NCS-FO: Electrocortical Processes in Real World Locomotion

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Technology for mobile brain imaging with electroencephalography (EEG) has advanced in recent years, but it is still difficult to capture electrical brain dynamics while people move in the real world. The body movement of walking and running creates considerable motion and muscle artifacts, making it difficult to determine what is true brain activity. This project proposes to advance electrode technology and signal processing of EEG to enable measurement of brain electrical activity outside the laboratory in the real world, including playing tennis, a complex, active, goal-directed motor task. The project will use novel methods to measure brain electrical activity as people walk on a university campus. Some subjects will be physically intact; some will have lower limb amputations. The technological and scientific advancements from these studies will permit future use of mobile EEG for clinical diagnosis and rehabilitation, as well as development of new mobile brain computer interfaces.To understand how the human brain works in the real world, it is necessary to study human brain dynamics in real-world environments and tasks. Stationary functional brain imaging techniques like magnetic resonance imaging and magnetoencephalography are inherently limited in studying brain function of people moving through the real world. Creating and validating new mobile brain imaging methods with both good temporal and spatial resolution are necessary to advance neuroscience and facilitate non-invasive brain computer interfaces for real-world use. This project will combine high-density EEG with independent component analysis and source localization to identify brain areas involved in the control and active perception of moving in real-world urban and natural environments and in playing tennis. Motion and muscle artifacts complicate interpretation of EEG data during active whole body movement. New hardware and software solutions are necessary to increase the quality of EEG as a mobile brain imaging tool during locomotion. This project will advance novel dual-layer EEG electrodes that can cancel motion artifacts and improve the fidelity of electrocortical measures. The project combines cognitive neuroscience, signal processing, sensor technology, biomechanics, and motor control to make recordings of human brain dynamics that have never been made before. The advances and validation of neurotechnology will provide neuroscientists with new capabilities to transform the study of human brain function in the real world. This research will advance technology for mobile brain imaging and provide new insight into the cortical control of human movement in health and disability.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.