US-German Research Proposal: Collaborative Research: Optimization of Human Cortical Stimulation

大脑表面的电刺激被用来映射功能，如手部运动。这种刺激对大脑研究和病人护理都至关重要。 需要更好的方法来精确地将电流引导到大脑表面。精确的刺激将有助于神经损伤后恢复损伤的研究。来自大脑表面的刺激和记录也被用于研究记忆和注意力过程。 神经修复术的发展以及大脑如何与脑控设备相互作用的研究也可能受益于更精确的刺激。该项目使用先进的计算机建模来确定刺激大脑的更好方法。 人们可以根据这些模型预测刺激的去向。这项美德合作项目结合了华盛顿大学（PI：J. Ojemann，Neurosurgery）、东北大学（D.布鲁克斯，电气工程），犹他州大学（R。McLeod，Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing）和德国的弗赖堡大学（T. Ball，Computational Neuroscience and Neurotechnology）。 在西北大学和犹他州开发的优化方案可以预测电流输送的分布，这将在绵羊模型中得到验证，随后用于预测人类数据中的电流输送。 例如，大脑表面（皮层电图）电极的复杂几何形状可能会在大脑中产生不同的电流模式。 通过使用同时刺激和记录来自皮质表面的数据（在体内的绵羊或人脑中），可以评估模型和优化算法。成功的“电流导向”方法将适用于神经科学中广泛的研究和患者护理应用。一个配套项目正在由德国教育和研究部（BMBF）资助。

Electrical stimulation of the surface of the brain is used to map functions, such as hand movement. This stimulation is vital for both brain research and patient care. Better methods are needed to precisely direct the electrical current on the brain surface. Precise stimulation will help research in restoring damage after neurological injury. Stimulation and recording from the brain surface have also been used to study memory and attention processes. Research in the development of neuro-prosthetics and the study of how the brain interacts with brain-controlled devices may also benefit from more precise stimulation. This project uses advanced computer modeling to determine better ways of stimulating the brain. One can predict where the stimulation will go based on these models. It will be tested whether using these models can precisely steer the stimulation to target specific brain functions.This US-German collaborative project combines expertise from the University of Washington (PI: J. Ojemann, Neurosurgery), Northeastern University (D. Brooks, Electrical Engineering), the University of Utah (R. McLeod, Center for Integrative Biomedical Computing) and, in Germany, the University of Freiburg (T. Ball, Computational Neuroscience and Neurotechnology). The optimization protocols developed at Northwestern and Utah can predict the distribution of current delivery, which will be validated in a sheep model and subsequently used to predict current delivery in human data. For instance, complex geometries of brain surface (electrocorticography) electrodes may give varying patterns of current across the brain. By using simultaneous stimulation and recording data from the cortical surface (in either sheep or human brain in vivo), the model and optimization algorithms can be assessed. Successful methods for "current steering" would be applicable across a broad range of research and patient care applications in neuroscience.A companion project is being funded by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF).