The inter-subject variability of visual cortex reorganization was assessed in late-blind subjects suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative retinal disease that results in tunnel vision and eventual los...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781424441211
The inter-subject variability of visual cortex reorganization was assessed in late-blind subjects suffering from retinitis pigmentosa (RP), a degenerative retinal disease that results in tunnel vision and eventual loss of sight. fMRI BOLD responses were measured as blindfolded RP and blindfolded sighted control groups completed a tactile discrimination task (in which subjects determined the relative roughness of sandpaper discs) during successive scans in a 3T Siemens scanner. Resulting activation patterns were compared between the two groups in a whole-brain analysis. We found that vision deprivation leads to elevated activation of the visual cortex elicited with tactile stimuli, and the degree of activation correlates with the degree of visual field loss: higher visual cortex activation is associated with greater vision loss. The location of vision loss in the visual field also correlates with the location of tactile responses in the visual cortex, with greater peripheral vision loss leading to stronger activation in the peripheral of V1. Visual cortex responses to tactile stimuli may hence be used as a diagnostic marker in determining the extent of an individual's vision loss and tracking sight recovery following treatments.
Transcranial ultrasound improves thrombolytic drug efficacy in ischemic stroke therapy. The goal of this study was to determine the ideal ultrasound parameters for obtaining peak rarefactional pressures exceeding the ...
Transcranial ultrasound improves thrombolytic drug efficacy in ischemic stroke therapy. The goal of this study was to determine the ideal ultrasound parameters for obtaining peak rarefactional pressures exceeding the stable cavitation threshold at the left anterior clinoid process (lACP) of the skull. This location is near the origin of the middle cerebral artery, a common site for ischemic stroke. For 0.5, 1.1 and 2.0-MHz ultrasound transducers, pulse repetition frequencies (PRF) ranging from 5.4-8.0 kHz were studied at a 50% duty cycle. Attenuation and ultrasound beam distortion were measured from a cadaveric human skull. Each transducer was placed near the left temporal bone such that the unaberrated maximum acoustic pressure would be located at the lACP. A hydrophone measured the acoustic field around the lACP. Free-field measurements were taken in the same locations to determine attenuation and beam focus distortion. For 5 skulls, the average pressure attenuation at the lACP was 68±19, 91±5.1, and 94±4.7% for 0.5, 1.1, and 2.0 MHz, respectively. The degree of displacement of the beam focus depended on the skull properties, but not the center frequency nor PRF. In conclusion, lower frequencies exhibited lower attenuation and improved penetration at the lACP. This work was supported by NIH-3P50-NS044283-06S1.
Warm greetings to all of youfellow trainees, friends, and colleagues! Some of you may recall my column in the March/April 2008 issue of IEEE engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine, my first Students Corner colum...
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Adjuvant ultrasound exposure improves rtPA thrombolysis in stroke patients. Transmission of 120-kHz ultrasound through the temporal bone is efficient but exhibits skull-dependent distortion and reflection. Numerical m...
Adjuvant ultrasound exposure improves rtPA thrombolysis in stroke patients. Transmission of 120-kHz ultrasound through the temporal bone is efficient but exhibits skull-dependent distortion and reflection. Numerical models of acoustic propagation through human skull based on computed tomography (CT) data have been developed. The objective of our study was to validate a finite-difference model of transcranial ultrasound quantitatively. The acoustic fields from a two-element annular array (120 kHz and 60 kHz) were acquired in four ex-vivo human skulls with a calibrated hydrophone (10 kHz-800 kHz frequency range). The spatial distributions of the acoustomechanical properties of each skull were obtained from CT scans and used for simulations. Predicted acoustic fields and waveform shapes were compared with corresponding hydrophone measurements and were in good agreement. Transmitted wave amplitudes were systematically underestimated (14%) and reflected wave amplitudes were overestimated (30%). The acoustic impedance of each skull was likely underestimated from the CT scans. However, high correlation between predictions and measurements (R<+>2<+>=0.93 and R<+>2<+>=0.88 for transmitted and reflected wave amplitudes, respectively) demonstrates that this model can be used quantitatively for evaluation of 120-kHz ultrasound-enhanced thrombolysis. This work was supported by NIH-RO1-NS047603.
Hemorrhagic shock is the cause of one third of deaths resulting from injury in the world. Early diagnosis of hemorrhagic shock makes it possible for physicians to treat patients successfully. The objective of this stu...
