultaneous BCI in young children under 2 years of age demonstrates controllable overall risks. Compared to UCI, while it shows no increase in anesthetic or surgical complications, it presents higher perioperative risks and adverse event rates, especially in patients implanted before 12 months of age, warranting special attention from medical staff.

RevDate: 2025-04-22

Bao X, Feng X, Huang H, et al (2025)

Day-night hyperarousal in tinnitus patients.

Sleep medicine, 131:106519 pii:S1389-9457(25)00188-1 [Epub ahead of print].

Tinnitus, which affects 12-30 % of the population, is associated with sleep disturbances and daytime dysfunction, yet the neural mechanisms that link wake-up states remain unclear. This study investigated electroencephalographic (EEG) characteristics of 51 tinnitus patients and 51 controls across wakefulness (eyes-open, eyes-closed, mental arithmetic) and sleep stages (N1, N2, N3, REM) to clarify day-night pathological mechanisms. The key findings showed persistent hyperarousal in tinnitus: wakefulness revealed enhanced gamma power (30-45 Hz) in eyes-closed and task states, while sleep demonstrated elevated gamma/beta power across all stages accompanied by reduced delta/theta power in deep sleep (N2/N3).). An analysis of sleep structure indicates impaired stability in maintaining the N2 stage among tinnitus patients, corroborating a reduction in N3 duration and an increased proportion of the N2 stage. From the wake states to the sleep stages, group × state interactions for the delta/theta power suggest an impaired state regulation capacity in tinnitus patients. Correlation clustering further revealed aberrant integration of wake-related gamma/beta activity into non-rapid eye movement sleep, indicating neuroplastic overgeneralization of wake hyperarousal into sleep. These results extend the so-called loss-of-inhibition theory to sleep, proposing that deficient low-frequency oscillations fail to suppress hyperarousal, impairing sleep-dependent neuroplasticity, and perpetuating daytime symptoms. Furthermore, this study establishes sleep as a critical therapeutic target to interrupt the 24-h dysfunctional cycle of tinnitus.

RevDate: 2025-04-22

Li X, Dong X, Wang J, et al (2025)

Deep transfer learning-based decoder calibration for intracortical brain-machine interfaces.

Computers in biology and medicine, 192(Pt A):110231 pii:S0010-4825(25)00582-7 [Epub ahead of print].

Intracortical brain-machine interfaces (iBMIs) aim to establish a communication path between the brain and external devices. However, in the daily use of iBMIs, the non-stationarity of recorded neural signals necessitates frequent recalibration of the iBMI decoder to maintain decoding performance, which requires collecting and labeling a large amount of new data. To address this challenge and minimize the time needed for decoder recalibration, we proposed an active learning domain adversarial neural network (AL-DANN). This model leveraged a substantial volume of historical data alongside a small amount of current data (four samples per category) to calibrate the decoder. By incorporating domain adversarial and active learning strategies, the model effectively transferred knowledge from historical data to new data, reducing the demand for new samples. We validated the proposed method using neural signals recorded from three monkeys performing different movements in a classification task or a regression task. The results showed that the AL-DANN outperformed existing state-of-the-art methods. Impressively, it required only four new samples per category for decoder recalibration, leading to a recalibration time reduction of over 80 %. To our knowledge, this is the first study to incorporate deep transfer learning into iBMI decoder calibration, highlighting the significant potential of applying deep learning technologies in iBMIs.

RevDate: 2025-04-22

Shao WW, Shao Q, Xu HH, et al (2025)

Repetitive training enhances the pattern recognition capability of cultured neural networks.

PLoS computational biology, 21(4):e1013043 pii:PCOMPBIOL-D-24-01467 [Epub ahead of print].

Cultured neural networks in vitro have demonstrated the biocomputing capability to recognize patterns. However, the underlying mechanisms behind information processing and pattern recognition remain less understood. Here, we developed an in vitro neural network integrated with microelectrode arrays (MEAs) to explore the network's classification capability and elucidate the mechanisms underlying this classification. After applying different stimulation patterns using MEAs, the network exhibited structural alterations and distinct electrical responses that recognized various stimulation patterns. Alongside the reshaping of network structures, repeated training increased recognition accuracy for each stimulation pattern. Additionally, it was reported for the first time that spontaneous networks after stimulation are more closely related to the structures of evoked networks. This work provides new insights into the structural changes underlying information processing and contributes to our understanding of how cultured neural networks respond to different patterns.

RevDate: 2025-04-23

Luo J, Liu Q, Tai P, et al (2025)

A Multi-level Integrated EEG-Channel Selection Method Based on the Lateralization Index.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

The importance of optimizing channel selection for portable brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is increasingly recognized. Effective channel selection reduces computational load and enhances user experience by making BCI systems more comfortable and easier to use. A significant challenge lies in reducing the number of electrodes without compromising decoding accuracy. Although some methods have been proposed in previous studies, these often increase computational load and overlook the importance of channel selection across different subjects. Therefore, we propose a novel Multi-level Integrated EEG-Channel Selection method based on the Lateralization Index (MLI-ECS-LI). This method leverages the lateralization index in selecting important channels and can achieve the channel selection for the cross-tasks and the cross-subjects scenarios. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed method, the time and frequency domain features from selected channels were extracted. Three widely used classifiers, Least Squares Support Vector Machine (LSSVM), Random Forest (RF), and Support Vector Machine (SVM) were used to classify movement types based on these features. Compared to the conventional condition (C1-C6), the average decoding accuracies across 21 healthy subjects demonstrated an improved performance of 6.6%, 4.9%, 6.9% (LSSVM); 3.8%, 2.8%, 4.5%(RF); and 7.6%, 5.6%, 9.2%(SVM) via using the channels selected from the conditions of the single task, the cross-tasks, and the cross-subjects scenarios, respectively. These results demonstrated the potential of the proposed method in improving the utility of the portable Motor Imagery Brain-Computer Interface (MI-BCI) and effectiveness in practical applications.

RevDate: 2025-04-23
CmpDate: 2025-04-22

Xu Y, Li YL, Yu G, et al (2025)

Effect of Brain Computer Interface Training on Frontoparietal Network Function for Young People: A Functional Near-Infrared Spectroscopy Study.

CNS neuroscience & therapeutics, 31(4):e70400.

AIMS: Inattention in young people is one of the main reasons for their declining learning ability. Frontoparietal networks (FPNs) are associated with attention and executive function. Brain computer interface (BCI) training has been applied in neurorehabilitation, but there is a lack of research on its application to cognition. This study aimed to investigate the effect of BCI on the attention network in healthy young adults.

METHODS: Twenty-seven healthy people performed BCI training for 5 consecutive days. An attention network test (ANT) was performed at baseline and immediately after the fifth day of training and included simultaneous functional near-infrared spectroscopy recording.

RESULTS: BCI performance improved significantly after BCI training (p = 0.005). The efficiencies of the alerting and executive control networks were enhanced after BCI training (p = 0.032 and 0.003, respectively). The functional connectivity in the bilateral prefrontal cortices and the right posterior parietal cortex increased significantly after BCI training (p < 0.05).

CONCLUSION: Our findings suggested that repetitive BCI training could improve attention and induce lasting neuroplastic changes in FPNs. It might be a promising rehabilitative strategy for clinical populations with attention deficits. The right PPC may also be an effective target for neuromodulation in diseases with attention deficits.

RevDate: 2025-04-23

Zhang T, Wang N, Chai X, et al (2025)

Evaluation of pressure-induced pain in patients with disorders of consciousness based on functional near infrared spectroscopy.

Frontiers in neurology, 16:1542691.

OBJECTIVE: This study aimed to investigate the brain's hemodynamic responses (HRO) and functional connectivity in patients with disorders of consciousness (DoC) in response to acute pressure pain stimulation using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS).

METHODS: Patients diagnosed with DoC underwent pressure stimulation while brain activity was measured using NIRS. Changes in oxygenated hemoglobin (HbO) and deoxygenated hemoglobin (HbR) concentrations were monitored across several regions of interest (ROIs), including the primary somatosensory cortex (PSC), primary motor cortex (PMC), dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dPFC), somatosensory association cortex (SAC), temporal gyrus (TG), and frontopolar area (FPA). Functional connectivity was assessed during pre-stimulation, stimulation, and post-stimulation phases.

RESULTS: No significant changes in HbO or HbR concentrations were observed during the stimulation vs. baseline or stimulation vs. post-stimulation comparisons, indicating minimal activation of the targeted brain regions in response to the pressure stimulus. However, functional connectivity between key regions, particularly the PSC, PMC, and dPFC, showed significant enhancement during the stimulation phase (r > 0.9, p < 0.001), suggesting greater coordination among sensory, motor, and cognitive regions. These changes in connectivity were not accompanied by significant activation in pain-related brain areas.

CONCLUSION: Although pain-induced brain activation was minimal in patients with DoC, enhanced functional connectivity during pain stimulation suggests that the brain continues to process pain information through coordinated activity between regions. The findings highlight the importance of assessing functional connectivity as a potential method for evaluating pain processing in patients with DoC.

RevDate: 2025-04-22

Hashemi M, Depannemaecker D, Saggio M, et al (2025)

Principles and Operation of Virtual Brain Twins.

IEEE reviews in biomedical engineering, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Current clinical methods often overlook individual variability by relying on population-wide trials, while mechanismbased trials remain underutilized in neuroscience due to the brain's complexity. This situation may change through the use of a Virtual Brain Twin (VBT), which is a personalized digital replica of an individual's brain, integrating structural and functional brain data into advanced computational models and inference algorithms. By bridging the gap between molecular mechanisms, whole-brain dynamics, and imaging data, VBTs enhance the understanding of (patho)physiological mechanisms, advancing insights into both healthy and disordered brain function. Central to VBT is the network modeling that couples mesoscopic representation of neuronal activity through white matter connectivity, enabling the simulation of brain dynamics at a network level. This transformative approach provides interpretable predictive capabilities, supporting clinicians in personalizing treatments and optimizing interventions. This Review outlines the key components of VBT development, covering the conceptual, mathematical, technical, and clinical aspects. We describe the stages of VBT construction-from anatomical coupling and modeling to simulation and Bayesian inference-and demonstrate their applications in resting-state, healthy aging, multiple sclerosis, and epilepsy. Finally, we discuss potential extensions to other neurological disorders, such as Parkinson's disease, and explore future applications in consciousness research and brain-computer interfaces, paving the way for advancements in personalized medicine and brainmachine integration.

RevDate: 2025-04-23

Li S, Liu G, Feng F, et al (2025)

An Interventional Brain-Computer Interface for Long-Term EEG Collection and Motion Classification of a Quadruped Mammal.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) acquire electroencephalogram (EEG) signals to effectively address postoperative motor dysfunction in stroke patients by discerning their motor intentions during significant movements. Traditionally, noninvasive BCIs have been constrained by limitations in their usage environments; whereas, invasive BCIs damage neural permanently. Therefore, we proposed a novel interventional BCI, in which electrodes are implanted along the veins into the brain to acquire intracerebral EEG signals without an open craniotomy. We collect EEG signals from the primary motor cortex in the superior sagittal sinus of sheep during three different significant movements: laying down; standing; and walking. The first three month data are used to train the neural network, and The fourth month of data were used to validate. The deep learning model achieved an 86% accuracy rate in classifying motion states in validation. Furthermore, the results of the power spectral density (PSD) show that the signal power in the main frequency band did not decrease over a period of five months, which demonstrates that the interventional BCI has the ability to effectively capture EEG signals over long periods of time.

RevDate: 2025-04-23

Huang S, Liu Y, Wang Z, et al (2025)

Enhanced Brain Functional Interaction Following BCI-guided Supernumerary Robotic Finger Training Based on Sixth-Finger Motor Imagery.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Supernumerary robotic finger (SRF) has shown unique advantages in the field of motor augmentation and rehabilitation, while the development of brain computer interface (BCI) technology has provided the possibility for direct control of SRF. However, the neuroplasticity effects of BCI-actuated SRF (BCI-SRF) training based on the "six finger" motor imagery paradigm are still unclear. This study recruited 20 healthy right-handed participants and randomly assigned them to either a BCI-SRF training group or a sham SRF training group. During the testing phase before and after 4 weeks of training, all participants were tested for SRF-finger opposition sequence behavior, resting state fMRI (rs-fMRI), and task-based fMRI (tb-fMRI). The results showed that compared with the Sham group, the BCI-SRF group improved the accuracy rate of the SRF-finger opposition sequence by 132%. The activation analysis of tb-fMRI before and after training revealed a significant increase in left middle frontal gyrus only in the BCI-SRF group. In addition, the BCI-SRF group showed an increase in FC between the right primary motor cortex and left cerebellum inferior lobe, as well as between the left middle frontal gyrus and the right precuneus lobe after training, while there was no significant change in the Sham group. In addition, only the BCI-SRF group showed a significant increase in clustering coefficients after training. Moreover, the increase in the clustering coefficients of the two groups is positively correlated with the improvement of the accuracy of the SRF-finger opposition sequences. These results indicate that the integration of BCI and SRF significantly regulates the functional interaction between motor learning and cognitive imagery brain regions, enhances the integration and processing ability of brain networks for local information, and improves human-machine interaction behavioral performance.

RevDate: 2025-04-21

Wang H, X Wang (2025)

Exploring the Role of Psychedelics in Modulating Ego and Treating Neuropsychiatric Disorders.

ACS chemical neuroscience [Epub ahead of print].

This viewpoint explores the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in treating neuropsychiatric disorders, particularly through the modulation of brain entropy and the experience of ego dissolution. Psychedelics disrupt rigid neural patterns, facilitating enhanced connectivity and fostering profound emotional breakthroughs that may alleviate symptoms of disorders like depression, anxiety, PTSD, and addiction. Despite their promising potential, the clinical application of psychedelics presents significant challenges, including the need for careful patient screening, managing adverse experiences, and addressing ethical considerations, all of which are essential for their safe integration into therapy.

RevDate: 2025-04-20

Fu Q, Tong L, Zhang H, et al (2025)

Multimodal Imaging Diagnosis of Apical Ventricular Aneurysm With Thrombosis Resulting From Blunt Myocardial Injury: A Case Report.

Journal of clinical ultrasound : JCU [Epub ahead of print].

This article presents the case of a male patient who sustained blunt myocardial injury following a traffic accident. A series of diagnostic imaging procedures were conducted on the patient, including electrocardiography, echocardiography, computed tomography angiography, and cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, which demonstrated edema in a portion of the myocardium and the formation of a ventricular aneurysm with thrombus in the left ventricular apex. After 6 months and 1 year, echocardiography demonstrated no detection of thrombus, but the apical left ventricular aneurysm was not significantly different from the anterior film, leading to a final clinical diagnosis of blunt cardiac injury (BCI).

RevDate: 2025-04-22
CmpDate: 2025-04-19

Wang B, Zhang X, Zhang L, et al (2025)

A naturalistic fMRI dataset in response to public speaking.

Scientific data, 12(1):659.

Public speaking serves as a powerful tool for informing, inspiring, persuading, motivating, or entertaining an audience. While some speeches effectively engage audience and disseminate knowledge, others fail to resonate. This dataset presents functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from 31 participants (14 females; age: 22.29 ± 2.84 years) who viewed two informative speeches with varying effectiveness, selected from YiXi talks (similar to TED Talks), and matched in length and topic. A total of 22 participants (10 females; age: 22.64 ± 2.77 years) who completed the full task were included in the validation analyses. A comprehensive validation process, involving behavioral data analysis and head motion assessment, confirmed the quality of the fMRI dataset. While previous analyses have used inter-subject correlation to examine neural synchronization during the reception of informative public speaking, this dataset can be utilized for a variety of analyses to further elucidate the neural mechanisms underlying audience engagement and effective communication.

RevDate: 2025-04-22
CmpDate: 2025-04-19

He T, Wei M, Wang R, et al (2025)

VocalMind: A Stereotactic EEG Dataset for Vocalized, Mimed, and Imagined Speech in Tonal Language.

Scientific data, 12(1):657.

Speech BCIs based on implanted electrodes hold significant promise for enhancing spoken communication through high temporal resolution and invasive neural sensing. Despite the potential, acquiring such data is challenging due to its invasive nature, and publicly available datasets, particularly for tonal languages, are limited. In this study, we introduce VocalMind, a stereotactic electroencephalography (sEEG) dataset focused on Mandarin Chinese, a tonal language. This dataset includes sEEG-speech parallel recordings from three distinct speech modes, namely vocalized speech, mimed speech, and imagined speech, at both word and sentence levels, totaling over one hour of intracranial neural recordings related to speech production. This paper also presents a baseline model as the reference model for future studies, at the same time, ensuring the integrity of the dataset. The diversity of tasks and the substantial data volume provide a valuable resource for developing advanced algorithms for speech decoding, thereby advancing BCI research for spoken communication.

RevDate: 2025-04-22
CmpDate: 2025-04-19

Xue S, Jin B, Jiang J, et al (2025)

A multi-subject and multi-session EEG dataset for modelling human visual object recognition.

Scientific data, 12(1):663.

We share a multi-subject and multi-session (MSS) dataset with 122-channel electroencephalographic (EEG) signals collected from 32 human participants. The data was obtained during serial visual presentation experiments in two paradigms. Dataset of first paradigm consists of around 800,000 trials presenting stimulus sequences at 5 Hz. Dataset of second paradigm comprises around 40,000 trials displaying each image for 1 second. Each participant completed between 1 to 5 sessions on different days, and each session lasted for approximately 1.5 hours of EEG recording. The stimulus set used in the experiments included 10,000 images, with 500 images per class, manually selected from PASCAL and ImageNet image databases. The MSS dataset can be useful for various studies, including but not limited to (1) exploring the characteristics of EEG visual response, (2) comparing the differences in EEG response of different visual paradigms, and (3) designing machine learning algorithms for cross-subject and cross-session brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) using EEG data from multiple subjects and sessions.

