Neurotechnology, Neuroengineering, Neurosciences

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Cyborg is a term whose content has been gradually changing in function of technological and cultural contexts in which it was designed and utilized. Having set out the current cultural landscape, posthumanism, and having described its technological environment, the NBIC program of the National Science Foundation, we can better understand what it means today. Consistent with what has emerged in the analysis of Cyborg technologies we describe how to detect, for the cyborgs, two qualitatively different levels. On one hand there is the result of the completed project of NSF in which human improvement is realized with the emergence of new elements in the human, on other hand is contemporary man who knows a sort of progressive living in cyborguzation: a context in which many technologies with functions similar to those identified for the NBIC project by NSF, gather more around his body. The Cyborg, as a result of posthumanism, is characterized by all the ambiguities of his post- prefix. Post- can mean after and cybernetic organism can lead man into a period of peace and serenity that is configured as post-conflict, post-pathologic or post-poverty. Otherwise Cyborg may lead to a threshold where the post- collapses into the dis- or un- prefix, a Latin prefix meaning apart, asunder, away, utterly, or having a privative, negative, or reversing force. Cyborg will un-create, it will make mankind dis-human denying any form of shared value.

Technonauka świetnie wykorzystuje nasze pragnienie ciągłego udoskonalania się i pracuje nad coraz większym usprawnieniem człowieka. Literatura science fiction od lat pełna była bohaterów cyborgów, lecz naukowcy nie mogli za nią nadążyć. Dziś jednak fantastyka coraz dynamicznej przeistacza się w rzeczywistość, a nowoczesne technologie wkraczają nie tylko w życie wojska, ale również w naszą codzienność.

Mimowolne cyborgi Łukasza Kamieńskiego to fascynująca wyprawa do świata ludzi-maszyn i najnowszych osiągnięć nauki. Sięgając po twarde dane z zakresu technologii i bioinżynierii oraz odwołując się do popkultury, Kamieński opisuje długą drogę od superwojownika Achillesa do dystopijnych wizji niedalekiej przyszłości. Próbuje też odpowiedzieć na najbardziej palące pytania – jak wiele ulepszeń przyjmą ciało i umysł? Czy natura sama określi granicę, po której przekroczeniu pojawią się niemożliwe do przewidzenia skutki uboczne? A może przeciwnie – ciało zacznie się dostosowywać do ingerencji, aż do momentu pełnej technoewolucji?

Człowiek od wieków próbował poprawiać swoje zdolności i wykorzystywał najnowsze osiągnięcia techniki. Od teleskopu po mikroskop, od okularów po noktowizor, od kompasu po GPS. Czas na kolejną ewolucję. Od człowieka do cyborga.

Electrical stimulation of the central nervous system is a promising alternative for the treatment of pharmacoresistant epilepsy. Successful clinical and experimental stimulation is most usually carried out as continuous trains of current or voltage pulses fired at rates of 100 Hz or above, since lower frequencies yield controversial results. On the other hand, stimulation frequency should be as low as possible, in order to maximize implant safety and battery efficiency. Moreover, the development of stimulation approaches has been largely empirical in general, while they should be engineered with the neurobiology of epilepsy in mind if a more robust, efficient, efficacious, and safe application is intended. In an attempt to reconcile evidence of therapeutic effect with the understanding of the underpinnings of epilepsy, our group has developed a nonstandard form of low-frequency stimulation with randomized interpulse intervals termed nonperiodic stimulation (NPS). The rationale was that an irregular temporal pattern would impair neural hypersynchronization, which is a hallmark of epilepsy. In this review, we start by briefly revisiting the literature on the molecular, cellular, and network level mechanisms of epileptic phenomena in order to highlight this often-overlooked emergent property of cardinal importance in the pathophysiology of the disease. We then review our own studies on the efficacy of NPS against acute and chronic experimental seizures and also on the anatomical and physiological mechanism of the method, paying special attention to the hypothesis that the lack of temporal regularity induces desynchronization. We also put forward a novel insight regarding the temporal structure of NPS that may better encompass the set of findings published by the group: the fact that intervals between stimulation pulses have a distribution that follows a power law and thus may induce natural-like activity that would compete with epileptiform discharge for the recruitment of networks. We end our discussion by mentioning ongoing research and future projects of our lab.

