Closed-loop neuroscience and neuroengineering (field and book)

wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
edited May 2016 in Research
2014 Frontiers in Neural Circuits, special issue
http://journal.frontiersin.org/article/10.3389/fncir.2014.00115/full

It looks like the July 2016 book may be the collection of earlier papers published above.


It's surprising that no mention is made of traditional neurofeedback. Possibly because "hard science" types are a bit critical of claims that have been made in the neurofeedback field. Yet neurofeedback organizations (AAPB and ISNR) predate this new field by decades. 


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Neuroelectrics is apparently targeting this new field with some of their combined products that do simultaneous EEG and stimulation,


Comments

  • asheff794asheff794
    edited July 2017
    To supplement, here is a review of neurofeedback


    (that may cost money, I can post the pdf if so). I've worked/am working with some of the bigger names in brain stimulation, and honestly I've come to the conclusion traditional neurofeedback has more immediate potential. 

    What we're finding with all this tACS, TMS, tDCS research is that it is highly state dependent and difficult to predict how the brain will respond to our inputs. Many of the studies supporting simple notions of brain stimulation (e.g. alpha tACS/TMS increase alpha oscillations) may have been due to faulty data processing and unremoved artifacts, and we're encountering great obstacles to making meaningful changes to brain activity. Who would've guessed the brain wouldn't just bend to our whim when we send a fat ugly pulse of electricity across millions of neurons ;)

    This closed loop approach is more promising, but is still a far cry from the closed loop connections one actually finds in the brain. As argued in the article I posted, neurofeedback is really a type of brain stimulation, and I would say it's the current brain stimulation with the greatest temporospatial accuracy, and we can actually be confident the increased activity carries legitimate information as the brain produced it itself.  I understand why neurofeedback has gotten the rep it has. I've personally seen the kind of quacks that charge obscene amounts of money for bad neurofeedback. 

    Nonetheless, recent fMRI and animal studies of neurofeedback have been quite groundbreaking, and have shown just how specific and powerful it can be. A great issue right now is that some people are just unable to change their neural activity even when it's presented to them, but we're working out which parameters are optimal.  It's funny to me that some consider neurofeedback unscientific ; done well it literally introduces new feedback loops just as they might appear naturally in the brain (the name kinda gives it away on that on :D ) 

    Neurofeedback is certainly not over, I'm hoping I can convince some of my peers of it's potential so the military stops dumping millions of dollars into projects that end up impairing memory but spin their data to get published in cell:

  • AlexBAlexB Russia

    William @wjcroft ;and others interested!

     

    Let me revive this interesting topic.

     Here, I would like to draw your attention to such very
    promising neurostimulation approach as tVNS - transcutanious vagus nerve
    stimulation.

     

    Classical vagus nerve stimulation is very good
    established (for futher refs: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vagus_nerve_stimulation),
    FDA approved and quite old technique for couping with epilepsy, MDD and some
    others.

    What could be interesting for OpenBCI enthusiasts is
    emerging new, essentially non-invasive technique of VNS, known as tVNS, that
    can be implemented by routine 30 USD stock TENS machine and special electrodes
    for application to some special location on a body (external’s ear cymba
    conchae, for example).

    But what is even more interesting, that according to
    recent studies, the main target of any VNS modality is a special brainstem
    location, known as locus coeruleus (for further refs:
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Locus_coeruleus), that besides many other important
    roles in brain functioning (control of general arousal level, stimulus
    detection, etc)  plays central role in learning, and brain plasticity
    mechanisms in general.

    There are studies already, where tVNS stimulation pulses
    are paired with instances of some selected brain states and in a such manner
    promotes process of learning and plasticity mechanisms for further shifting
    brain states toward some targeted ones. 

    Actually, it's new approach to boost learning processes
    in the brain and in rehabilitation, in general.

    So, the rough idea is to build up a custom TENS generator
    (or TENS_shield for OpenBCI in our case) with fully controllable parameters and
    to pair it with EEG signal processing module in order to create closed loop
    neurostimulation scheme. TENS could be synchronized with feedback signal in
    case of neurofeedback module or any other event or stimulus.

     

    Any thoughts?

     

    best regards,

     

    Alexei

  • wjcroftwjcroft Mount Shasta, CA
    edited August 2017
    Alexei, hi.

    I do recall there have been some local Transformative Technology presentations on the vagal nerve stimulation. The company had a demo unit there at the 2016 TTCONF in Palo Alto, their name for it was V1BES.




    So it sounds like you might be planning to build a tVNS shield? Cool. 

    William

  • AlexBAlexB Russia
    edited September 2017
    Hi William!

    Thank you for very interesting information!

    It's absolutely new thing for me!

    With all due respect to such ambitious terms like "transformative" or "wellness", I would like to note, that v1bes authors didn't tell much (if anything) about technical specification of such magnetic stimulation. It is very essential issue to discuss VNS further.

    I really hate to be reductionist, but  they didn't give any specific proof, that their device is powerful and elaborated enough to cause Peripheral Nerve Stimulation (PNS) in general, and vagus nerve in particular. How we can separate subjective feel of wellness from placebo effect, then?

    About some technical details please see "Stimulation of nerve trunks with time-varying magnetic fields" by Polson et al (https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF02441362) for further refs.

    Typically,  authors in order to confirm specifity of their device in terms of VNS measure pupil dilatation reaction as a commonly accepted critelia for properly applied vagus nerve stimulation. See for example this study:

    "Effects of vagus nerve stimulation on pupillary function" by Jodoin et al (http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0167876015300337?via=ihub)

    Or at least EEG evoked response to such stimulation.

    "Electrophysiologic Studies of Cervical Vagus Nerve Stimulation in Humans: II. Evoked Potentials", by Hammond et al (http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1528-1157.1992.tb01753.x/abs)

    v1bes tells nothing about that, besides its unit price for pre-order.

    I'm not very proficient in practical electronics to build tVNS shield by myself, but would be very interested in participating such project from, say,  methodological part of view.

    Currently, I made a simple scheme, consisting of regular TENS 2000 unit and sound activated relay with controlled time delay.

    I connected this simple sound activated relay with linear output of PC, and every time, when reward signal of neurofeedback protocol is evoked during successful trial, short sequence of tVNS pulses generated by TENS machine is delivered to location near surface part of vagus nerve (specifically, ear's cymba conchae). But even in such primitive scheme we can control some tVNS parameters:stimulation duration after feedback event (time delay), pulse length, pulse frequency and intensity.

    And what is more important we can synchronize in time specific event with tVNS sequence. 

    Some authors made quite interesting attempts to combine regular TENS machine, as a source of stimulation flow with custom made, Arduino based controller, see that for example:


    Some people built quite funny devices like that (NERVANA vagus nerve stimulator):


    For understanding of general idea for pairing tVNS with desired brain dynamics see that:

    "Feasibility and Safety of Transcutaneous Vagus Nerve Stimulation Paired with Notched Music Therapy for the Treatment of Chronic Tinnitus" by Shim et al (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4704553/)


    best regards,

    Alexei

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