RevDate: 2025-04-19

Ye Z, Lv C, Zhou H, et al (2025)

Neural substrates of attack event prediction in video games: the role of ventral posterior cingulate cortex and theory of mind network.

NeuroImage pii:S1053-8119(25)00231-9 [Epub ahead of print].

Action anticipation, the ability to observe actions and predict the intent of others, plays a crucial role in social interaction and fields such as electronic sports. However, the neural mechanisms underlying the inference of purpose from action observation remain unclear. In this study, we conducted an fMRI experiment using video game combat scenarios to investigate the neural correlates of action anticipation and its relationship with task performance. The results showed that the higher level of ability to infer the purpose from action observation during experiment associates with higher level of proficiency in real world electric gaming competition. The action anticipation task activates visual streams, fronto-parietal network, and the ventral posterior cingulate cortex (vPCC), a key hub in the theory of mind network. The strength of vPCC activation during action anticipation, but not movement direction judgment, was positively correlated with gaming proficiency. Finite impulse response analysis revealed distinct dynamic response profiles in the vPCC compared to other theory of mind regions. These findings suggest that theory of mind ability may be an important factor influencing individual competitive performance, with the vPCC serving as a core neural substrate for inferring purpose from action observation.

RevDate: 2025-04-18

Liu Y, Wang M, H Rao (2025)

Common Neural Activations of Creativity and Exploration: A Meta-analysis of Task-based fMRI Studies.

Neuroscience and biobehavioral reviews pii:S0149-7634(25)00158-7 [Epub ahead of print].

Creativity is a common, complex, and multifaceted cognitive activity with significant implications for technological progress, social development, and human survival. Understanding the neurocognitive mechanisms underlying creative thought is essential for fostering individual creativity. While previous studies have demonstrated that exploratory behavior positively influences creative performance, few studies investigated the relationship between creativity and exploration at the neural level. To address this gap, we conducted a quantitative meta-analysis comprising 80 creativity experiments (1,850 subjects) and 23 exploration experiments (646 subjects) to examine potential shared neural activations between creativity and exploration. Furthermore, we analyzed the neural similarities and differences among three forms of creative thinking-divergent thinking (DT), convergent thinking (CT), and artistic creativity-and their relationship with exploration. The conjunction analysis of creativity and exploration revealed significant activations in the bilateral IFJ and left preSMA. Further conjunction analyses revealed that both CT and artistic creativity exhibited common neural activations with exploration, with CT co-activating the left IFJ and artistic creativity co-activating both the right IFJ and left preSMA, while DT did not. Additionally, the conjunction analyses across the three forms of creativity did not identify shared neural activations. Further functional decoding analyses of the overlapping brain regions associated with CT and exploration, as well as artistic creativity and exploration, revealed correlations with inhibitory control mechanisms. These results enhance our understanding of the role of exploration in the creative thinking process and provide valuable insights for developing strategies to foster innovative thinking.

RevDate: 2025-04-21

Cao B, Tsai CL, Zhou N, et al (2025)

A Novel 3D Paradigm for Target Expansion of Augmented Reality SSVEP.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP) have proven to be practical in Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI), particularly when integrated with augmented reality (AR) for real-world application. However, unlike conventional computer screen-based SSVEP (CS-SSVEP), which benefits from stable experimental environments, AR-based SSVEP (AR-SSVEP) systems are susceptible to the interference of real-world environment and device instability. Particularly, the performance of AR-SSVEP significantly declines as the target frequency increases. Therefore, our study introduced a 3D paradigm that combines flicker frequency with rotation patterns as stimuli, enabling expansion of target sets without additional frequencies. In the proposed design, in addition to the conventional frequency-based SSVEP feature, bio-marker elicited by visual perception of rotation was investigated. An experimental comparison between this novel 3D paradigm and a traditional 2D approach, which increases targets by adding frequencies, reveals significant advantages. The 12-class 3D paradigm achieved an accuracy of 76.5% and an information transfer rate (ITR) of 70.42 bits/min using 1-second EEG segments. In contrast, the 2D paradigm exhibited a lower performance with 72.07% accuracy and 62.28 bits/min ITR. The result underscores the 3D paradigm's superiority in enhancing the practical applications of SSVEP-based BCIs in AR settings, especially with shorter time windows, by effectively expanding target recognition without compromising system efficiency.

RevDate: 2025-04-19

Uszko JM, Schroeder JC, Eichhorn SJ, et al (2025)

Morphological control of cuprate superconductors using sea sponges as templates.

RSC advances, 15(14):11189-11193.

Functional porous superconducting sponges, consisting of YBa2Cu3O6+δ (YBCO) and Bi2Sr2CaCu2O8+δ (BSCCO), were created by biotemplating with natural sea sponges. Naturally occurring calcium in the spongin fibers was utilized to dope YBCO and to form BSCCO without adding any external calcium source. The sample morphology was confirmed with scanning electron microscopy, and the sample composition was confirmed with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy, powder electron diffraction and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. The YBCO sponge exhibited a critical temperature (T c) of approximately 70 K, and the BSCCO sponge showed a T c of 77 K. This proof-of-concept study demonstrates the feasibility of using sea sponges as a greener, more sustainable template for superconductor synthesis.

RevDate: 2025-04-19

Kuo YT, Wang HL, Chen BW, et al (2025)

Degradation-aware neural imputation: Advancing decoding stability in brain machine interfaces.

APL bioengineering, 9(2):026106.

Neural signal degradation poses a significant challenge in maintaining stable performance when decoding motor tasks using multiunit activity (MUA) and local field potential (LFP) signals in the implantable brain machine interface (iBMI) applications. Effective methods for imputing degraded or missing signals are essential to restore neural signal integrity, thereby improving decoding accuracy and system robustness over long-term recordings with fluctuating signal quality. This study introduces a confidence-weighted Bayesian linear regression (CW-BLR) approach to impute neural signals affected by degradation, enhancing the robustness and consistency of decoding. The performance of CW-BLR was compared to traditional methods-mean imputation (Mean-imp) and Gaussian-mixture-model-based expectation-maximization (GMM-EM)-using a kernel-sliced inverse regression (kSIR) decoder to evaluate decoding outcomes. Four Wistar rats were trained to perform a forelimb-reaching task while neural activity (MUA and LFPs) was recorded over 27 days. CW-BLR imputed signals degraded during days 8-27. Decoding performance was evaluated using kSIR and compared with Mean-imp and GMM-EM. CW-BLR demonstrated superior performance by effectively preserving both temporal and spatial dependencies within the neural signals. CW-BLR-imputed data significantly improved decoding accuracy over traditional imputation methods, with the kSIR decoder showing consistently higher performance, particularly in maintaining signal quality from the degraded period. CW-BLR offers a robust and effective imputation framework for iBMI applications, addressing signal degradation challenges and maintaining accurate decoding over prolonged recordings. By utilizing confidence-based quality metrics, CW-BLR surpasses traditional methods, providing stable neural decoding across fluctuating signal quality scenarios.

RevDate: 2025-04-23

Isis Yonza AK, Tao L, Zhang X, et al (2025)

Spatially and temporally mismatched blood flow and neuronal activity by high-intensity intracortical microstimulation.

Brain stimulation, 18(3):885-896 pii:S1935-861X(25)00096-8 [Epub ahead of print].

INTRODUCTION: Intracortial microstimulation (ICMS) is widely used in neuroprosthetic brain-machine interfacing, particularly in restoring lost sensory and motor functions. Spiking neuronal activity requires increased cerebral blood flow to meet local metabolic demands, a process conventionally denoted as neurovascular coupling (NVC). However, it is unknown precisely how and to what extent ICMS elicits NVC and how the neuronal and blood flow responses to ICMS correlate. Suboptimal NVC by ICMS may compromise oxygen and energy delivery to the activated neurons thus impair neuroprosthetic functionality.

MATERIAL AND METHOD: We used wide-field imaging (WFI), laser speckle imaging (LSI) and two-photon microscopy (TPM) to study living, transgenic mice expressing calcium (Ca[2+]) fluorescent indicators in either neurons or vascular mural cells (VMC), as well as to measure vascular inner lumen diameters.

RESULT: By testing a range of stimulation amplitudes and examining cortical tissue responses at different distances from the stimulating electrode tip, we found that high stimulation intensities (≥50 μA) elicited a spatial and temporal neurovascular decoupling in regions most adjacent to electrode tip (<200 μm), with significantly delayed onset times of blood flow responses to ICMS and compromised maximum blood flow increases. We attribute these effects respectively to delayed Ca[2+] signalling and decreased Ca[2+] sensitivity in VMCs.

CONCLUSION: Our study offers new insights into ICMS-associated neuronal and vascular physiology with potentially critical implications towards the optimal design of ICMS in neuroprosthetic therapies: low intensities preserve NVC; high intensities disrupt NVC responses and potentially precipitate blood supply deficits.

RevDate: 2025-04-17

Ren J, Wang Y, Wang Y, et al (2025)

Dynamic changes of hippocampal dendritic spines in Alzheimer's disease mice among the different stages.

Experimental neurology pii:S0014-4886(25)00130-X [Epub ahead of print].

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is characterized by the accumulation of amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides and a progressive decline in cognitive function. Hippocampus as a crucial brain area for learning and memory, is also adversely affected by AD's pathology. The accumulation of Aβ is often associated with the loss of dendritic spines of the hippocampus. However, the dynamic alterations in dendritic spines throughout AD progression are not fully understood. To investigate it, we conducted in-vivo imaging in two mouse models representing the early and late stages of AD pathology: young mice injected with Aβ1-42 oligomers and APP/PS1 transgenic mice. In the early-stage AD model, imaging was conducted at third- and fifth- weeks post-injection. In the late-stage AD model, a four-month imaging began at 14 months old. The imaging results showed spine elimination in both models. Notably, acute Aβ exposure was linked to heightened spine loss on secondary dendrites, while in the late stage the primary effect was on tertiary dendrites. Concurrently, with the metabolism of Aβ, cognition recovered to some extent by five weeks post Aβ1-42 exposure. These findings suggested that dendritic spine plasticity was impaired during the development of AD, as evidenced by increasing spine loss at different levels. However, the cognitive recovery observed in early-stage AD model mice may indicate a compensatory structural reorganization, highlighting the potential of early intervention to mitigate disease progression. Our results provide novel insights into the neurotoxic effects of Aβ1-42 and may contribute to the development of therapeutic strategies for AD.

RevDate: 2025-04-24

Zhao D, Dong G, Pei W, et al (2025)

Comparisons of stimulus paradigms for SSVEP-based brain-computer interfaces.

Journal of neural engineering, 22(2):.

Objective.With the recent development of visual evoked potential (VEP) based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), the stimulus paradigm has been continuously innovated, in which the pursuit of higher BCI performance and better user experience has become indispensable.Approach.To optimize the stimulus paradigm, a 12-target online BCI system was designed in this study by adopting flicker for steady-state VEPs, Newton's ring for steady-state motion VEP, and frame rate based video stimulus, respectively. The signal characteristics of VEP, classification accuracy, and user experience of the three stimulus paradigms were quantitatively evaluated and compared.Main results.The online information transfer rates for the three stimulus paradigms were 53.77 bits min[-1], 51.41 ± 3.55 bits min[-1], and 52.07 ± 3.09 bits min[-1], respectively. The video stimulus had a significantly better user experience, while the flicker stimulus showed the worst.Significance.These results demonstrate the advantage of the proposed video stimulus paradigm and have significant theoretical and applied implications for developing VEP-based BCI systems.

RevDate: 2025-04-17

Singh K, Lin CC, Huang WH, et al (2025)

Ultrabioconformal, Self-Healable, and Antioxidized Polydopamine-Inspired Nanowire Hydrogels Enable Resolving Power in Forehead and Ear Electroencephalograms for Brain Function Assessment.

ACS applied materials & interfaces [Epub ahead of print].

Continuous brain function monitoring by high-performance electroencephalogram (EEG) suggests a high impact for advancing precision personalized medication of neurodevelopmental or neurodegenerative disorders. Forehead and ear EEGs are nonhairy recording strategies that allow the recording of brain activity using only a few electrodes. However, they require well-designed electrodes that are easy and comfortable to carry while simultaneously performing durable high-quality EEG acquisition. Herein, we propose a new ultrabiocompliant EEG sensor that enables seamless contact to surfaces of both earhole and forehead, while permitting prolonged and high-quality EEG signal identification. Bioinspired polydopamine/platinum-silver nanowires, called PDA-Ag@Pt NWs, are synthesized with noticeable performances in electrical conductivity, antioxidation ability, cytocompatibility, and adhesion. PDA-Ag@Pt NWs can promote synchronic gelation and interlinks within polydopamine-polyacrylamide (PDA-PAM) hydrogels, in turn leading to the one-step formation of a nanowire/hydrogel matrix, called PDA-PAM/NW, as an electrode patch in the presence of adhesive and self-healing capabilities. Combined with a self-designed signal processor, a portable electrophysiological signal recording system was realized. The PDA-PAM/NW electrode patch outperformed commercial electrodes in terms of reliability and resolution for electrocardiography (ECG), electromyography (EMG), and electroencephalography (EEG) recording. In addition, through brain cognitive assessment by frontal- and ear-EEG recording, the ultrathin design and comfortable adhesion of PDA-PAM/NW electrodes make participants comfortable over time, subsequently providing the identification of the brain activity in high resolution. This work underscores the potential of the ultrabiocompliant and durable patch in the development of comfy, long-lasting, and high-performance wearable brain-machine interfaces for the revolution in neuroscience.

RevDate: 2025-04-19
CmpDate: 2025-04-17

Akhter J, Nazeer H, Naseer N, et al (2025)

Improved performance of fNIRS-BCI by stacking of deep learning-derived frequency domain features.

PloS one, 20(4):e0314447.

The functional near-infrared spectroscopy-based brain-computer interface (fNIRS-BCI) systems recognize patterns in brain signals and generate control commands, thereby enabling individuals with motor disabilities to regain autonomy. In this study hand gripping data is acquired using fNIRS neuroimaging system, preprocessing is performed using nirsLAB and features extraction is performed using deep learning (DL) Algorithms. For feature extraction and classification stack and fft methods are proposed. Convolutional neural networks (CNN), long short-term memory (LSTM), and bidirectional long-short-term memory (Bi-LSTM) are employed to extract features. The stack method classifies these features using a stack model and the fft method enhances features by applying fast Fourier transformation which is followed by classification using a stack model. The proposed methods are applied to fNIRS signals from twenty participants engaged in a two-class hand-gripping motor activity. The classification performance of the proposed methods is compared with conventional CNN, LSTM, and Bi-LSTM algorithms and one another. The proposed fft and stack methods yield 90.11% and 87.00% classification accuracies respectively, which are significantly higher than those achieved by CNN (85.16%), LSTM (79.46%), and Bi-LSTM (81.88%) conventional algorithms. The results show that the proposed stack and fft methods can be effectively used for the classification of the two and three-class problems in fNIRS-BCI applications.

RevDate: 2025-04-20
CmpDate: 2025-04-17

Noel JP, Bockbrader M, Bertoni T, et al (2025)

Neuronal responses in the human primary motor cortex coincide with the subjective onset of movement intention in brain-machine interface-mediated actions.

PLoS biology, 23(4):e3003118.

Self-initiated behavior is accompanied by the experience of intending our actions. Here, we leverage the unique opportunity to examine the full intentional chain-from intention to action to environmental effects-in a tetraplegic person outfitted with a primary motor cortex (M1) brain-machine interface (BMI) generating real hand movements via neuromuscular electrical stimulation (NMES). This combined BMI-NMES approach allowed us to selectively manipulate each element of the intentional chain (intention, action, effect) while probing subjective experience and performing extra-cellular recordings in human M1. Behaviorally, we reveal a novel form of intentional binding: motor intentions are reflected in a perceived temporal attraction between the onset of intentions and that of actions. Neurally, we demonstrate that evoked spiking activity in M1 largely coincides in time with the onset of the experience of intention and that M1 spike counts and the onset of subjective intention may co-vary on a trial-by-trial basis. Further, population-level dynamics, as indexed by a decoder instantiating movement, reflect intention-action temporal binding. The results fill a significant knowledge gap by relating human spiking activity in M1 with the onset of subjective intention and complement prior human intracranial work examining pre-motor and parietal areas.

RevDate: 2025-04-18

Iosif R, Skrbinšek T, Erős N, et al (2025)

Wolf Population Size and Composition in One of Europe's Strongholds, the Romanian Carpathians.

Ecology and evolution, 15(4):e71200.

Strategies of coexistence with large carnivores should integrate scientific evidence, population monitoring providing an opportunity for advancing outdated management paradigms. We estimated wolf population density and social dynamics across a 1400 km[2] area in a data-poor region of the Romanian Carpathians. Across three consecutive years (2017-2018 until 2019-2020), we collected and genotyped 505 noninvasive DNA wolf samples (scat, hair and urine) to identify individuals, reconstruct pedigrees, and check for the presence of hybridization with domestic dogs. We identified 27 males, 20 females, and one F1 wolf-dog hybrid male. We delineated six wolf packs, with pack size varying between two and seven individuals, and documented yearly changes in pack composition. Using a spatial capture-recapture approach, we estimated population density at 2.35 wolves/100 km[2] (95% BCI = 1.68-3.03) and population abundance at 70 individuals (95% BCI = 49-89). Noninvasive DNA data collection coupled with spatial capture-recapture has the potential to inform on wolf population size and dynamics at broader spatial scales, across different sampling areas representative of the diverse Carpathian landscapes, and across different levels of human impact, supporting wildlife decision making in one of Europe's main strongholds for large carnivores.

RevDate: 2025-04-18

Hu S, Lin C, Wang H, et al (2025)

Psychedelics and Eating Disorders: Exploring the Therapeutic Potential for Anorexia Nervosa and Beyond.