Intracortical neural probes enable researchers to measure electrical and chemical signals in the brain. However, penetration injury from probe insertion into living brain tissue leads to an inflammatory tissue response. In turn, microglia are activated, which leads to encapsulation of the probe and release of pro-inflammatory cytokines. This inflammatory tissue response alters the electrical and chemical microen-vironment surrounding the implanted probe, which may in turn interfere with signal acquisition. Dexamethasone (Dex), a potent anti-inflammatory steroid, can be used to prevent and diminish tissue disruptions caused by probe implantation. Herein, we report retrodialysis administration of dexa-methasone while using in vivo two-photon microscopy to observe real-time microglial reaction to the implanted probe. Microdialysis probes under artificial cerebrospinal fluid (aCSF) perfusion with or without Dex were implanted into the cortex of transgenic mice that express GFP in microglia under the CX3CR1 promoter and imaged for 6 h. Acute morphological changes in microglia were evident around the microdialysis probe. The radius of microglia activation was 177.1 mm with aCSF control compared to 93.0 mm with Dex perfusion. T-stage morphology and microglia directionality indices were also used to quantify the microglial response to implanted probes as a function of distance. Dexamethasone had a profound effect on the microglia morphology and reduced the acute activation of these cells.

A promising alternative for the treatment of refractory epilepsy is electrical stimulation (ES) of the central nervous system. Based on the premise that epilepsy is a result of neural hypersynchronization, we have previously demonstrated that a novel non-standard form of electrical stimulation with randomized inter-pulse intervals,
termed non-periodic stimulation (NPS), applied to the amygdala is robustly anticonvulsant. This investigation also suggested that NPS attains its therapeutic effect by desynchronization of epileptiform activity. Here, we further explored the desynchronization hypothesis by testing how the efficacy of NPS in the suppression
of convulsive behaviors depends on morphological, spatial, and temporal parameters of stimulus. For this purpose, we varied the number of pulse phases (monopolar versus bipolar square pulses), side of stimulation (right versus left), number of application hemispheres (unilateral versus bilateral), and interhemispheric temporal
synchronicity (synchronous versus asynchronous), while measuring the impact on the anticonvulsant action of NPS. Wistar rats received a controlled infusion of the convulsant agent pentylenetetrazole (PTZ, 10 mg/min), together with one of six variations of NPS applied to the amygdala. A stimulated PTZ-free group of animals
was also performed as a positive control. Latency to convulsive behavior was used to measure seizure threshold. Animals receiving NPS displayed significant higher threshold for forelimb clonus and generalized tonic-clonic seizures for all patterns. Thresholds seemed to increase gradually from mono to biphasic, unilateral to bilateral, and synchronous to asynchronous stimuli. Thus, combined biphasic, bilateral, and asynchronous stimulation resulted in the greatest seizure threshold. PTZ free animals did not develop any observable convulsive behavior or other uncommon motor activity. These results confirm that NPS has anticonvulsant properties and that biphasic, bilateral, and asynchronous stimulation enhances its efficacy. The fact that lack of synchronism between stimuli of each hemisphere maximizes NPS anticonvulsant power is evidence to desynchronization as tool for suppression of seizures.

What are the various interfaces between mind, wo/man, and machine and how can these interfaces be further explored within and across different disciplines? In this conference, we will investigate the complex interaction between humans and machines as well as various ways of reverse-engineering the brain. We will discuss current approaches, theories, and methodologies in this field, and also identify shared research interests, which might lead to future collaborations between the humanities and the sciences, between members of both academies, and beyond.

