Technology Research and Development Project 2 (BCI2000-Based Laboratory and Clinical Systems)

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The development and use of adaptive neurotechnologies is an inherently multidisciplinary endeavor, involving neuroscience, biomedical engineering, electrical and computer science, and clinical domains. To facilitate these endeavors, BCI2000, a software platform that implements complex real-time closed-loop interactions with the CNS, has been developed and disseminated over the past 20 years; it supports a wide range of adaptive neurotechnologies. To date, BCI2000 has been provided to more than 6,000 users worldwide; they have used it for real-time experiments described in over 1,200 peer-reviewed publications. New NIH support ensures BCI2000's continued development, validation, and dissemination, and thereby ensures its continued ability to enhance the scientific productivity of its users. This fortunate new environment, in which the continued viability of BCI2000 is assured, enables TR&D2 to focus its efforts on providing novel BCI2000-based systems that address major categories of adaptive neurotechnology research and development. TR&D2's goal for the next grant period is to produce two highly adaptable systems that support important laboratory or clinical investigations. These systems will be developed in cooperation with TR&D1 and TR&D3, and they will initially serve the aims of these TR&Ds and the collaborative projects of all three TR&Ds. TR&D2 has two specific aims: Aim 1. To develop a wholly implanted telemetry-based system for small laboratory animals that supports long-term 24/7 interactions with the CNS and can target plasticity to specific CNS pathways. This new system will be developed, optimized, and validated in collaboration with Triangle Biosystems, Intl. and in cooperation with TR&D1, which will implant it and use it in rats. The system will enable the implementation, dissemination and exploration of a wide variety of targeted-plasticity protocols, including those that use operant conditioning, paired stimulation, or other regimens. Aim 2. To develop a clinical system that enables functional analysis of cortical networks and supports interventions that can target beneficial changes in these networks and in the behaviors to which they contribute. In cooperation with TR&D3 and working closely with Guger Technologies, TR&D2 will develop a bedside system that can map these networks by stimulating and recording through electrocorticographic (ECoG) and/or stereoencephalographic (SEEG) electrode arrays and can target modifications in them by using closed-loop feedback and other methods. This new clinical research system will encourage studies that develop protocols to guide plasticity so as to restore cognitive or sensorimotor behaviors impaired by trauma or disease. By creating, validating, and disseminating these systems, TR&D2 will provide scientists, engineers, and clinicians with new ability to address important scientific and clinical problems. These novel systems will advance the development and use of new neurotechnologies that can reduce the devastating impact of neurological disorders.