ACS pharmacology & translational science, 8(4):910-916.

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a severe psychiatric disorder characterized by extreme food restriction, an intense fear of weight gain, and a distorted body image, leading to significant morbidity and mortality. Conventional treatments such as cognitive-behavioral therapy (CBT) and pharmacotherapy often prove inadequate, especially in severe cases, highlighting the need for novel therapeutic approaches. Recent research into psychedelics, such as psilocybin and 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), offers promising avenues for treating anorexia nervosa by targeting its neurobiological and psychological underpinnings. These psychedelics disrupt maladaptive neural circuits, enhance cognitive flexibility, and facilitate emotional processing, offering potential relief for patients unresponsive to traditional therapies. Early studies have shown positive outcomes with psychedelics, including reductions in anorexia nervosa symptoms and improvements in psychological well-being. However, further research is needed to establish their long-term safety, efficacy, and integration into clinical practice. Addressing the legal, ethical, and safety challenges will be crucial in determining whether psychedelics can transform the treatment landscape for anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders.

RevDate: 2025-04-18

Yan W, Luo Q, C Du (2025)

Channel component correlation analysis for multi-channel EEG feature component extraction.

Frontiers in neuroscience, 19:1522964.

INTRODUCTION: Electroencephalogram (EEG) analysis has shown significant research value for brain disease diagnosis, neuromodulation and brain-computer interface (BCI) application. The analysis and processing of EEG signals is complex since EEG are nonstationary, nonlinear, and often contaminated by intense background noise. Principal component analysis (PCA) and independent component analysis (ICA), as the commonly used methods for multi-dimensional signal feature component extraction, still have some limitations in terms of performance and calculation.

METHODS: In this study, channel component correlation analysis (CCCA) method was proposed to extract feature components of multi-channel EEG. Firstly, empirical wavelet transform (EWT) decomposed each channel signal into different frequency bands, and reconstructed them into a multi-dimensional signal. Then the objective optimization function was constructed by maximizing the covariance between multi-dimensional signals. Finally the feature components of multi-channel EEG were extracted using the calculated weight coefficient.

RESULTS: The results showed that the CCCA method could find the most relevant frequency band between multi-channel EEG. Compared with PCA and ICA methods, CCCA could extract the common components of multi-channel EEG more effectively, which is of great significance for the accurate analysis of EEG.

DISCUSSION: The CCCA method proposed in this study has shown excellent performance in the feature component extraction of multi-channel EEG and could be considered for practical engineering applications.

RevDate: 2025-04-18

Hernández-Gloria JJ, Jaramillo-Gonzalez A, Savić AM, et al (2025)

Toward brain-computer interface speller with movement-related cortical potentials as control signals.

Frontiers in human neuroscience, 19:1539081.

Brain Computer Interface spellers offer a promising alternative for individuals with Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) by facilitating communication without relying on muscle activity. This study assessed the feasibility of using movement related cortical potentials (MRCPs) as a control signal for a Brain-Computer Interface speller in an offline setting. Unlike motor imagery-based BCIs, this study focused on executed movements. Fifteen healthy subjects performed three spelling tasks that involved choosing specific letters displayed on a computer screen by performing a ballistic dorsiflexion of the dominant foot. Electroencephalographic signals were recorded from 10 sites centered around Cz. Three conditions were tested to evaluate MRCP performance under varying task demands: a control condition using repeated selections of the letter "O" to isolate movement-related brain activity; a phrase spelling condition with structured text ("HELLO IM FINE") to simulate a meaningful spelling task with moderate cognitive load; and a random condition using a randomized sequence of letters to introduce higher task complexity by removing linguistic or semantic context. The success rate, defined as the presence of an MRCP, was manually determined. It was approximately 69% for both the control and phrase conditions, with a slight decrease in the random condition, likely due to increased task complexity. Significant differences in MRCP features were observed between conditions with Laplacian filtering, whereas no significant differences were found in single-site Cz recordings. These results contribute to the development of MRCP-based BCI spellers by demonstrating their feasibility in a spelling task. However, further research is required to implement and validate real-time applications.

RevDate: 2025-04-17

Jin F, Li M, Yang L, et al (2025)

Exploring the value learning in pigeons: The role of dual pathways in the basal ganglia and synaptic plasticity.

The Journal of experimental biology pii:367733 [Epub ahead of print].

Understanding value learning in animals is a key focus in cognitive neuroscience. Current models used in research are often simple, and while more complex models have been proposed, it remains unclear which assumptions align with actual value learning strategies of animals. This study investigated the computational mechanisms behind value learning in pigeons using a free-choice task. Three models were constructed based on different assumptions about the role of the basal ganglia's dual pathways and synaptic plasticity in value computation, followed by model comparison and neural correlation analysis. Among the three models tested, the dual-pathway reinforcement learning model with Hebbian rules most closely matched the pigeons' behavior. Furthermore, the striatal gamma band connectivity showed the highest correlation with the values estimated by this model. Additionally, enhanced beta band connectivity in the nidopallium caudolaterale supported value learning. This study provides valuable insights into reinforcement learning mechanisms in non-human animals.

RevDate: 2025-04-16

Ma YN, Karako K, Song P, et al (2025)

Integrative neurorehabilitation using brain-computer interface: From motor function to mental health after stroke.

Bioscience trends [Epub ahead of print].

Stroke remains a leading cause of mortality and long-term disability worldwide, frequently resulting in impairments in motor control, cognition, and emotional regulation. Conventional rehabilitation approaches, while partially effective, often lack individualization and yield suboptimal outcomes. In recent years, brain-computer interface (BCI) technology has emerged as a promising neurorehabilitation tool by decoding neural signals and providing real-time feedback to enhance neuroplasticity. This review systematically explores the use of BCI systems in post-stroke rehabilitation, focusing on three core domains: motor function, cognitive capacity, and emotional regulation. This review outlines the neurophysiological principles underpinning BCI-based motor rehabilitation, including neurofeedback training, Hebbian plasticity, and multimodal feedback strategies. It then examines recent advances in upper limb and gait recovery using BCI integrated with functional electrical stimulation (FES), robotics, and virtual reality (VR). Moreover, it highlights BCI's potential in cognitive and language rehabilitation through EEG-based neurofeedback and the integration of artificial intelligence (AI) and immersive VR environments. In addition, it discusses the role of BCI in monitoring and regulating post-stroke emotional disorders via closed-loop systems. While promising, BCI technologies face challenges related to signal accuracy, device portability, and clinical validation. Future research should prioritize multimodal integration, AI-driven personalization, and large-scale randomized trials to establish long-term efficacy. This review underscores BCI's transformative potential in delivering intelligent, personalized, and cross-domain rehabilitation solutions for stroke survivors.

RevDate: 2025-04-24
CmpDate: 2025-04-24

Faes A, Calvo Merino E, Branco MP, et al (2025)

Decoding sign language finger flexions from high-density electrocorticography using graph-optimized block term tensor regression.

Journal of neural engineering, 22(2):.

Objective.A novel method is introduced to regress over the sign language finger movements from human electrocorticography (ECoG) recordings.Approach.The proposed graph-optimized block-term tensor regression (Go-BTTR) method consists of two components: a deflation-based regression model that sequentially Tucker-decomposes multiway ECoG data into a series of blocks, and a causal graph process (CGP) that accounts for the complex relationship between finger movements when expressing sign language gestures. Prior to each regression block, CGP is applied to decide which fingers should be kept separate or grouped and should therefore be referred to BTTR or its extended version eBTTR, respectively.Main results.Two ECoG datasets were used, one recorded in five patients expressing four hand gestures of the American sign language alphabet, and another in two patients expressing all gestures of the Flemish sign language alphabet. As Go-BTTR combines fingers in a flexible way, it can better account for the nonlinear relationship ECoG exhibits when expressing hand gestures, including unintentional finger co-activations. This is reflected by the superior joint finger trajectory predictions compared to eBTTR, and predictions that are on par with BTTR in single-finger scenarios. For the American sign language alphabet (Utrecht dataset), the average correlation across all fingers for all subjects was 0.73 for Go-BTTR, 0.719 for eBTTR and 0.70 for BTTR. For the Flemish sign language alphabet (Leuven dataset), the average correlation across all fingers for all subjects was 0.37 for Go-BTTR, 0.34 for eBTTR and 0.33 for BTTR.Significance.Our findings show that Go-BTTR is capable of decoding complex hand gestures taken from the sign language alphabet. Go-BTTR also demonstrates computational efficiency, providing a notable benefit when intracranial electrodes are inserted during a patient's pre-surgical evaluation. This efficiency helps reduce the time required for developing and testing a brain-computer interface solution.

RevDate: 2025-04-19
CmpDate: 2025-04-16

Li X, Deng Z, Zhang W, et al (2025)

Oscillating microbubble array-based metamaterials (OMAMs) for rapid isolation of high-purity exosomes.

Science advances, 11(16):eadu8915.

Exosomes secreted by cells hold substantial potential for disease diagnosis and treatment. However, the rapid isolation of high-purity exosomes and their subpopulations from biofluids (e.g., undiluted whole blood) remains challenging. This study presents oscillating microbubble array-based metamaterials (OMAMs) for enabling the rapid isolation of high-purity exosomes and their subpopulations from biofluids without labeling or preprocessing. Particularly, leveraging acoustically excited microbubble oscillation, OMAMs can generate numerous acoustofluidic traps for filtering in-fluid micro/nanoparticles, thus allowing for removing bioparticles larger than exosomes to obtain high-purity (93%) exosomes from undiluted whole blood in ~3 minutes. Moreover, exosome subpopulations in different size ranges can be isolated by tuning the microbubble oscillation amplitude. Additionally, as each oscillating microbubble functions as an ultradeep subwavelength (~λ/186) acoustic amplifier and a nonlinear source, OMAMs can generate high-resolution complex acoustic energy patterns and tune the patterns by activating different-sized microbubbles at their distinct resonance frequencies.

RevDate: 2025-04-17

Wen D, Xing Y, Yao Y, et al (2025)

Transforming long-term adjunctive therapy for cognitive impairment: the role of multimodal self-adaptive digital medicine.

Frontiers in neurology, 16:1571817.

RevDate: 2025-04-16

Wei B, Cheng S, Y Feng (2025)

Neural personal information and its legal protection: evidence from China.

Journal of law and the biosciences, 12(1):lsaf006 pii:lsaf006.

The rapid advancements in neuroscience highlight the pressing need to safeguard neural personal information (NPI). China has achieved significant progress in brain-computer interface technology and its clinical applications. Considering the intrinsic vulnerability of NPI and the paucity of legal scrutiny concerning NPI breaches, a thorough assessment of the adequacy of China's personal information protection legislation is essential. This analysis contends that NPI should be classified as sensitive personal information. The absence of bespoke provisions for NPI in current legislation underscores persistent challenges in its protection. To address these gaps, this work proposes the establishment of a concentric-circle hard-soft law continuum to support a hybrid governance model for NPI, rooted in fundamental human rights principles.

RevDate: 2025-04-16

Jude JJ, Levi-Aharoni H, Acosta AJ, et al (2025)

An intuitive, bimanual, high-throughput QWERTY touch typing neuroprosthesis for people with tetraplegia.

medRxiv : the preprint server for health sciences pii:2025.04.01.25324990.

Recognizing keyboard typing as a familiar, high information rate communication paradigm, we developed an intracortical brain computer interface (iBCI) typing neuroprosthesis providing bimanual QWERTY keyboard functionality for people with paralysis. Typing with this iBCI involves only attempted finger movements, which are decoded accurately with as few as 30 calibration sentences. Sentence decoding is improved using a 5-gram language model. This typing neuroprosthesis performed well for two iBCI clinical trial participants with tetraplegia - one with ALS and one with spinal cord injury. Typing speed is user-regulated, reaching 110 characters per minute, resulting in 22 words per minute with a word error rate of 1.6%. This resembles able-bodied typing accuracy and provides higher throughput than current state-of-the-art hand motor iBCI decoding. In summary, a typing neuroprosthesis decoding finger movements, provides an intuitive, familiar, and easy-to-learn paradigm for individuals with impaired communication due to paralysis.

RevDate: 2025-04-16

Busch EL, Fincke EC, Lajoie G, et al (2025)

Accelerated learning of a noninvasive human brain-computer interface via manifold geometry.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology pii:2025.03.29.646109.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) promise to restore and enhance a wide range of human capabilities. However, a barrier to the adoption of BCIs is how long it can take users to learn to control them. We hypothesized that human BCI learning could be accelerated by leveraging the naturally occurring geometric structure of brain activity, or its intrinsic manifold, extracted using a data-diffusion process. We trained participants on a noninvasive BCI that allowed them to gain real-time control of an avatar in a virtual reality game by modulating functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) activity in brain regions that support spatial navigation. We then perturbed the mapping between fMRI activity patterns and the movement of the avatar to test our manifold hypothesis. When the new mapping respected the intrinsic manifold, participants succeeded in regaining control of the BCI by aligning their brain activity within the manifold. When the new mapping did not respect the intrinsic manifold, participants could not learn to control the avatar again. These findings show that the manifold geometry of brain activity constrains human learning of a complex cognitive task in higher-order brain regions. Manifold geometry may be a critical ingredient for unlocking the potential of future human neurotechnologies.

RevDate: 2025-04-17

Wang LP, Yang C, Fu JY, et al (2025)

A preliminary study of steady-state visually-evoked potential-based non-invasive brain-computer interface technology as a communication aid for patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery, 15(4):3469-3479.

BACKGROUND: Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease that affects motor neurons, leading to severe disability and ultimately death. Communication difficulties are common in ALS patients as the disease progresses; thus, alternative communication aids need to be explored. This study sought to examine the use and effect of steady-state visually-evoked potential (SSVEP)-based non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) technology as a communication aid for patients with ALS and to examine possible influencing factors.

METHODS: In total, 12 patients with ALS were selected, and a 40-character target selection was performed using SSVEP-based non-invasive BCI technology. The patients were presented with specific visual stimuli, and nine-lead electroencephalogram (EEG) signals in the occipital region were acquired when the patients were looking at the target. Using the feature recognition analysis method, the final output was the characters recognized by the patients. The basic clinical data of the patients (e.g., age, gender, course of disease, affected area, and ALS functional scale score) were collected, and the BCI accuracy rate, information transmission rate, and average SSVEP recognition time were calculated.

RESULTS: The results revealed that the recognition efficiency of the ALS patients varied. The accuracy potential increased as the stimulus duration extended, highlighting the possibility for improvement via further optimization. The results also showed that the experimental design schedules typically used for healthy individuals may not be entirely suitable for ALS patients, which presents an exciting opportunity to tailor future studies to better meet the unique needs of ASL patients. Further, the results revealed the necessity of using customized experimental schedules in future studies, which could lead to more relevant and effective data collection for ALS patients.

CONCLUSIONS: The study found that SSVEP-based non-invasive BCI technology has promising potential as a communication aid for ALS patients. While further algorithm optimization and comprehensive studies with larger sample sizes are necessary, the initial findings are encouraging, and could lead to the development of more effective communication solutions that are specifically tailored to address the challenges faced by ALS patients.

RevDate: 2025-04-17

Webster P (2025)

Can AI-powered brain-computer interfaces boost human intelligence?.

Nature medicine, 31(4):1045-1047.

RevDate: 2025-04-18
CmpDate: 2025-04-15

Zhao W, Zhang B, Zhou H, et al (2025)

Multi-scale convolutional transformer network for motor imagery brain-computer interface.

Scientific reports, 15(1):12935.

Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems allow users to communicate with external devices by translating neural signals into real-time commands. Convolutional neural networks (CNNs) have been effectively utilized for decoding motor imagery electroencephalography (MI-EEG) signals in BCIs. However, traditional CNN-based methods face challenges such as individual variability in EEG signals and the limited receptive fields of CNNs. This study presents the Multi-Scale Convolutional Transformer (MSCFormer) model that integrates multiple CNN branches for multi-scale feature extraction and a Transformer module to capture global dependencies, followed by a fully connected layer for classification. The multi-branch multi-scale CNN structure effectively addresses individual variability in EEG signals, enhancing the model's generalization capabilities, while the Transformer encoder strengthens global feature integration and improves decoding performance. Extensive experiments on the BCI IV-2a and IV-2b datasets show that MSCFormer achieves average accuracies of 82.95% (BCI IV-2a) and 88.00% (BCI IV-2b), with kappa values of 0.7726 and 0.7599 in five-fold cross-validation, surpassing several state-of-the-art methods. These results highlight MSCFormer's robustness and accuracy, underscoring its potential in EEG-based BCI applications. The code has been released in https://github.com/snailpt/MSCFormer .

RevDate: 2025-04-20
CmpDate: 2025-04-15

Bertoni T, Noel JP, Bockbrader M, et al (2025)

Pre-movement sensorimotor oscillations shape the sense of agency by gating cortical connectivity.

Nature communications, 16(1):3594.

Our sense of agency, the subjective experience of controlling our actions, is a crucial component of self-awareness and motor control. It is thought to originate from the comparison between intentions and actions across broad cortical networks. However, the underlying neural mechanisms are still not fully understood. We hypothesized that oscillations in the theta-alpha range, thought to orchestrate long-range neural connectivity, may mediate sensorimotor comparisons. To test this, we manipulated the relation between intentions and actions in a tetraplegic user of a brain machine interface (BMI), decoding primary motor cortex (M1) activity to restore hand functionality. We found that the pre-movement phase of low-alpha oscillations in M1 predicted the participant's agency judgements. Further, using EEG-BMI in healthy participants, we found that pre-movement alpha oscillations in M1 and supplementary motor area (SMA) correlated with agency ratings, and with changes in their functional connectivity with parietal, temporal and prefrontal areas. These findings argue for phase-driven gating as a key mechanism for sensorimotor integration and sense of agency.