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A tissue bath system, to be used as an alternative to complex perfusion chambers, was constructed for use in cardiac electrophysiological studies. This system consists of an acrylic chamber to hold circulating physiol...
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ISBN:
(纸本)9781424441211
A tissue bath system, to be used as an alternative to complex perfusion chambers, was constructed for use in cardiac electrophysiological studies. This system consists of an acrylic chamber to hold circulating physiological medium such as DMEM, suspended in a water bath warmed by a hot plate. Temperature and pH were controlled to mimic physiological conditions. Rat and porcine cardiac tissues, were used to test viability of the conditions presented in the bath system. Using a cardiac mapping system, the tissues were stimulated and responses recorded. From the recordings we were able to calculate conduction velocities and spatial dispersion of activation indices. The results are comparable to previous in-vivo work, which suggests that the tissue bath system design can maintain tissue viability. This tissue bath system is a relatively simple alternative for ex-vivo testing of cardiac tissues.
This paper presents a deterministic and adaptive spike model derived from radial basis functionsand a leaky integrate-and-fire sampler developed for training spiking neural networks without directweight manipulation. ...
This paper presents a deterministic and adaptive spike model derived from radial basis functions
and a leaky integrate-and-fire sampler developed for training spiking neural networks without direct
weight manipulation. Several algorithms have been proposed for training spiking neural networks
through biologically-plausible learning mechanisms, such as spike-timing-dependent synaptic plasticity
and Hebbian plasticity. These algorithms typically rely on the ability to update the synaptic strengths,
or weights, directly, through a weight update rule in which the weight increment can be decided
and implemented based on the training equations. However, in several potential applications of
adaptive spiking neural networks, including neuroprosthetic devices and CMOS/memristor nanoscale
neuromorphic chips, the weights cannot be manipulated directly and, instead, tend to change over time
by virtue of the pre- and postsynaptic neural activity. This paper presents an indirect learning method
that induces changes in the synaptic weights by modulating spike-timing-dependent plasticity by means
of controlled input spike trains. In place of the weights, the algorithm manipulates the input spike trains
used to stimulate the input neurons by determining a sequence of spike timings that minimize a desired
objective function and, indirectly, induce the desired synaptic plasticity in the network.
Medical, artistic and social applications of biomedical signals benefit from the possibility of measuring a person's emotional state, and of creating, through biofeedback techniques, a personal dynamic interaction...
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Medical, artistic and social applications of biomedical signals benefit from the possibility of measuring a person's emotional state, and of creating, through biofeedback techniques, a personal dynamic interaction with the environment. This paper describes a wearable microsensor module used to acquire and preprocess biological signals that are directly related to one's emotional state in daily activities. The main circuit includes a skin galvanic sensor, a breathing sensor, and an electrocardiograph with three electrodes. The acquired signals are treated by independent instrumentation amplifiers and digitized by a dedicated microcontroller at an acquisition/preprocessing board. The module and the enhanced application for Networked Communications in biomedicalengineering and ubiquitous computing reinvent the sense of presence in the physical world when wearing a BWAS - Biocybrid Wearable Art System. Ontological levels of creative reality and phenomenological framework using embedded systems and the ways of using hardware and software are discussed. The results intend future industry developments of devices to enhance and to supplement the human perceptive and affective human condition. The identification and interpretation of appropriate models for art, communication, aesthetic, design, fashion, health, personal security or other applications are challenges for insightful discussions of the role of engineers, physiologists, artists, educators, social scientists, as well as of ethnographic methods and practices.
At the convergence of advanced biomedical scientific research in contemporary art with technoscience collaborative practices, as well as with transdisciplinar issues regarding the human condition and the reinvented li...
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At the convergence of advanced biomedical scientific research in contemporary art with technoscience collaborative practices, as well as with transdisciplinar issues regarding the human condition and the reinvented life, we propose a biocybrid system using electromyography and body signals for the new perceptive, cognitive and technological expansion and the sensorial domain of synesthesia. The electrical potentials and introspective mapping and tracing of body activities in electromyography translated into sonic landscapes and data visualization by using electrical signals generated by in-activity muscles and collected by specific instrumentation equipment are widely used in biomedicalengineering and medicine. The system entails new ways of deciphering human ways of acting, by using bodily muscles in microscales, by allowing the perception and communication for generating sound patterns and data visualization landscapes that dynamically change according to several properties extracted from electromyographic (EMG) signals. We also intend future application of our prototype for industrial technological innovations and affective interfaces for medice, health and fitness, art and neuroscience and other domain.
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