RevDate: 2025-04-16

Wang D, Q Wei (2025)

SMANet: A Model Combining SincNet, Multi-branch Spatial-Temporal CNN and Attention Mechanism for Motor Imagery BCI.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Building a brain-computer interface (BCI) based on motor imagery (MI) requires accurately decoding MI tasks, which poses a significant challenge due to individual discrepancy among subjects and low signal-to-noise ratio of EEG signals. We propose an end-to-end deep learning model, Sinc-multibranch-attention network (SMANet), which combines a SincNet, a multibranch spatial-temporal convolutional neural network (MBSTCNN), and an attention mechanism for MI-BCI classification. Firstly, Sinc convolution is utilized as a band-pass filter bank for data filtering; Second, pointwise convolution facilitates the effective integration of feature information across different frequency ranges, thereby enhancing the overall feature expression capability; Next, the resulting data are fed into the MBSTCNN to learn a deep feature representation. Thereafter, the outputs of the MBSTCNN are concatenated and then passed through an efficient channel attention (ECA) module to enhance local channel feature extraction and calibrate feature mapping. Ultimately, the feature maps yielded by ECA are classified using a fully connected layer. This model SMANet enhances discriminative features through a multi-objective optimization scheme that integrates cross-entropy loss and central loss. The experimental outcomes reveal that our model attains an average accuracy of 80.21% on the four-class MI dataset (BCI Competition IV 2a), 84.02% on the two-class MI dataset (BCI Competition IV 2b), and 72.70% on the two-class MI dataset (OpenBMI). These results are superior to those of the current state-of-the-art methods. The SMANet is capable to effectively decoding the spatial-spectral-temporal information of EEG signals, thereby enhancing the performance of MI-BCIs.

RevDate: 2025-04-15

Park K, Hong J, Shin H, et al (2025)

2D Material-Based Injectable Sensor for Minimally-Invasive Cerebral Blood Flow Monitoring.

Small (Weinheim an der Bergstrasse, Germany) [Epub ahead of print].

Monitoring cerebral blood flow is an important method for diagnosing and treating brain diseases. Thermal transport caused by blood flow provides valuable information for detecting abnormalities in blood flow. Here, a minimally invasive, injectable blood flow sensor is reported, consisting of a flexible, graphene-based thin film heater and MoS2-based temperature sensor array integrated on a mesh-structured polymer substrate. Upon injection through a small skull hole in the skull, the device unfolds and achieves conformal contact on the cortical surface, aligning with the target vessel. By measuring temperature variations in response to the heater activation, the injectable sensor continuously monitors blood flow changes in the underlying vessel. This approach offers a new potential for cerebral blood flow sensing via minimally invasive implantation.

RevDate: 2025-04-16

Finney JN, Levy IR, Chandrasekaran S, et al (2025)

Techniques to mitigate lead migration for percutaneous trials of cervical spinal cord stimulation.

Frontiers in surgery, 12:1458572.

INTRODUCTION: Epidural spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a clinical neuromodulation technique that is commonly used to treat neuropathic pain, with patients typically undergoing a one-week percutaneous trial phase before permanent implantation. Traditional SCS involves stimulation of the thoracic spinal cord, but there has been substantial recent interest in cervical SCS to treat upper extremity pain, restore sensation from the missing hand after amputation, or restore motor function to paretic limbs in people with stroke and spinal cord injury. Because of the additional mobility of the neck, as compared to the trunk, lead migration can be a major challenge for cervical SCS, especially during the percutaneous trial phase. The objective of this study was to optimize the implantation procedure of cervical SCS leads to minimize lead migration and increase lead stability during SCS trials.

METHODS: In this study, four subjects underwent percutaneous placement of three SCS leads targeting the cervical spinal segments as part of a clinical trial aiming to restore sensation for people with upper-limb amputation. The leads were maintained for up to 29 days and weekly x-ray imaging was used to measure rostrocaudal and mediolateral lead migration based on bony landmarks.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION: Lead migration was primarily confined to the rostrocaudal axis with the most migration occurring during the first week. Iterative improvements to the implantation procedure were implemented to increase lead stability across subjects. There was a decrease in lead migration for patients who had more rostral placement of the SCS leads. The average migration from the day of lead implant to lead removal was 29.7 mm for Subject 1 (lead placement ranging from T3-T4 to T1-T2), 41.9 mm for Subject 2 (T2-T3 to C7-T1), 1.9 mm for Subject 3 (T1-T2 to C7-T1), and 16.6 mm for Subject 4 (T1-T2 to C7-T1). We found that initial placement of spinal cord stimulator leads in the cervical epidural space as rostral as possible was critical to minimizing subsequent rostrocaudal lead migration.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Hesam-Shariati N, Alexander L, Stapleton F, et al (2025)

The Effect of an EEG Neurofeedback Intervention for Corneal Neuropathic Pain: A Single-Case Experimental Design with Multiple Baselines.

The journal of pain pii:S1526-5900(25)00621-2 [Epub ahead of print].

Corneal neuropathic pain is a complex condition, rarely responsive to current treatments. This trial investigated the potential effect of a novel home-based self-directed EEG neurofeedback intervention on corneal neuropathic pain using a multiple-baseline single-case experimental design. Four Participants completed a predetermined baseline of 7, 10, 14, and 17 days, randomly assigned to each participant, followed by 20 intervention sessions over four weeks. Two one-week follow-ups occurred immediately and five weeks post-intervention during which participants were encouraged to practice mental strategies. Daily pain severity and pain interference observations were the outcome measures, while anxiety, depression, or sleep problems were the generalisation measures. The results showed a medium effect on pain severity and interference across participants when comparing baseline to five-week post-intervention according to Tau-U effect sizes. At the individual level, both Tau-U and NAP effect sizes indicated significant reductions in pain severity and interference for three participants when comparing baseline to five-week post-intervention. However, the reductions indicated by the visual inspection were not considered clinically meaningful. This single-case experimental design study raises the possibility that the intervention may improve pain severity and interference for some individuals, variability in outcomes highlights the need for future research to better understand individual responses and optimize the intervention effect. REGISTRATION: Australian New Zealand Clinical Trial Registry ACTRN12623000173695 PERSPECTIVE: This trial demonstrates the potential of EEG neurofeedback to reduce pain severity and interference in individuals with corneal neuropathic pain. It also highlights user preferences for technology-based interventions, emphasizing ease of use, accessibility, and self-administration to enhance adherence, especially for individuals with limited mobility or restricted healthcare access.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Grigoryan KA, Mueller K, Wagner M, et al (2025)

Short-term BCI intervention enhances functional brain connectivity associated with motor performance in chronic stroke.

NeuroImage. Clinical, 46:103772 pii:S2213-1582(25)00042-7 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Evidence suggests that brain-computer interface (BCI)-based rehabilitation strategies show promise in overcoming the limited recovery potential in the chronic phase of stroke. However, the specific mechanisms driving motor function improvements are not fully understood.

OBJECTIVE: We aimed at elucidating the potential functional brain connectivity changes induced by BCI training in participants with chronic stroke.

METHODS: A longitudinal crossover design was employed with two groups of participants over the span of 4 weeks to allow for within-subject (n = 21) and cross-group comparisons. Group 1 (n = 11) underwent a 6-day motor imagery-based BCI training during the second week, whereas Group 2 (n = 10) received the same training during the third week. Before and after each week, both groups underwent resting state functional MRI scans (4 for Group 1 and 5 for Group 2) to establish a baseline and monitor the effects of BCI training.

RESULTS: Following BCI training, an increased functional connectivity was observed between the medial prefrontal cortex of the default mode network (DMN) and motor-related areas, including the premotor cortex, superior parietal cortex, SMA, and precuneus. Moreover, these changes were correlated with the increased motor function as confirmed with upper-extremity Fugl-Meyer assessment scores, measured before and after the training.

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that BCI training can enhance brain connectivity, underlying the observed improvements in motor function. They provide a basis for developing novel rehabilitation approaches using non-invasive brain stimulation for targeting functionally relevant brain regions, thereby augmenting BCI-induced neuroplasticity and enhancing motor recovery.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Zhong Y, Wang Y, Farina D, et al (2025)

A Closed-Loop Tactile Stimulation Training Protocol for Motor Imagery-Based BCI: Boosting BCI Performance for BCI-Deficiency Users.

IEEE transactions on bio-medical engineering, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) enable users to control and communicate with the external environment. However, a significant challenge in BCI research is the occurrence of "BCI-illiteracy" or "BCI-deficiency", where a notable percentage of users (estimated at 15 to 30%) are unable to achieve successful BCI control. For those users, they are struggling to generate stable and distinguishable brain activity patterns, which are essential for BCI control. Existing neurofeedback training protocols, often rely on the trial-and-error process, which is time-consuming and inefficient, particularly for these low-performing users.

METHODS: To address this issue, we propose a closed-loop tactile stimulation training protocol, in which tactile stimulation training is incorporated within the closed neurofeedback loop, providing users with explicit guidance on how to correctly perform MI tasks. When a subject performs an incorrect MI trial, tactile-assisted MI training is provided to guide the user toward the correct brain state, while no training is given during correct performance.

RESULTS: The results from our study demonstrated that the proposed training protocol significantly enhances BCI decoding performance, with an improvement of 16.9%. Moreover, the BCI-deficiency rate was reduced by 61.5%. Further analysis revealed that the training process also led to enhanced motor imagery-related cortical activation.

CONCLUSION: The proposed training protocol significantly improved BCI decoding performance, enabling previously BCI-deficient users to surpass the 70% control threshold.

SIGNIFICANCE: This study demonstrates the effectiveness of closed-loop tactile-assisted training in enhancing BCI accessibility and efficiency, paving the way for more inclusive neurofeedback-based BCI training strategies.

RevDate: 2025-04-23
CmpDate: 2025-04-23

Mai X, Meng J, Ding Y, et al (2025)

SRRNet: Unseen SSVEP Response Regression From Stimulus for Cross-Stimulus Transfer in SSVEP-BCIs.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 33:1460-1472.

The prolonged calibration time required by steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) poses a significant challenge to real-life applications. Cross-stimulus transfer emerges as a promising solution, wherein a model trained on a subset of classes (seen classes) can predict both seen and unseen classes. Existing approaches extracted common components from SSVEP templates of seen classes to construct templates for unseen classes; however, they are limited by the class-specific activities and noise contained in these components, leading to imprecise templates that degrade classification performance. To address this issue, this study proposed an SSVEP Response Regression Network (SRRNet), which learned the regression mapping between sine-cosine reference signals and SSVEP templates using seen class data. This network reconstructed SSVEP templates for unseen classes utilizing their corresponding sine-cosine signals. Additionally, an SSVEP template regressing and spatial filtering (SRSF) framework was introduced, where both test data and SSVEP templates were projected by task-related component analysis (TRCA) spatial filters, and correlations were computed for target prediction. Comparative evaluations on two public datasets revealed that our method significantly outperformed state-of-the-art methods, elevating the information transfer rate (ITR) from 173.33 bits/min to 203.79 bits/min. By effectively modeling the regression from sine-cosine reference signals to SSVEP templates, SRRNet can construct SSVEP templates for unseen classes without training samples from those classes. By integrating regressed SSVEP templates with spatial filtering-based methods, our method enhances cross-stimulus transfer performance in SSVEP-BCIs, thus advancing their practical applicability. The code is available at https://github.com/MaiXiming/SRRNet.

RevDate: 2025-04-17

Yan L, Liu Z, Wang J, et al (2025)

Integrating Hard Silicon for High-Performance Soft Electronics via Geometry Engineering.

Nano-micro letters, 17(1):218.

Soft electronics, which are designed to function under mechanical deformation (such as bending, stretching, and folding), have become essential in applications like wearable electronics, artificial skin, and brain-machine interfaces. Crystalline silicon is one of the most mature and reliable materials for high-performance electronics; however, its intrinsic brittleness and rigidity pose challenges for integrating it into soft electronics. Recent research has focused on overcoming these limitations by utilizing structural design techniques to impart flexibility and stretchability to Si-based materials, such as transforming them into thin nanomembranes or nanowires. This review summarizes key strategies in geometry engineering for integrating crystalline silicon into soft electronics, from the use of hard silicon islands to creating out-of-plane foldable silicon nanofilms on flexible substrates, and ultimately to shaping silicon nanowires using vapor-liquid-solid or in-plane solid-liquid-solid techniques. We explore the latest developments in Si-based soft electronic devices, with applications in sensors, nanoprobes, robotics, and brain-machine interfaces. Finally, the paper discusses the current challenges in the field and outlines future research directions to enable the widespread adoption of silicon-based flexible electronics.

RevDate: 2025-04-15

Nirabi A, Rahman FA, Habaebi MH, et al (2025)

Cognitive load assessment through EEG: A dataset from arithmetic and Stroop tasks.

Data in brief, 60:111477.

This study introduces a thoughtfully curated dataset comprising electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings designed to unravel mental stress patterns through the perspective of cognitive load. The dataset incorporates EEG signals obtained from 15 subjects, with a gender distribution of 8 females and 7 males, and a mean age of 21.5 years [1]. Recordings were collected during the subjects' engagement in diverse tasks, including the Stroop color-word test and arithmetic problem-solving tasks. The recordings are categorized into four classes representing varying levels of induced mental stress: normal, low, mid, and high. Each task was performed for a duration of 10-20 s, and three trials were conducted for comprehensive data collection. Employing an OpenBCI device with an 8-channel Cyton board, the EEG captures intricate responses of the frontal lobe to cognitive challenges posed by the Stroop and Arithmetic Tests, recorded at a sampling rate of 250 Hz. The proposed dataset serves as a valuable resource for advancing research in the realm of brain-computer interfaces and offers insights into identifying EEG patterns associated with stress. The proposed dataset serves as a valuable resource for researchers, offering insights into identifying EEG patterns that correlate with different stress states. By providing a solid foundation for the development of algorithms capable of detecting and classifying stress levels, the dataset supports innovations in non-invasive monitoring tools and contributes to personalized healthcare solutions that can adapt to the cognitive states of users. This study's foundation is crucial for advancing stress classification research, with significant implications for cognitive function and well-being.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Kashou N (2025)

Editorial: New horizons in stroke management.

Frontiers in human neuroscience, 19:1587791.

RevDate: 2025-04-15
CmpDate: 2025-04-14

Bai R, Jia Y, Wang B, et al (2025)

In vivo spatiotemporal mapping of proliferation activity in gliomas via water-exchange dynamic contrast-enhanced MRI.

Theranostics, 15(10):4693-4707.

Proliferation activity mapping is crucial for the guidance of first biopsy and treatment evaluation of gliomas due to the highly heterogenous nature of glioma tumor. Here we propose and demonstrate an ease-of-use way of in vivo spatiotemporal mapping of proliferation activity by simply tracking transmembrane water dynamics with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Specifically, we demonstrated that proliferation activity can accelerate the transmembrane water transport in glioma cells. Method: The transmembrane water-efflux rate (k io) measured by water-exchange dynamic contrast-enhanced (DCE) MRI. Immunofluorescence, immunohistochemistry, and immunocytochemistry staining were used to validate results obtained from the in vivo imaging studies. Results: In glioma cell cultures, k io precisely followed the dynamic changes of proliferation activity in growth cycles and response to temozolomide (TMZ) treatment. In both animal glioma model and human glioma, k io linearly and strongly correlated with the spatial heterogeneity of intra-tumoral proliferation activity. More importantly, proliferation activity predicted by the single MRI parameter k io is much more accurate than those predicted by state-of-the-art methods using multimodal standard MRIs and advanced machine learning. Upregulated aquaporin 4 (AQP4) expression were observed in most proliferating glioma cells and the knockout of AQP4 could largely slow down proliferation activity, suggesting AQP4 is the potential molecule connecting MRI-k io with proliferation activity. Conclusion: This study provides an ease-of-use, accurate, and non-invasive imaging method for the spatiotemporal monitoring of proliferation activity in glioma.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Kapur A, Van Til M, Daignault-Newton S, et al (2025)

Association Between Urodynamic Findings and Urinary Retention After Onabotulinumtoxin A for Idiopathic Overactive Bladder.

Neurourology and urodynamics [Epub ahead of print].

INTRODUCTION: Onabotulinumtoxin A (BTX-A) is a minimally invasive therapy for idiopathic overactive bladder (iOAB). Incomplete bladder emptying is a known risk of the procedure, with an overall rate as high as 20% in male and female patients. Risk factors for incomplete bladder emptying after BTX-A have been reported in the literature, but are widely variable amongst studies and therefore patients at increased risk of this adverse effect cannot easily be identified by clinicians. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether pre-procedure urodynamics (UDS) findings are associated with incomplete bladder emptying after intradetrusor BTX-A injection for iOAB.

METHODS: Data were analyzed from the SUFU Research Network (SURN) multi-institutional retrospective database. Men and women undergoing first-time injection of 100 units BTX-A for iOAB in 2016 were included. Subjects were excluded if they did not have record of pre-procedure and post-procedure (within 1 month) post-void residual volume (PVR). The primary outcome was incidence of urinary retention within 1 month after BTX-A, defined as PVR > 300 mL and/or initiation of self-catheterization or indwelling catheter. We assessed the association of pre-procedure UDS parameters with urinary retention using Wilcoxon rank tests, Fisher's exact test, and chi-squared tests.

RESULTS: A total of 167 subjects (141 women, 26 men) were included. Ninety-nine subjects (59%) had urodynamic data. Thirty-seven subjects (22%) had urinary retention within 1 month of BTX-A. There were no significant differences in age, gender, race, or body mass index between the retention and non-retention groups. There was no statistically significant difference in median Qmax between those who did and did not have postprocedure retention (10.0 vs. 14.3 mL/s respectively, p = 0.06). Mean PVR at the start of UDS was not statistically significant when comparing the retention and non-retention groups (22.5 vs. 10.0 mL respectively, p = 0.70). Bladder outlet obstruction index (BOOI), bladder contractility index (BCI), and presence of detrusor overactivity (DO) were not found to be associated with posttreatment retention.

CONCLUSION: This retrospective multi-institutional cohort study revealed that of patients who receive UDS before BTX-A, there are no significant UDS parameters or baseline demographic factors associated with incomplete bladder emptying after intradetrusor BTX-A injections for iOAB. Future studies that focus on better defining objective evidence-based predictors of incomplete emptying after BTX are needed to optimize patient perception of efficacy and satisfaction with this therapy.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Jung M, Abu Shihada J, Decke S, et al (2025)

Flexible 3D Kirigami Probes for In Vitro and In Vivo Neural Applications.

Advanced materials (Deerfield Beach, Fla.) [Epub ahead of print].

3D microelectrode arrays (MEAs) are gaining popularity as brain-machine interfaces and platforms for studying electrophysiological activity. Interactions with neural tissue depend on the electrochemical, mechanical, and spatial features of the recording platform. While planar or protruding 2D MEAs are limited in their ability to capture neural activity across layers, existing 3D platforms still require advancements in manufacturing scalability, spatial resolution, and tissue integration. In this work, a customizable, scalable, and straightforward approach to fabricate flexible 3D kirigami MEAs containing both surface and penetrating electrodes, designed to interact with the 3D space of neural tissue, is presented. These novel probes feature up to 512 electrodes distributed across 128 shanks in a single flexible device, with shank heights reaching up to 1 mm. The 3D kirigami MEAs are successfully deployed in several neural applications, both in vitro and in vivo, and identified spatially dependent electrophysiological activity patterns. Flexible 3D kirigami MEAs are therefore a powerful tool for large-scale electrical sampling of complex neural tissues while improving tissue integration and offering enhanced capabilities for analyzing neural disorders and disease models where high spatial resolution is required.

RevDate: 2025-04-17
CmpDate: 2025-04-13

Wu Y, Liu Y, Yang Y, et al (2025)

A concept-based interpretable model for the diagnosis of choroid neoplasias using multimodal data.

Nature communications, 16(1):3504.

Diagnosing rare diseases remains a critical challenge in clinical practice, often requiring specialist expertise. Despite the promising potential of machine learning, the scarcity of data on rare diseases and the need for interpretable, reliable artificial intelligence (AI) models complicates development. This study introduces a multimodal concept-based interpretable model tailored to distinguish uveal melanoma (0.4-0.6 per million in Asians) from hemangioma and metastatic carcinoma following the clinical practice. We collected a comprehensive dataset on Asians to date on choroid neoplasm imaging with radiological reports, encompassing over 750 patients from 2013 to 2019. Our model integrates domain expert insights from radiological reports and differentiates between three types of choroidal tumors, achieving an F1 score of 0.91. This performance not only matches senior ophthalmologists but also improves the diagnostic accuracy of less experienced clinicians by 42%. The results underscore the potential of interpretable AI to enhance rare disease diagnosis and pave the way for future advancements in medical AI.

RevDate: 2025-04-13

Lorente-Piera J, Manrique-Huarte R, Picciafuoco S, et al (2025)

Optimization of surgical interventions in auditory rehabilitation for chronic otitis media: comparative between passive middle ear implants, bone conduction implants, and active middle ear systems.

European archives of oto-rhino-laryngology : official journal of the European Federation of Oto-Rhino-Laryngological Societies (EUFOS) : affiliated with the German Society for Oto-Rhino-Laryngology - Head and Neck Surgery [Epub ahead of print].

INTRODUCTION: In otology consultations, patients with chronic otitis media (COM) often present as candidates for various hearing rehabilitation options. Selecting the most suitable approach requires careful consideration of patient preferences and expectations, the risk of disease progression, and the integrity of the bone conduction pathway. This study aims to evaluate and compare postoperative hearing outcomes in COM patients undergoing tympanoplasty (with or without passive middle ear implants), bone conduction systems (BCI), or active middle ear implants (AMEI). The objective is to assess the effectiveness of each surgical approach in hearing rehabilitation, considering the type and severity of hearing loss as well as the duration of the disease.

METHODS: Retrospective data analysis in a tertiary referral center studying average PTA across six different frequencies, speech perception at 65 dB, influence of Eustachian tube dysfunction, reintervention rate and adverse effects, and the influence of disease duration on functional outcomes via linear regression analysis.

RESULTS: 116 patients underwent surgery due to COM between 1998 and 2024. With a slight female predominance (54.31%). AMEIs and bone conduction devices provided the highest amplification in terms of PTA and speech discrimination, with a lower reintervention rate when comparing both groups with passive middle ear implants, OR in BCI group of 0.30 (0.10; 0.89, p = 0.030), OR in VSB group of 0.15 (0.04; 0.56, p = 0.005). It was also observed that a longer evolution time could be associated with greater auditory gain, with a p-value = 0.033.

CONCLUSIONS: The selection of each treatment option primarily depends on bone conduction thresholds, along with surgical risk, patient preferences, and MRI compatibility. In our study, AMEIs demonstrated the highest functional gain in terms of speech discrimination and frequency-specific amplification, followed by BCI. These findings support the use of implantable hearing solutions as effective alternatives for auditory rehabilitation in COM patients.

RevDate: 2025-04-23

Choi JY, Kim YJ, Shin JS, et al (2025)

Integrative metabolic profiling of hypothalamus and skeletal muscle in a mouse model of cancer cachexia.

Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 763:151766.

Cancer cachexia is a multifactorial metabolic syndrome characterized by progressive weight loss, muscle wasting, and systemic inflammation. Despite its clinical significance, the underlying mechanisms linking central and peripheral metabolic changes remain incompletely understood. In this study, we employed a murine model of cancer cachexia induced by intraperitoneal injection of Lewis lung carcinoma (LLC1) cells to investigate tissue-specific metabolic adaptations. Cachectic mice exhibited reduced food intake, body weight loss, impaired thermoregulation, and decreased energy expenditure. Metabolomic profiling of serum, skeletal muscle, and hypothalamus revealed distinct metabolic shifts, with increased fatty acid and ketone body utilization and altered amino acid metabolism. Notably, hypothalamic metabolite changes diverged from peripheral tissues, showing decreased neurotransmitter-related metabolites and enhanced lipid-based energy signatures. Gene expression analysis further confirmed upregulation of glycolysis- and lipid oxidation-related genes in both hypothalamus and muscle. These findings highlight coordinated yet compartmentalized metabolic remodeling in cancer cachexia and suggest that hypothalamic adaptations may play a central role in the systemic energy imbalance associated with cachexia progression.

RevDate: 2025-04-23
CmpDate: 2025-04-12

Rybář M, Poli R, I Daly (2025)

Simultaneous EEG and fNIRS recordings for semantic decoding of imagined animals and tools.

Scientific data, 12(1):613.

Semantic neural decoding aims to identify which semantic concepts an individual focuses on at a given moment based on recordings of their brain activity. We investigated the feasibility of semantic neural decoding to develop a new type of brain-computer interface (BCI) that allows direct communication of semantic concepts, bypassing the character-by-character spelling used in current BCI systems. We provide data from our study to differentiate between two semantic categories of animals and tools during a silent naming task and three intuitive sensory-based imagery tasks using visual, auditory, and tactile perception. Participants were instructed to visualize an object (animal or tool) in their minds, imagine the sounds produced by the object, and imagine the feeling of touching the object. Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) signals were recorded from 12 participants. Additionally, EEG signals were recorded from 7 other participants in a follow-up experiment focusing solely on the auditory imagery task. These datasets can serve as a valuable resource for researchers investigating semantic neural decoding, brain-computer interfaces, and mental imagery.

RevDate: 2025-04-19
CmpDate: 2025-04-18

Liu N, Man L, He F, et al (2025)

[Correlation between urination intermittences and urodynamic parameters in benign prostatic hyperplasia patients].

Beijing da xue xue bao. Yi xue ban = Journal of Peking University. Health sciences, 57(2):328-333.

OBJECTIVE: To explore the impact factors and the clinical significance of the urination intermittences in benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) patients.

METHODS: A retrospective study was performed in BPH patients who underwent urodynamic studies in Beijing Jishuitan Hospital form January 2016 to June 2021. The patients were aged 45 to 84 years with a median age of 63 years, and all the patients had no previous history of neurological disease and had no positive findings in neurological examinations. All the patients had free uroflometry followed by urethral catheterization and urodynamic tests. The voiding work of bladder was calculated using the detrusor power curve method, and the voiding power of bladder and the voiding energy consumption were also calculated. The frequency of urination intermittences generated in uroflometry was also recorded and the patients were divided into different groups according to it. The detrusor pressure at maximal flow rate (PdetQmax), the maximal flow rate (Qmax), the bladder contractile index (BCI), the bladder outlet obstruction index (BOOI), the voiding work, the voiding power, and the voiding energy consumption were compared among the different groups. Multiva-riate analyses associated with presence of urination intermittences were performed using step-wise Logistic regressions.

RESULTS: There were 272 patients included in this study, of whom, 179 had no urination intermittence (group A), 46 had urination intermittence for only one time (group B), 22 had urination intermittence for two times (group C), and 25 had urination intermittence for three times and more (group D). The BCI were 113.4±28.2, 101.0±30.2, 83.3±30.2, 81.0±30.5 in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively; The voiding power were (29.2±14.8) mW, (16.4±9.6) mW, (14.5±7.1) mW, (8.5±5.0) mW in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively, and the differences were significant (P < 0.05). The BOOI were 41.6±29.3, 46.4±31.0, 41.4±29.0, 42.7±22.8 in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively; The voiding energy consumption were (5.41±2.21) J/L, (4.83±2.31) J/L, (5.02±2.54) J/L, (4.39±2.03) J/L in groups A, B, C, and D, respectively, and the differences were insignificant (P>0.05). Among the patients, 179 cases were negative in presence of urination intermittences and 93 cases were positive. Step-wise Logistic regression analysis showed that bladder power (OR=0.814, 95%CI: 0.765-0.866, P < 0.001), BCI (OR=1.023, 95%CI: 1.008-1.038, P=0.003), and bladder work (OR=2.232, 95%CI: 1.191-4.184, P=0.012) were independent risk factors for urination intermittences in the BPH patients.

CONCLUSION: The presence of urination intermittences in the BPH patients was mainly influenced by bladder contractile functions, and was irrelevant to the degree of bladder outlet obstruction. The increase of frequency of urination intermittences seemed to be a sign of the decrease of the bladder contractile functions in the BPH patients.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Ranjbar Koleibi E, Lemaire W, Koua K, et al (2025)

Design and Implementation of a Low-Power Biopotential Amplifier in 28 nm CMOS Technology with a Compact Die-Area of 2500 μm[2] and an Ultra-High Input Impedance.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(7):.

Neural signal recording demands compact, low-power, high-performance amplifiers, to enable large-scale, multi-channel electrode arrays. This work presents a bioamplifier optimized for action potential detection, designed using TSMC 28 nm HPC CMOS technology. The amplifier integrates an active low-pass filter, eliminating bulky DC-blocking capacitors and significantly reducing the size and power consumption. It achieved a high input impedance of 105.5 GΩ, ensuring minimal signal attenuation. Simulation and measurement results demonstrated a mid-band gain of 58 dB, a -3 dB bandwidth of 7 kHz, and an input-referred noise of 11.1 μVrms, corresponding to a noise efficiency factor (NEF) of 8.4. The design occupies a compact area of 2500 μm2, making it smaller than previous implementations for similar applications. Additionally, it operates with an ultra-low power consumption of 3.4 μW from a 1.2 V supply, yielding a power efficiency factor (PEF) of 85 and an area efficiency factor of 0.21. These features make the proposed amplifier well suited for multi-site in-skull neural recording systems, addressing critical constraints regarding miniaturization and power efficiency.

RevDate: 2025-04-14
CmpDate: 2025-04-12

Andreev A, Cattan G, M Congedo (2025)

The Riemannian Means Field Classifier for EEG-Based BCI Data.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(7):.

: A substantial amount of research has demonstrated the robustness and accuracy of the Riemannian minimum distance to mean (MDM) classifier for all kinds of EEG-based brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). This classifier is simple, fully deterministic, robust to noise, computationally efficient, and prone to transfer learning. Its training is very simple, requiring just the computation of a geometric mean of a symmetric positive-definite (SPD) matrix per class. We propose an improvement of the MDM involving a number of power means of SPD matrices instead of the sole geometric mean. By the analysis of 20 public databases, 10 for the motor-imagery BCI paradigm and 10 for the P300 BCI paradigm, comprising 587 individuals in total, we show that the proposed classifier clearly outperforms the MDM, approaching the state-of-the art in terms of performance while retaining the simplicity and the deterministic behavior. In order to promote reproducible research, our code will be released as open source.

RevDate: 2025-04-14
CmpDate: 2025-04-12

Gómez-Morales ÓW, Collazos-Huertas DF, Álvarez-Meza AM, et al (2025)

EEG Signal Prediction for Motor Imagery Classification in Brain-Computer Interfaces.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(7):.

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) based on motor imagery (MI) generally require EEG signals recorded from a large number of electrodes distributed across the cranial surface to achieve accurate MI classification. Not only does this entail long preparation times and high costs, but it also carries the risk of losing valuable information when an electrode is damaged, further limiting its practical applicability. In this study, a signal prediction-based method is proposed to achieve high accuracy in MI classification using EEG signals recorded from only a small number of electrodes. The signal prediction model was constructed using the elastic net regression technique, allowing for the estimation of EEG signals from 22 complete channels based on just 8 centrally located channels. The predicted EEG signals from the complete channels were used for feature extraction and MI classification. The results obtained indicate a notable efficacy of the proposed prediction method, showing an average performance of 78.16% in classification accuracy. The proposed method demonstrated superior performance compared to the traditional approach that used few-channel EEG and also achieved better results than the traditional method based on full-channel EEG. Although accuracy varies among subjects, from 62.30% to an impressive 95.24%, these data indicate the capability of the method to provide accurate estimates from a reduced set of electrodes. This performance highlights its potential to be implemented in practical MI-based BCI applications, thereby mitigating the time and cost constraints associated with systems that require a high density of electrodes.

RevDate: 2025-04-14
CmpDate: 2025-04-12

Xu H, Hassan SA, Haider W, et al (2025)

A Frequency-Shifting Variational Mode Decomposition-Based Approach to MI-EEG Signal Classification for BCIs.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(7):.

Electroencephalogram (EEG) signal analysis is crucial for understanding neural activity and advancing diagnostics in neurology. However, traditional signal decomposition (SD) techniques are hindered by two critical issues, mode mixing and mode aliasing, that compromise the quality of the decomposed signal. These challenges result in poor signal integrity, which significantly affects the accuracy of subsequent EEG interpretations and classifications. As EEG analysis is widely used in diagnosing conditions such as epilepsy, brain injuries, and sleep disorders, the impact of these shortcomings can be far-reaching, leading to misdiagnoses or delayed treatments. Despite extensive research on SD techniques, these issues remain largely unresolved, emphasizing the urgent need for a more reliable and precise approach. This study proposes a novel solution through the frequency-shifting variational mode decomposition (FS-VMD) method, which overcomes the limitations of traditional SD techniques by providing better resolution of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs). The FS-VMD method works by extracting and shifting the fundamental frequency of the EEG signal to a lower frequency range, followed by an iterative decomposition process that enhances signal clarity and reduces mode aliasing. By integrating advanced feature selection techniques and classifiers such as support vector machines (SVM), convolutional neural networks (CNN), and feature-weighted k-nearest neighbors (FWKNN), this approach offers a significant improvement in classification accuracy, with SVM achieving up to 99.99% accuracy in the 18-channel EEG setup with a standard deviation of 0.25. The results demonstrate that FS-VMD can address the critical issues of mode mixing and aliasing, providing a more accurate and efficient solution for EEG signal analysis and diagnostics.

RevDate: 2025-04-19
CmpDate: 2025-04-18

Chen LN, Zhou H, Xi K, et al (2025)

Proton perception and activation of a proton-sensing GPCR.

Molecular cell, 85(8):1640-1657.e8.

Maintaining pH at cellular, tissular, and systemic levels is essential for human health. Proton-sensing GPCRs regulate physiological and pathological processes by sensing the extracellular acidity. However, the molecular mechanism of proton sensing and activation of these receptors remains elusive. Here, we present cryoelectron microscopy (cryo-EM) structures of human GPR4, a prototypical proton-sensing GPCR, in its inactive and active states. Our studies reveal that three extracellular histidine residues are crucial for proton sensing of human GPR4. The binding of protons induces substantial conformational changes in GPR4's ECLs, particularly in ECL2, which transforms from a helix-loop to a β-turn-β configuration. This transformation leads to the rearrangements of H-bond network and hydrophobic packing, relayed by non-canonical motifs to accommodate G proteins. Furthermore, the antagonist NE52-QQ57 hinders human GPR4 activation by preventing hydrophobic stacking rearrangement. Our findings provide a molecular framework for understanding the activation mechanism of a human proton-sensing GPCR, aiding future drug discovery.

RevDate: 2025-04-13
CmpDate: 2025-04-11

Wang N, Wang Y, Guo M, et al (2025)

Dynamic gamma modulation of hippocampal place cells predominates development of theta sequences.

eLife, 13:.

The experience-dependent spatial cognitive process requires sequential organization of hippocampal neural activities by theta rhythm, which develops to represent highly compressed information for rapid learning. However, how the theta sequences were developed in a finer timescale within theta cycles remains unclear. In this study, we found in rats that sweep-ahead structure of theta sequences developing with exploration was predominantly dependent on a relatively large proportion of FG-cells, that is a subset of place cells dominantly phase-locked to fast gamma rhythms. These ensembles integrated compressed spatial information by cells consistently firing at precessing slow gamma phases within the theta cycle. Accordingly, the sweep-ahead structure of FG-cell sequences was positively correlated with the intensity of slow gamma phase precession, in particular during early development of theta sequences. These findings highlight the dynamic network modulation by fast and slow gamma in the development of theta sequences which may further facilitate memory encoding and retrieval.

RevDate: 2025-04-12

Feng J, Li Y, Huang Z, et al (2025)

Heterogeneous transfer learning model for improving the classification performance of fNIRS signals in motor imagery among cross-subject stroke patients.

Frontiers in human neuroscience, 19:1555690.

INTRODUCTION: Motor imagery functional near-infrared spectroscopy (MI-fNIRS) offers precise monitoring of neural activity in stroke rehabilitation, yet accurate cross-subject classification remains challenging due to limited training samples and significant inter-subject variability. This study proposes a Cross-Subject Heterogeneous Transfer Learning Model (CHTLM) to enhance the generalization of MI-fNIRS signal classification in stroke patients.

METHODS: CHTLM leverages labeled electroencephalogram (EEG) data from healthy individuals as the source domain. An adaptive feature matching network aligns task-relevant feature maps and convolutional layers between source (EEG) and target (fNIRS) domains. Multi-scale fNIRS features are extracted, and a sparse Bayesian extreme learning machine classifies the fused deep learning features.

RESULTS: Experiments utilized two MI-fNIRS datasets from eight stroke patients pre- and post-rehabilitation. CHTLM achieved average accuracies of 0.831 (pre-rehabilitation) and 0.913 (post-rehabilitation), with mean AUCs of 0.887 and 0.930, respectively. Compared to five baselines, CHTLM improved accuracy by 8.6-10.5% pre-rehabilitation and 11.3-15.7% post-rehabilitation.

DISCUSSION: The model demonstrates robust cross-subject generalization by transferring task-specific knowledge from heterogeneous EEG data while addressing domain discrepancies. Its performance gains post-rehabilitation suggest clinical potential for monitoring recovery progress. CHTLM advances MI-fNIRS-based brain-computer interfaces in stroke rehabilitation by mitigating data scarcity and variability challenges.

RevDate: 2025-04-13
CmpDate: 2025-04-10

Qi W, Zhang Y, Su Y, et al (2025)

Exploring cortical excitability in children with cerebral palsy through lower limb robot training based on MI-BCI.

Scientific reports, 15(1):12285.

This study aims to compare brain activity differences under the motor imagery-brain-computer interface (MI-BCI), motor imagery (MI), and resting (REST) paradigms through EEG microstate and functional connectivity (FC) analysis, providing a theoretical basis for applying MI-BCI in the rehabilitation of children with cerebral palsy (CP). This study included 30 subjects aged 4-6 years with GMFCS II-III grade, diagnosed with CP and classified as spastic diplegia. They sequentially completed EEG signal acquisition under REST, MI, and MI-BCI conditions. Clustering analysis was used to analyze EEG microstates and extract EEG microstate temporal parameters. Additionally, the strength of brain FC in different frequency bands was analyzed to compare the differences under various conditions. Four microstate classes (A-D) were identified to best explain the datasets of three groups. Compared to REST, the average duration and coverage rate of microstate D under MI and MI-BCI significantly increased (P < 0.05), while their frequency and the coverage rate and frequency of microstate A decreased. Compared to MI, the average duration of microstate C under MI-BCI significantly decreased (P < 0.05), while the frequency of microstate B significantly increased (P < 0.05). Additionally, the transition probability results showed that other microstates under REST had a higher transition probability to microstate A, while under MI and MI-BCI, other microstates had a higher transition probability to microstate D. The brain network results revealed significant differences in brain network connectivity among REST, MI, and MI-BCI across different frequency bands. No FC differences were found between REST, MI, and MI-BCI in the α2 frequency band. In the δ and γ frequency bands, MI and MI-BCI both had greater inter-electrode connectivity strength than REST. In the θ frequency band, REST had greater inter-electrode connectivity strength than MI-BCI, while MI-BCI had greater inter-electrode connectivity strength than both REST and MI. In the α1 frequency band, MI-BCI had greater inter-electrode connectivity strength than REST, and in the β frequency band, MI-BCI had greater inter-electrode connectivity strength than MI. MI-BCI can significantly alter the brain activity patterns of children with CP, particularly by enhancing the activity intensity of EEG microstates related to attention, motor planning, and execution, as well as the brain FC strength in different frequency bands. It holds high application value in the lower limb motor rehabilitation of children with CP.

RevDate: 2025-04-10

Benioudakis ES, Kalaitzaki A, Karlafti E, et al (2025)

Psychometric Properties and Dimensionality of the Greek Version of the Hypoglycemic Confidence Scale.

Journal of nursing measurement pii:JNM-2024-0108 [Epub ahead of print].

Background and purpose: The prevalence of type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1D) is rising at an alarming rate and is projected to continue increasing in the coming years. The primary approach to preventing diabetes-related complications in individuals with T1D is the exogenous administration of insulin. However, this method can sometimes lead to hypoglycemia, a condition with a wide range of symptoms, including loss of consciousness, seizures, coma, and, in severe cases, death. This study aims to present the psychometric properties of the Greek translation of the Hypoglycemic Confidence Scale (HCS). The HCS measures an individual's sense of personal strength and comfort based on the belief that they possess the necessary resources to manage and prevent hypoglycemia-related complications. Methods: We conducted a forward and backward translation, along with a cultural adaptation, of the HCS into Greek. The psychometric properties of the scale were evaluated through confirmatory factor analysis. To assess the reliability, we calculated the intraclass correlation coefficient, while internal consistency was measured using Cronbach's coefficient α. Construct validity was evaluated through convergent and divergent validity, comparing the HCS-Gr with the Diabetes Quality of Life Brief Clinical Inventory (DQoL-BCI) and hemoglobin A1C levels. Differential validity was assessed using the known-groups method. Results: Ninety-seven adults with T1D, aged between 18 and 57 years (mean age: 38.6 ± 11.7), completed the HCS-Gr. The two structures of the HCS-Gr demonstrated strong internal consistency, with Cronbach's coefficient α values of 0.87 for the eight-item version and 0.86 for the nine-item version. Convergent validity was supported by moderate negative correlations between both HCS-Gr versions and the DQoL-BCI subscales and total score. The HCS-Gr also showed satisfactory test-retest reliability and differential validity, confirming its robustness as a psychometric tool. Conclusion: The HCS-Gr is a valid and reliable tool for assessing confidence (or self-efficacy) in managing hypoglycemic situations among individuals with T1D in Greece.

RevDate: 2025-04-10

Ruiz Ibán MA, García Navlet M, Marco SM, et al (2025)

AUGMENTATION WITH A BOVINE BIOINDUCTIVE COLLAGEN IMPLANT OF A POSTEROSUPERIOR CUFF REPAIR SHOWS LOWER RETEAR RATES BUT SIMILAR OUTCOMES COMPARED TO NO AUGMENTATION: 2-YEAR RESULTS OF A RANDOMIZED CONTROLLED TRIAL.

Arthroscopy : the journal of arthroscopic & related surgery : official publication of the Arthroscopy Association of North America and the International Arthroscopy Association pii:S0749-8063(25)00254-3 [Epub ahead of print].

PURPOSE: To assess the clinical and radiological outcomes of the addition of a bioinductive collagen implant (BCI) over the repair of medium-to-large posterosuperior rotator cuff tears at 24-month follow-up.

METHODS: This is an update of a randomized controlled trial that was extended from one to two-year follow-up. 124 subjects with symptomatic full-thickness posterosuperior rotator cuff tears, with fatty infiltration Goutalier grade ≤2 were randomized to two groups in which a transosseous equivalent repair was performed alone (Control group) or with BCI applied over the repair (BCI group). The outcomes reassessed at 2-year follow-up were: Sugaya grade, retear rate and tendon thickness in MRI; and the clinical outcomes (pain levels, EQ-5D-5L, American Shoulder and Elbow Society[ASES] and Constant-Murley scores[CMS]).

RESULTS: There were no relevant differences in preoperative characteristics. There were no additional complications or reinterventions in the second year of follow-up. 114 (59 males-55 males, age=58.1[SD:7.35] years) of 124 randomized patients (91.9%), underwent MRI evaluation 25.4[1.95] months after surgery. There was a lower retear rate (12.3%[7/57]) in the BCI group compared to the Control group (35.1%[20/57]) (p=0.004; relative risk of retear 0.35[CI-95%:0.16 to 0.76]). Sugaya grade was also better in the BCI group (2.58[1.07] vs 3.14[1.19]; p=0.020). Two-year Clinical follow-up at 25.8[2.75] months performed in 114 of 124 patients(91.9%) showed improvements in both groups (p<0.001), with 87% improving more than the MCID for CMS and 90% for ASES, but there were no differences between groups. In subjects with both MRI and clinical assessment (n=112), those with an intact tendon presented better CMS(p=0.035), ASES(p=0.015) and pain(p=0.006) scores than those with a failed repair.

CONCLUSION: Augmentation with a BCI of a TOE repair in posterosuperior rotator cuff tears clearly reduces the retear rate at two-year follow-up without increased complication rates and similar clinical outcomes. Subjects with failed repairs had poorer clinical outcomes.

LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: Level 1, Randomized controlled trial.

RevDate: 2025-04-12
CmpDate: 2025-04-10

Kurmanavičiūtė D, Kataja H, L Parkkonen (2025)

Comparing MEG and EEG measurement set-ups for a brain-computer interface based on selective auditory attention.

PloS one, 20(4):e0319328.

Auditory attention modulates auditory evoked responses to target vs. non-target sounds in electro- and magnetoencephalographic (EEG/MEG) recordings. Employing whole-scalp MEG recordings and offline classification algorithms has been shown to enable high accuracy in tracking the target of auditory attention. Here, we investigated the decrease in accuracy when moving from the whole-scalp MEG to lower channel count EEG recordings and when training the classifier only from the initial or middle part of the recording instead of extracting training trials throughout the recording. To this end, we recorded simultaneous MEG (306 channels) and EEG (64 channels) in 18 healthy volunteers while presented with concurrent streams of spoken "Yes"/"No" words and instructed to attend to one of them. We then trained support vector machine classifiers to predict the target of attention from unaveraged trials of MEG/EEG. Classifiers were trained on 204 MEG gradiometers or on EEG with 64, 30, nine or three channels with trials extracted randomly across or only from the beginning of the recording. The highest classification accuracy, 73.2% on average across the participants for one-second trials, was obtained with MEG when the training trials were randomly extracted throughout the recording. With EEG, the accuracy was 69%, 69%, 66%, and 61% when using 64, 30, nine, and three channels, respectively. When training the classifiers with the same amount of data but extracted only from the beginning of the recording, the accuracy dropped by 11%-units on average, causing the result from the three-channel EEG to fall below the chance level. The combination of five consecutive trials partially compensated for this drop such that it was one to 5%-units. Although moving from whole-scalp MEG to EEG reduces classification accuracy, usable auditory-attention-based brain-computer interfaces can be implemented with a small set of optimally placed EEG channels.

RevDate: 2025-04-11

Zhang H, Wang X, Chen G, et al (2025)

Noninvasive Intracranial Source Signal Localization and Decoding with High Spatiotemporal Resolution.

Cyborg and bionic systems (Washington, D.C.), 6:0206.

High spatiotemporal resolution of noninvasive electroencephalography (EEG) signals is an important prerequisite for fine brain-computer manipulation. However, conventional scalp EEG has a low spatial resolution due to the volume conductor effect, making it difficult to accurately identify the intent of brain-computer manipulation. In recent years, transcranial focused ultrasound modulated EEG technology has increasingly become a research hotspot, which is expected to acquire noninvasive acoustoelectric coupling signals with a high spatial and temporal resolution. In view of this, this study established a transcranial focused ultrasound numerical simulation model and experimental platform based on a real brain model and a 128-array phased array, further constructed a 3-dimensional transcranial multisource dipole localization and decoding numerical simulation model and experimental platform based on the acoustic field platform, and developed a high-precision localization and decoding algorithm. The results show that the simulation-guided phased-array acoustic field experimental platform can achieve accurate focusing in both pure water and transcranial conditions within a safe threshold, with a modulation range of 10 mm, and the focal acoustic pressure can be enhanced by more than 200% compared with that of transducer self-focusing. In terms of dipole localization decoding results, the proposed algorithm in this study has a localization signal-to-noise ratio of 24.18 dB, which is 50.59% higher than that of the traditional algorithm, and the source signal decoding accuracy is greater than 0.85. This study provides a reliable experimental basis and technical support for high-spatiotemporal-resolution noninvasive EEG signal acquisition and precise brain-computer manipulation.

RevDate: 2025-04-15
CmpDate: 2025-04-10

Sun Y, Yu N, Chen G, et al (2025)

What Else Is Happening to the Mirror Neurons?-A Bibliometric Analysis of Mirror Neuron Research Trends and Future Directions (1996-2024).

Brain and behavior, 15(4):e70486.

BACKGROUND: Since its discovery in the late 20th century, research on mirror neurons has become a pivotal area in neuroscience, linked to various cognitive and social functions. This bibliometric analysis explores the research trajectory, key research topics, and future trends in the field of mirror neuron research.

METHODS: We searched the Web of Science Core Collection (WoSCC) database for publications from 1996 to 2024 on mirror neuron research. Statistical and visualization analyses were performed using CiteSpace and VOSviewer.

RESULTS: Publication output on mirror neurons peaked in 2013 and remained active. High-impact journals such as Science, Brain, Neuron, PNAS, and NeuroImage frequently feature findings on the mirror neuron system, including its distribution, neural coding, and roles in intention understanding, affective empathy, motor learning, autism, and neurological disorders. Keyword clustering reveals major directions in cognitive neuroscience, motor neuroscience, and neurostimulation, whereas burst detection underscores the emerging significance of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). Research methodologies have been evolving from traditional electrophysiological recordings to advanced techniques such as functional magnetic resonance imaging, transcranial magnetic stimulation, and BCIs, highlighting a dynamic, multidisciplinary progression.

CONCLUSIONS: This study identifies key areas associated with mirror neurons and anticipates that future work will integrate findings with artificial intelligence, clinical interventions, and novel neuroimaging techniques, providing new perspectives on complex socio-cognitive issues and their applications in both basic science and clinical practice.

RevDate: 2025-04-14

Yang L, Guo C, Zheng Z, et al (2025)

Stress dynamically modulates neuronal autophagy to gate depression onset.

Nature [Epub ahead of print].

Chronic stress remodels brain homeostasis, in which persistent change leads to depressive disorders[1]. As a key modulator of brain homeostasis[2], it remains elusive whether and how brain autophagy is engaged in stress dynamics. Here we discover that acute stress activates, whereas chronic stress suppresses, autophagy mainly in the lateral habenula (LHb). Systemic administration of distinct antidepressant drugs similarly restores autophagy function in the LHb, suggesting LHb autophagy as a common antidepressant target. Genetic ablation of LHb neuronal autophagy promotes stress susceptibility, whereas enhancing LHb autophagy exerts rapid antidepressant-like effects. LHb autophagy controls neuronal excitability, synaptic transmission and plasticity by means of on-demand degradation of glutamate receptors. Collectively, this study shows a causal role of LHb autophagy in maintaining emotional homeostasis against stress. Disrupted LHb autophagy is implicated in the maladaptation to chronic stress, and its reversal by autophagy enhancers provides a new antidepressant strategy.

RevDate: 2025-04-12
CmpDate: 2025-04-09

Amann LK, Casasnovas V, A Gail (2025)

Visual target and task-critical feedback uncertainty impair different stages of reach planning in motor cortex.

Nature communications, 16(1):3372.

Sensory uncertainty jeopardizes accurate movement. During reaching, visual uncertainty can affect the estimation of hand position (feedback) and the desired movement endpoint (target). While impairing motor learning, it is unclear how either form of uncertainty affects cortical reach goal encoding. We show that reach trajectories vary more with higher visual uncertainty of the target, but not the feedback. Accordingly, cortical motor goal activities in male rhesus monkeys are less accurate during planning and movement initiation under target but not feedback uncertainty. Yet, when monkeys critically depend on visual feedback to conduct reaches via a brain-computer interface, then visual feedback uncertainty impairs reach accuracy and neural motor goal encoding around movement initiation. Neural state space analyses reveal a dimension that separates population activity by uncertainty level in all tested conditions. Our findings demonstrate that while both target and feedback uncertainty always reflect in neural activity, uncertain feedback only deteriorates neural reach goal information and behavior when it is task-critical, i.e., when having to rely on the sensory feedback and no other more reliable sensory modalities are available. Further, uncertain target and feedback impair reach goal encoding in a time-dependent manner, suggesting that they are integrated during different stages of reach planning.

RevDate: 2025-04-13

Hasegawa R, R Poulin (2025)

Effect of parasite infections on fish body condition: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

International journal for parasitology pii:S0020-7519(25)00051-7 [Epub ahead of print].

Using host body condition indices (BCIs) based on the relationship between host body mass and length is a general and pervasive approach to assess the negative effects of parasites on host health. Although many researchers, especially fish biologists and fisheries managers, commonly utilize BCIs, the overall general patterns among BCI - infection relationships remain unclear. Here, we first systematically reviewed 985 fish BCI - infection relationships from 216 publications and investigated the factors affecting the strength and directionality of effects in BCI - infection relationships. We specifically predicted that the BCI measure used, parasite taxonomic group, and the infection measure used would influence the observed effect size and directionality of BCI - infection relationships. We found that most studies were heavily biased towards specific BCI measures such as Fulton's BCI and Relative BCI. Furthermore, studies using Fulton's BCI were more likely to report significant results compared with those using other BCI measures, suggesting that index choice could lead to an overestimation of the negative effects of parasites. Our meta-regressions uncovered that the use of parasite intensity as an infection measure and studies based on experimental rather than natural infections were more likely to report significant negative effects, however there were no differences among parasite taxonomic groups. Surprisingly, many studies, especially field studies, did not report significant negative correlations between BCI and infection, contrary to widespread expectations among researchers that parasites would negatively affect fish health. We discuss potential mechanisms underlying these results. Finally, we make several recommendations for the use of BCI - infection relationships in future studies.

RevDate: 2025-04-24
CmpDate: 2025-04-24

Tan H, Hu YT, Goudswaard A, et al (2025)

Increased oxytocin/vasopressin ratio in bipolar disorder in a cohort of human postmortem adults.

Neurobiology of disease, 209:106904.

Bipolar disorder (BD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) share some common characteristics in stress-related brain circuits, but they also exhibit distinct symptoms. Our previous postmortem research on the immunoreactivity (ir) levels of neuropeptide oxytocin (OT) in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (OT[PVN]) and some clinical research on plasma OT levels suggested that increased levels of OT is a potential trait marker for BD. However, dysregulation of the related neuropeptide arginine vasopressin (AVP), that often shows opposite effects for stress responses compared to OT has not been investigated in BD. Moreover, it remains so far unknown what the contribution may be of OT produced in the hypothalamic supraoptic nucleus (SON), another major source of OT (OT[SON]). Therefore, in the present postmortem study, alterations in levels of OT-ir and for the first time in AVP-ir were determined in the SON and PVN among patients with BD, MDD, and matched controls. We observed a significantly increased OT[PVN]-ir but relatively stable AVP[PVN]-ir in male BD, and a significantly decreased AVP[PVN]-ir but relatively stable OT[PVN]-ir in female BD patients. A significantly increased ratio of OT-ir/AVP-ir was observed only in BD patients in both, the PVN and SON. No significant changes in OT-ir or AVP-ir were found in MDD patients compared with controls. Our data illustrate a clear disease- and sex-specificity of the OT and AVP changes in BD. In addition, since increased AVP-ir was observed in female BD patients with lithium nephropathy, increased AVP may have a direct effect on symptoms of BD.

RevDate: 2025-04-22
CmpDate: 2025-04-22

Pang Y, Wang X, Zhao Z, et al (2025)

Multi-view collaborative ensemble classification for EEG signals based on 3D second-order difference plot and CSP.

Physics in medicine and biology, 70(8):.

Objective.EEG signal analysis methods based on electrical source imaging (ESI) technique have significantly improved classification accuracy and response time. However, for the refined and informative source signals, the current studies have not fully considered their dynamic variability in feature extraction and lacked an effective integration of their dynamic variability and spatial characteristics. Additionally, the adaptability and complementarity of classifiers have not been considered comprehensively. These two aspects lead to the issue of insufficient decoding of source signals, which still limits the application of brain-computer interface (BCI). To address these challenges, this paper proposes a multi-view collaborative ensemble classification method for EEG signals based on three-dimensional second-order difference plot (3D SODP) and common spatial pattern.Approach.First, EEG signals are mapped to the source domain using the ESI technique, and then the source signals in the region of interest are obtained. Next, features from three viewpoints of the source signals are extracted, including 3D SODP features, spatial features, and the weighted fusion of both. Finally, the extracted multi-view features are integrated with subject-specific sub-classifier combination, and a voting mechanism is used to determine the final classification.Main results.The results show that the proposed method achieves classification accuracy of 81.3% and 82.6% respectively in two sessions of the OpenBMI dataset, which is nearly 5% higher than the state-of-the-art method, and maintains the analysis response time required for online BCI.Significance.This paper employs multi-view feature extraction to fully capture the characteristics of the source signals and enhances feature utilization through collaborative ensemble classification. The results demonstrate high accuracy and robust performance, providing a novel approach for online BCI.

RevDate: 2025-04-17
CmpDate: 2025-04-17

Yin S, Yue Z, Qu H, et al (2025)

Enhancing lower-limb motor imagery using a paradigm with visual and spatiotemporal tactile synchronized stimulation.

Journal of neural engineering, 22(2):.

Objective.Vibrotactile stimulation (VS) has been widely used as an appropriate motor imagery (MI) guidance strategy to improve MI performance. However, most VS induced by a single vibrator cannot provide spatiotemporal information of tactile sensation associated with the visual guidance of the imagined motion process, not vividly providing MI guidance for subjects.Approach.This paper proposed a paradigm with visual and spatiotemporal tactile synchronized stimulation (VSTSS) to provide vivid MI guidance to help subjects perform lower-limb MI tasks and improve MI-based brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) performance, with a focus on poorly performing subjects. The proposed paradigm provided subjects with the natural spatiotemporal tactile sensation associated with the visual guidance of the foot movement process during MI. Fourteen healthy subjects were recruited to participate in the MI and Rest tasks and divided into good and poor performers. Furthermore, electrophysiological features and classification performance were analyzed to assess motor cortical activation and MI-BCI performance under no VS (NVS), VS, and VSTSS.Main results.The phenomenon of event-related desynchronization (ERD) in the sensorimotor cortex during MI under the VSTSS was more pronounced compared to the NVS and VS. Specifically, the VSTSS could improve the average ERD values in the motor cortex during the task segment by 34.70% and 14.28% than the NVS and VS in the alpha rhythm for poor performers, respectively. Additionally, the VSTSS could significantly enhance the classification accuracy between the MI and Rest tasks by 12.52% and 4.05% compared to NVS and VS for poor performers, respectively.Significance.The proposed paradigm could enhance motor cortical activation during MI and improve classification performance by providing vivid MI guidance for subjects, offering a promise for the application of lower-limb MI-BCI in stroke rehabilitation in the future.

RevDate: 2025-04-09

Collinger J, Vansteensel MJ, Mrachacz-Kersting N, et al (2025)

Special Issue on Brain-Computer Interfaces: Highlighting Research from the 10th International Brain-Computer Interface Meeting.

Journal of neural engineering [Epub ahead of print].

N/A.

RevDate: 2025-04-11
CmpDate: 2025-04-11

Sîmpetru RC, Braun DI, Simon AU, et al (2025)

MyoGestic: EMG interfacing framework for decoding multiple spared motor dimensions in individuals with neural lesions.

Science advances, 11(15):eads9150.

Restoring motor function in individuals with spinal cord injuries (SCIs), strokes, or amputations is a crucial challenge. Recent studies show that spared motor neurons can still be voluntarily controlled using surface electromyography (EMG), even without visible movement. To harness these signals, we developed a wireless, high-density EMG bracelet and a software framework, MyoGestic. Our system enables rapid adaptation of machine learning models to users' needs, allowing real-time decoding of spared motor dimensions. In our study, we successfully decoded motor intent from two participants with traumatic SCI, two with spinal stroke, and three with amputations in real time, achieving multiple controllable motor dimensions within minutes. The decoded neural signals could control a digitally rendered hand, an orthosis, a prosthesis, or a two-dimensional cursor. MyoGestic's participant-centered approach allows a collaborative and iterative development of myocontrol algorithms, bridging the gap between researcher and participant, to advance intuitive EMG interfaces for neural lesions.

RevDate: 2025-04-11
CmpDate: 2025-04-08

Zhao Y, Wu JT, Feng JB, et al (2025)

Dual and plasticity-dependent regulation of cerebello-zona incerta circuits on anxiety-like behaviors.

Nature communications, 16(1):3339.

Clinical observation has identified cerebellar cognitive affective syndrome, which is characterized by various non-motor dysfunctions such as social disorders and anxiety. Increasing evidence has revealed reciprocal mono-/poly-synaptic connections of cerebello-cerebral circuits, forming the concept of the cerebellar connectome. In this study, we demonstrate that neurons in the cerebellar nuclei (CN) of male mice project to a subset of zona incerta (ZI) neurons through long-range glutamatergic and GABAergic transmissions, both capable of encoding acute stress. Furthermore, activating or inhibiting glutamatergic and GABAergic transmissions in the CN → ZI pathway can positively or negatively regulate anxiety and place preference through presynaptic plasticity-dependent mechanisms, as well as mediate motor-induced alleviation of anxiety. Our data support the close relationship between the cerebellum and emotional processes and suggest that targeting cerebellar outputs may be an effective approach for treating anxiety.

RevDate: 2025-04-18
CmpDate: 2025-04-08

Guttmann-Flury E, Sheng X, X Zhu (2025)

Dataset combining EEG, eye-tracking, and high-speed video for ocular activity analysis across BCI paradigms.

Scientific data, 12(1):587.

In Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) research, the detailed study of blinks is crucial. They can be considered as noise, affecting the efficiency and accuracy of decoding users' cognitive states and intentions, or as potential features, providing valuable insights into users' behavior and interaction patterns. We introduce a large dataset capturing electroencephalogram (EEG) signals, eye-tracking, high-speed camera recordings, as well as subjects' mental states and characteristics, to provide a multifactor analysis of eye-related movements. Four paradigms - motor imagery, motor execution, steady-state visually evoked potentials, and P300 spellers - are selected due to their capacity to evoke various sensory-motor responses and potential influence on ocular activity. This online-available dataset contains over 46 hours of data from 31 subjects across 63 sessions, totaling 2520 trials for each of the first three paradigms, and 5670 for P300. This multimodal and multi-paradigms dataset is expected to allow the development of algorithms capable of efficiently handling eye-induced artifacts and enhancing task-specific classification. Furthermore, it offers the opportunity to evaluate the cross-paradigm robustness involving the same participants.

RevDate: 2025-04-11
CmpDate: 2025-04-08

Ueda M, Ueno K, Inoue T, et al (2025)

Detection of motor-related mu rhythm desynchronization by ear EEG.

PloS one, 20(4):e0321107.

Event-related desynchronization (ERD) of the mu rhythm (8-13 Hz) is an important indicator of motor execution, neurofeedback, and brain-computer interface in EEG. This study investigated the feasibility of an ear electroencephalography (EEG) device monitoring mu-ERD during hand grasp and release movements. The EEG data of the right hand movement and the eye opened resting condition were measured with an ear EEG device. We calculated and compared mu rhythm power and time-frequency data from 20 healthy participants during right hand movement and eye opened resting. Our results showed a significant difference of mean mu rhythm power between the eye opened rest condition and the right hand movement condition and significant suppression in the 9-12.5 Hz frequency band in the time-frequency data. These results support the utility of ear EEG in detecting motor activity-related mu-ERD. Ear EEG could be instrumental in refining rehabilitation strategies by providing in-situ assessment of motor function and tailored feedback.

RevDate: 2025-04-08

Wang Z, Li A, Wang Z, et al (2025)

BSAN: A Self-Adapted Motor Imagery Decoding Framework Based on Contextual Information.

IEEE journal of biomedical and health informatics, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

In motor imagery (MI) decoding, it still remains challenging to excavate enough contextual information of MI in different brain regions and to bridge the cross-session variance in feature distributions. In light of these issues, our study presents an innovative Bi-Stream Adaptation Network (BSAN) to bolster network efficacy, aiming to improve MI-based brain-computer interface (BCI) robustness across sessions. Our framework consists of the Bi-attention module, feature extractor, classifier, and Bi-discriminator. Precisely, we devise the Bi-attention module to reveal granular context information of MI with performing multi-scale convolutions asymptotically. Then, after features extraction, Bi-discriminator is involved to align the features from different MI sessions such that a uniform and accurate representation of neural patterns is achieved. By such a workflow, the proposed BSAN allows for the effective fusion of context coherence and session-invariance within the network architecture, therefore diminishing the reliance of redundant MI trials for MI-BCI re-calibration. To empirically substantiate BSAN, comprehensive experiments are conducted based on two public MI datasets. With average accuracies of 78.97% and 83.79% on two public datasets, and an inference time of 2.99 ms on CPU-only devices, it is believed that our approach has the potential to accelerate the practical deployment of MI-BCI.

RevDate: 2025-04-08

Won C, Cho S, Jang KI, et al (2025)

Emerging fiber-based neural interfaces with conductive composites.

Materials horizons [Epub ahead of print].

Neural interfaces that enable bidirectional communication between neural systems and external devices are crucial for treating neurological disorders and advancing brain-machine interfaces. Key requirements for these neural interfaces are the ability to modulate electrophysiological activity without causing tissue damage in the nerve system and long-term usability. Recent advances in biomedical neural electrodes aim to reduce mechanical mismatch between devices and surrounding tissues/organs while maintaining their electrical conductivity. Among these, fiber electrodes stand out as essential candidates for future neural interfaces owing to their remarkable flexibility, controllable scalability, and facile integration with systems. Herein, we introduce fiber-based devices with conductive composites, along with their fabrication technologies, and integration strategies for future neural interfaces. Compared to conventional neural electrodes, fiber electrodes readily combine with conductive materials such as metal nanoparticles, carbon-based nanomaterials, and conductive polymers. Their fabrication technologies enable high electrical performance without sacrificing mechanical properties. In addition, the neural modulation techniques of fiber electrodes; electrical, optical, and chemical, and their applications in central and peripheral nervous systems are carefully discussed. Finally, current limitations and potential advancements in fiber-based neural interfaces are highlighted for future innovations.

RevDate: 2025-04-08

Tor A, Clarke SE, Bray IE, et al (2025)

Material Damage to Multielectrode Arrays after Electrolytic Lesioning is in the Noise.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology pii:2025.03.26.645429.

1The quality of stable long-term recordings from chronically implanted electrode arrays is essential for experimental neuroscience and brain-computer interfaces. This work uses scanning electron microscopy (SEM) to image and analyze eight 96-channel Utah arrays previously implanted in motor cortical regions of four subjects (subject H = 2242 days implanted, F = 1875, U = 2680, C = 594), providing important contributions to a growing body of long-term implant research leveraging this imaging technology. Four of these arrays have been used in electrolytic lesioning experiments (H = 10 lesions, F = 1, U = 4, C = 1), a novel electrolytic perturbation technique using small direct currents. In addition to surveying physical damage, such as biological debris and material deterioration, this work also analyzes whether electrolytic lesioning created damage beyond what is typical for these arrays. Each electrode was scored in six damage categories, identified from the literature: abnormal debris, metal coating cracks, silicon tip breakage, parylene C delamination, parylene C cracks, and shank fracture. This analysis confirms previous results that observed damage on explanted arrays is more severe on the outer-edge electrodes versus inner electrodes. These findings also indicate that are no statistically significant differences between the damage observed on normal electrodes versus electrodes used for electrolytic lesioning. This work provides evidence that electrolytic lesioning does not significantly affect the quality of chronically implanted electrode arrays and can be a useful tool in understanding perturbations to neural systems. Finally, this work also includes the largest collection of single-electrode SEM images for previously implanted multielectrode Utah arrays, spanning eleven different intact arrays and one broken array. As the clinical relevance of chronically implanted electrodes with single-neuron resolution continues to grow, these images may be used to provide the foundation for a larger public database and inform further electrode design and analyses.

RevDate: 2025-04-09

Yu H, Mu Q, Wang Z, et al (2025)

A study on early diagnosis for fracture non-union prediction using deep learning and bone morphometric parameters.

Frontiers in medicine, 12:1547588.

BACKGROUND: Early diagnosis of non-union fractures is vital for treatment planning, yet studies using bone morphometric parameters for this purpose are scarce. This study aims to create a fracture micro-CT image dataset, design a deep learning algorithm for fracture segmentation, and develop an early diagnosis model for fracture non-union.

METHODS: Using fracture animal models, micro-CT images from 12 rats at various healing stages (days 1, 7, 14, 21, 28, and 35) were analyzed. Fracture lesion frames were annotated to create a high-resolution dataset. We proposed the Vision Mamba Triplet Attention and Edge Feature Decoupling Module UNet (VM-TE-UNet) for fracture area segmentation. And we extracted bone morphometric parameters to establish an early diagnostic evaluation system for the non-union of fractures.

RESULTS: A dataset comprising 2,448 micro-CT images of the rat fracture lesions with fracture Region of Interest (ROI), bone callus and healing characteristics was established and used to train and test the proposed VM-TE-UNet which achieved a Dice Similarity Coefficient of 0.809, an improvement over the baseline's 0.765, and reduced the 95th Hausdorff Distance to 13.1. Through ablation studies, comparative experiments, and result analysis, the algorithm's effectiveness and superiority were validated. Significant differences (p < 0.05) were observed between the fracture and fracture non-union groups during the inflammatory and repair phases. Key indices, such as the average CT values of hematoma and cartilage tissues, BS/TS and BS/TV of mineralized cartilage, BS/TV of osteogenic tissue, and BV/TV of osteogenic tissue, align with clinical methods for diagnosing fracture non-union by assessing callus presence and local soft tissue swelling. On day 14, the early diagnosis model achieved an AUC of 0.995, demonstrating its ability to diagnose fracture non-union during the soft-callus phase.

CONCLUSION: This study proposed the VM-TE-UNet for fracture areas segmentation, extracted micro-CT indices, and established an early diagnostic model for fracture non-union. We believe that the prediction model can effectively screen out samples of poor fracture rehabilitation caused by blood supply limitations in rats 14 days after fracture, rather than the widely accepted 35 or 40 days. This provides important reference for the clinical prediction of fracture non-union and early intervention treatment.

RevDate: 2025-04-09

Yang Y, Zhao H, Hao Z, et al (2025)

Recognition of brain activities via graph-based long short-term memory-convolutional neural network.

Frontiers in neuroscience, 19:1546559.

INTRODUCTION: Human brain activities are always difficult to recognize due to its diversity and susceptibility to disturbance. With its unique capability of measuring brain activities, magnetoencephalography (MEG), as a high temporal and spatial resolution neuroimaging technique, has been used to identify multi-task brain activities. Accurately and robustly classifying motor imagery (MI) and cognitive imagery (CI) from MEG signals is a significant challenge in the field of brain-computer interface (BCI).

METHODS: In this study, a graph-based long short-term memory-convolutional neural network (GLCNet) is proposed to classify the brain activities in MI and CI tasks. It was characterized by implementing three modules of graph convolutional network (GCN), spatial convolution and long short-term memory (LSTM) to effectively extract time-frequency-spatial features simultaneously. For performance evaluation, our method was compared with six benchmark algorithms of FBCSP, FBCNet, EEGNet, DeepConvNets, Shallow ConvNet and MEGNet on two public datasets of MEG-BCI and BCI competition IV dataset 3.

RESULTS: The results demonstrated that the proposed GLCNet outperformed other models with the average accuracies of 78.65% and 65.8% for two classification and four classification on the MEG-BCI dataset, respectively.

DISCUSSION: It was concluded that the GLCNet enhanced the model's adaptability in handling individual variability with robust performance. This would contribute to the exploration of brain activates in neuroscience.

RevDate: 2025-04-08

Hasegawa R, R Poulin (2025)

Cause or consequence? Exploring authors' interpretations of correlations between fish body condition and parasite infection.

Journal of fish biology [Epub ahead of print].

We reviewed 194 publications that reported relationships between fish body condition indices (BCIs) and parasite infections, and examined the authors' intention behind this cross-sectional analysis, that is, whether authors interpreted the negative correlations as the negative effects of parasites or as fish with poor BCIs being more susceptible to infections. While 89% of studies only considered parasite infections as causes of poor BCI, studies acknowledging the opposite or bidirectional causal links were rare. We recommend considering both possibilities in any given fish host and parasite association.

RevDate: 2025-04-08

Shin H, Kim K, Lee J, et al (2025)

A Wireless Cortical Surface Implant for Diagnosing and Alleviating Parkinson's Disease Symptoms in Freely Moving Animals.

Advanced healthcare materials [Epub ahead of print].

Parkinson's disease (PD), one of the most common neurodegenerative diseases, is involved in motor abnormality, primarily arising from the degeneration of dopaminergic neurons. Previous studies have examined the electrotherapeutic effects of PD using various methodological contexts, including live conditions, wireless control, diagnostic/therapeutic aspects, removable interfaces, or biocompatible materials, each of which is separately utilized for testing the diagnosis or alleviation of various brain diseases. Here, a cortical surface implant designed to improve motor function in freely moving PD animals is presented. This implant, a minimally invasive system equipped with a graphene electrode array, is the first integrated system to exhibit biocompatibility, wearability, removability, target specificity, and wireless control. The implant positioned at the motor cortical surface activates the motor cortex to maximize therapeutic effects and minimize off-target effects while monitoring motor activities. In PD animals, cortical motor surface stimulation restores motor function and brain waves, which corresponds to potentiated synaptic responses. Furthermore, these changes are associated with the upregulation of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5, Grm5) and D5 dopamine receptor (D5R, Drd5) genes in the glutamatergic synapse. The newly designed wireless neural implant demonstrates capabilities in both real-time diagnostics and targeted therapeutics, suggesting its potential as a wireless system for biomedical devices for patients with PD and other neurodegenerative diseases.

RevDate: 2025-04-22
CmpDate: 2025-04-08

Ming Z, Yu W, Fan J, et al (2025)

Efficacy of kinesthetic motor imagery based brain computer interface combined with tDCS on upper limb function in subacute stroke.

Scientific reports, 15(1):11829.

This study investigates whether the combined effect of kinesthetic motor imagery-based brain computer interface (KI-BCI) and transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) on upper limb function in subacute stroke patients is more effective than using KI-BCI or tDCS alone. Forty-eight subacute stroke survivors were randomized to the KI-BCI, tDCS, or BCI-tDCS group. The KI-BCI group performed 30 min of KI-BCI training. Patients in tDCS group received 30 min of tDCS. Patients in BCI-tDCS group received 15 min of tDCS and 15 min of KI-BCI. The treatment cycle was five times a week, for four weeks. After all intervention, the Fugl-Meyer Assessment-Upper Extremity, Motor Status Scale, and the Modified Barthel Index scores of the KI-BCI group were superior to those of the tDCS group. The BCI-tDCS group was superior to the tDCS group in terms of the Motor Status Scale. Although quantitative EEG showed no significant group differences, the quantitative EEG indices in the tDCS group were significantly lower than before treatment. In conclusion, after treatment, although all intervention strategies improved upper limb motor function and daily living abilities in subacute stroke patients, KI-BCI demonstrated significantly better efficacy than tDCS. Under the same total treatment duration, the combined use of tDCS and KI-BCI did not achieve the hypothesized optimal outcome. Notably, tDCS reduced QEEG indices, possibly indicating favorable future outcomes in future.Trial registry number: ChiCTR2000034730.

RevDate: 2025-04-07

Johnson TR, Haddix CA, Ajiboye AB, et al (2025)

Simplified control of neuromuscular stimulation systems for restoration of reach with limb stiffness as a modifiable degree of freedom.

Journal of neural engineering [Epub ahead of print].

Brain-controlled functional electrical stimulation (FES) of the upper limb has been used to restore arm function to paralyzed individuals in the lab. Able-bodied individuals naturally modulate limb stiffness throughout movements and in anticipation of perturbations. Our goal is to develop, via simulation, a framework for incorporating stiffness modulation into the currently-used 'lookup-table-based' FES control systems while addressing several practical issues: 1) optimizing stimulation across muscles with overlap in function, 2) coordinating stimulation across joints, and 3) minimizing errors due to fatigue. Our calibration process also needs to account for when current spread causes additional muscles to become activated. Approach: We developed an analytical framework for building a lookup-table-based FES controller and simulated the clinical process of calibrating and using the arm. A computational biomechanical model of a human paralyzed arm responding to stimulation was used for simulations with six muscles controlling the shoulder and elbow in the horizontal plane. Both joints had multiple muscles with overlapping functional effects, as well as biarticular muscles to reflect complex interactions between joints. Performance metrics were collected in silico, and real-time use was demonstrated with a Rhesus macaque using its cortical signals to control the computational arm model in real time. Main Results: By explicitly including stiffness as a definable degree of freedom in the lookup table, our analytical approach was able to achieve all our performance criteria. While using more empirical data during controller parameterization produced more accurate lookup tables, interpolation between sparsely sampled points (e.g., 20 degree angular intervals) still produced good results with median endpoint position errors of less than 1 cm-a range that should be easy to correct for with real-time visual feedback. Significance: Our simplified process for generating an effective FES controller now makes translating upper limb FES systems into mainstream clinical practice closer to reality. .

RevDate: 2025-04-23
CmpDate: 2025-04-07

Kim H, Kim JH, Lee YJ, et al (2025)

Motion artifact-controlled micro-brain sensors between hair follicles for persistent augmented reality brain-computer interfaces.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(15):e2419304122.

Modern brain-computer interfaces (BCI), utilizing electroencephalograms for bidirectional human-machine communication, face significant limitations from movement-vulnerable rigid sensors, inconsistent skin-electrode impedance, and bulky electronics, diminishing the system's continuous use and portability. Here, we introduce motion artifact-controlled micro-brain sensors between hair strands, enabling ultralow impedance density on skin contact for long-term usable, persistent BCI with augmented reality (AR). An array of low-profile microstructured electrodes with a highly conductive polymer is seamlessly inserted into the space between hair follicles, offering high-fidelity neural signal capture for up to 12 h while maintaining the lowest contact impedance density (0.03 kΩ·cm[-2]) among reported articles. Implemented wireless BCI, detecting steady-state visually evoked potentials, offers 96.4% accuracy in signal classification with a train-free algorithm even during the subject's excessive motions, including standing, walking, and running. A demonstration captures this system's capability, showing AR-based video calling with hands-free controls using brain signals, transforming digital communication. Collectively, this research highlights the pivotal role of integrated sensors and flexible electronics technology in advancing BCI's applications for interactive digital environments.

RevDate: 2025-04-23
CmpDate: 2025-04-07

Estivalet KM, Pettenuzzo TSA, Mazzilli NL, et al (2025)

The use of brain-machine interface, motor imagery, and action observation in the rehabilitation of individuals with Parkinson's disease: A protocol study for a randomized clinical trial.

PloS one, 20(4):e0315148.

BACKGROUND: Parkinson's disease (PD) is a neurodegenerative condition that impacts motor planning and control of the upper limbs (UL) and leads to cognitive impairments. Rehabilitation approaches, including motor imagery (MI) and action observation (AO), along with the use of brain-machine interfaces (BMI), are essential in the PD population to enhance neuroplasticity and mitigate symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: To provide a description of a rehabilitation protocol for evaluating the effects of isolated and combined applications of MI and action observation (AO), along with BMI, on upper limb (UL) motor changes and cognitive function in PD.

METHODS: This study provides a detailed protocol for a single-blinded, randomized clinical trial. After selection, participants will be randomly assigned to one of five experimental groups. Each participant will be assessed at three points: pre-intervention, post-intervention, and at a follow-up four weeks after the intervention ends. The intervention consists of 10 sessions, each lasting approximately 60 minutes.

EXPECTED RESULTS: The primary outcome expected is an improvement in the Test d'Évaluation des Membres Supérieurs de Personnes Âgées score, accompanied by a reduction in task execution time. Secondary outcomes include motor symptoms in the upper limbs, assessed via the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale - Part III and the 9-Hole Peg Test; cognitive function, assessed with the PD Cognitive Rating Scale; and occupational performance, assessed with the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure.

DISCUSSION: This study protocol is notable for its intensive daily sessions. Both MI and AO are low-cost, enabling personalized interventions that physiotherapists and occupational therapists can readily replicate in practice. While BMI use does require professionals to acquire an exoskeleton, the protocol ensures the distinctiveness of the interventions and, to our knowledge, is the first to involve individuals with PD.

TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05696925.

RevDate: 2025-04-08

Miri M, Abootalebi V, Saeedi-Sourck H, et al (2025)

Graphs Constructed from Instantaneous Amplitude and Phase of Electroencephalogram Successfully Differentiate Motor Imagery Tasks.

Journal of medical signals and sensors, 15:7.

BACKGROUND: Accurate classification of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is challenging given the nonlinear and nonstationary nature of the data as well as subject-dependent variations. Graph signal processing (GSP) has shown promising results in the analysis of brain imaging data.

METHODS: In this article, a GSP-based approach is presented that exploits instantaneous amplitude and phase coupling between EEG time series to decode motor imagery (MI) tasks. A graph spectral representation of the Hilbert-transformed EEG signals is obtained, in which simultaneous diagonalization of covariance matrices provides the basis of a subspace that differentiates two classes of right hand and right foot MI tasks. To determine the most discriminative subspace, an exploratory analysis was conducted in the spectral domain of the graphs by ranking the graph frequency components using a feature selection method. The selected features are fed into a binary support vector machine that predicts the label of the test trials.

RESULTS: The performance of the proposed approach was evaluated on brain-computer interface competition III (IVa) dataset.

CONCLUSIONS: Experimental results reflect that brain functional connectivity graphs derived using the instantaneous amplitude and phase of the EEG signals show comparable performance with the best results reported on these data in the literature, indicating the efficiency of the proposed method compared to the state-of-the-art methods.

RevDate: 2025-04-17
CmpDate: 2025-04-17

Li X, Zhang J, Shi B, et al (2025)

Freestanding Transparent Organic-Inorganic Mesh E-Tattoo for Breathable Bioelectrical Membranes with Enhanced Capillary-Driven Adhesion.

ACS applied materials & interfaces, 17(15):22337-22351.

The electronic tattoo (e-tattoo), a cutting-edge wearable sensor technology adhered to human skin, has garnered significant attention for its potential in brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and routine health monitoring. Conventionally, flexible substrates with adhesion force on dewy surfaces pursue seamless contact with skin, employing compact airtight substrates, hindering air circulation between skin and the surrounding environment, and compromising long-term wearing comfort. To address these challenges, we have developed a freestanding transparent e-tattoo featuring flexible serpentine mesh bridges with a unique full-breathable multilayer structure. The mesh e-tattoo demonstrates remarkable ductility and air permeability while maintaining robust electronic properties, even after significant mechanical deformation. Furthermore, it exhibits an impressive visible-light transmittance of up to 95%, coupled with a low sheet resistance of 0.268 Ω sq[-1], ensuring both optical clarity and electrical efficiency. By increasing the number of menisci between the mesh e-tattoo and the skin, the total adhesion force increases due to the cumulative capillary-driven effect. We also successfully demonstrated high-quality bioelectric signal collections. In particular, the controlling virtual reality (VR) objects using electrooculogram (EOG) signals collected by mesh e-tattoos were achieved to demonstrate their potential for human-computer interactions (HCIs). This freestanding transparent e-tattoo with a fully breathable mesh structure represents a significant advancement in flexible electrodes for bioelectrical signal monitoring applications.

RevDate: 2025-04-10

Wang F, Ren J, Cai Q, et al (2025)

Theta-gamma phase-amplitude coupling as a promising neurophysiological biomarker for evaluating the efficacy of low-intensity focused ultrasound stimulation on vascular dementia treatment.

Experimental neurology, 389:115237 pii:S0014-4886(25)00101-3 [Epub ahead of print].

Low-intensity focused ultrasound stimulation (LIFUS) has garnered attention for its potential in vascular dementia (VD) treatment. However, the lack of sufficient data supporting its efficacy and elucidating its mechanisms of action limits its further clinical translation and application. Considerable researches support the idea that LIFUS can improve the disturbance of neural oscillation modes caused by a variety of neurological diseases. However, the effect of LIFUS on neural oscillation modes in VD remains unclear. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the therapeutic effects of LIFUS on neural oscillation modes in VD. To achieve this purpose, the VD model was established via the bilateral common carotid artery occlusion, followed by two weeks of LIFUS treatment targeting the bilateral hippocampus. The therapeutic effects of LIFUS were evaluated by behavioral tests and cerebral blood flow measurement. Electrophysiological signals were recorded from the hippocampal CA1 and CA3 and medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). The results indicated LIFUS could effectively improve cognitive dysfunction in VD rats. The underlying electrophysiological mechanisms involved the restoration of phase-amplitude coupling (PAC) of theta-gamma oscillations within both the CA3-CA1 local circuit and the hippocampus-mPFC cross-brain circuit. Classification results based on PAC characteristics suggested that PAC metrics are effective for evaluating the efficacy of LIFUS in treating VD, with optimal recognition performance observed in the hippocampus-mPFC cross-brain circuit. Our findings provide neuroelectrophysiological insights into the mechanisms of LIFUS in VD treatment and propose a promising diagnostic biomarker for evaluating LIFUS efficacy in future applications.

LOAD NEXT 100 CITATIONS

RJR Experience and Expertise

Researcher

Robbins holds BS, MS, and PhD degrees in the life sciences. He served as a tenured faculty member in the Zoology and Biological Science departments at Michigan State University. He is currently exploring the intersection between genomics, microbial ecology, and biodiversity — an area that promises to transform our understanding of the biosphere.

Educator

Robbins has extensive experience in college-level education: At MSU he taught introductory biology, genetics, and population genetics. At JHU, he was an instructor for a special course on biological database design. At FHCRC, he team-taught a graduate-level course on the history of genetics. At Bellevue College he taught medical informatics.

Administrator

Robbins has been involved in science administration at both the federal and the institutional levels. At NSF he was a program officer for database activities in the life sciences, at DOE he was a program officer for information infrastructure in the human genome project. At the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, he served as a vice president for fifteen years.

Technologist

Robbins has been involved with information technology since writing his first Fortran program as a college student. At NSF he was the first program officer for database activities in the life sciences. At JHU he held an appointment in the CS department and served as director of the informatics core for the Genome Data Base. At the FHCRC he was VP for Information Technology.

Publisher

While still at Michigan State, Robbins started his first publishing venture, founding a small company that addressed the short-run publishing needs of instructors in very large undergraduate classes. For more than 20 years, Robbins has been operating The Electronic Scholarly Publishing Project, a web site dedicated to the digital publishing of critical works in science, especially classical genetics.

Speaker

Robbins is well-known for his speaking abilities and is often called upon to provide keynote or plenary addresses at international meetings. For example, in July, 2012, he gave a well-received keynote address at the Global Biodiversity Informatics Congress, sponsored by GBIF and held in Copenhagen. The slides from that talk can be seen HERE.

Facilitator

Robbins is a skilled meeting facilitator. He prefers a participatory approach, with part of the meeting involving dynamic breakout groups, created by the participants in real time: (1) individuals propose breakout groups; (2) everyone signs up for one (or more) groups; (3) the groups with the most interested parties then meet, with reports from each group presented and discussed in a subsequent plenary session.

Designer

Robbins has been engaged with photography and design since the 1960s, when he worked for a professional photography laboratory. He now prefers digital photography and tools for their precision and reproducibility. He designed his first web site more than 20 years ago and he personally designed and implemented this web site. He engages in graphic design as a hobby.

Support this website:
Order from Amazon
We will earn a commission.

Rajesh Rao has written the perfect introduction to the exciting world of brain-computer interfaces. The book is remarkably comprehensive — not only including full descriptions of classic and current experiments but also covering essential background concepts, from the brain to Bayes and back. Brain-Computer Interfacing will be welcomed by a wide range of intelligent readers interested in understanding the first steps toward the symbiotic merger of brains and computers. Eberhard E. Fetz, UW

963 Red Tail Lane
Bellingham, WA 98226

206-300-3443

E-mail: RJR8222@gmail.com

Collection of publications by R J Robbins

Reprints and preprints of publications, slide presentations, instructional materials, and data compilations written or prepared by Robert Robbins. Most papers deal with computational biology, genome informatics, using information technology to support biomedical research, and related matters.

Research Gate page for R J Robbins

ResearchGate is a social networking site for scientists and researchers to share papers, ask and answer questions, and find collaborators. According to a study by Nature and an article in Times Higher Education , it is the largest academic social network in terms of active users.

Curriculum Vitae for R J Robbins

short personal version

Curriculum Vitae for R J Robbins

long standard version

RJR Picks from Around the Web (updated 11 MAY 2018 )