We present a wearable head-tracking device using inexpensive inertial sensors as an alternative head movement tracking system. This can be used as indicator of human movement intentions for Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) appli- cations. Our system is capable of tracking head movements at high rates (100 Hz) and achieves R2 = 0.99 with a 2.5◦ RMSE against a ground-truth motion tracking system. The system tracks head movements over periods in the order of tens of minutes with little drift. The accuracy and precision of our system, together with its low response latency of ≈ 20 ms make it an unconventional but effective system for human-computer interfacing: the "head mouse" controls the mouse cursor on a display based on head orientation alone, so that it matches the centre of a straight-onward looking user. Our head mouse is suitable for amputees and spinal chord injury patients who have lost control of their upper extremities. We show that naive test subjects are capable to write text using our system and an on-screen keyboard at a rate of 4.65 words/minute, compared to able bodied users using a physical computer mouse which reached 7.85 words/minute. Crucially we measure the natural head movements of able bodied computer users, and show that our approach falls within the range of natural head movement parameters.

The mechanical mismatch between soft neural tissues and stiff neural implants hinders the long-term performance of implantable neuroprostheses. Here, we designed and fabricated soft neural implants with the shape and elasticity of dura mater, the protective membrane of the brain and spinal cord. The electronic dura mater, which we call e-dura, embeds interconnects, electrodes, and chemotrodes that sustain millions of mechanical stretch cycles, electrical stimulation pulses, and chemical injections. These integrated modalities enable multiple neuroprosthetic applications. The soft implants extracted cortical states in freely behaving animals for brain-machine interface and delivered electrochemical spinal neuromodulation that restored locomotion after paralyzing spinal cord injury.

Aquí mostramos los temas básicos de algunas de las presentaciones publicas que hemos hecho y se harán próximamente en la ciudad de Medellin (Colombia, Suramerica) en los últimos dos años (2018-2019) en lugares culturales (museos y bibliotecas) durante los meses de Abril y Mayo.  Se ha hecho ciencia ciudana, de manera independiente y/o en cooperación con algunas universidades locales (como EAFIT). Las conferencias han sido transmitidas en Internet (audio) y han sido convertidas en parte a archivos disponibles en la Web. Temas: Ritmos, acoples pendulares, acoples delicados, EEG, Protocolos de telecomunicación EEG-WEB, la música y el estimulo rítmico, la inteligencia artificial, la computación y la telecomunicación cuántica, Electromagnetismo no invasivo, Emociones, Dialectica de las emociones y ritmos emocionales.

The paper provides an introduction and examination of the innovative potentials of new and emerging Nano-Bio-Info-Cogno Converging Technologies by examining patenting trends data in the domains of nanotechnology, biotechnology, information-communication technology and neurotechnology from the EPO and USPTO in the OECD Statistics datasets and other sources. It identifies several contributing factors that possibly influence the patenting trends and posits a tentative general developmental trend for such technological domains. Further, it provides an introduction to Human Enhancement and identifies one domain of existing and emerging near-term potential Human Enhancement Technology applications - neurotechnologies - that still show a growing trend of patents at the USPTO and are expected to have large innovative potentials and profound impacts in the coming decade. It provides some additional innovation indicators and estimates on the size of anticipated HET markets and consumers that will, along with the inherent feature of parallel applicability, presumably drive the future development of such neurotechnologies. Finally, it explores some of the benefits and cautions about some of the individual and societal risks and dangers that could accompany NBIC CT and HET development and commercialization, and points to approaches and past experiences that might be useful in trying to mitigate them while still harnessing their innovative potentials and benefits.

EEG biofeedback, or neurofeedback, is a technology for measuring and monitoring electrical activity in the brain that has been used for a wide array of purposes, from scientific and clinical applications to alternative therapies, electronic music, gaming and contemporary interactive art. Although the principles and technical infrastructure of neurofeedback practices adhere to certain standards, the output of the information, as well as the work the technology performs (or is thought to perform), can be quite different. While therapeutic and commercial applications of neurofeedback frame the technological interaction as a means of controlling and enhancing individual performance, artistic experimentation with biofeedback technologies tends to be more interested in designing mutually modulating feedback systems for exploring different states of consciousness, mind and self. This article presents and discusses the appropriation of EEG biofeedback in the interactive art installation Wave UFO by Mariko Mori, and compares and contrasts this with other enactments of EEG biofeedback across science, therapy, art and popular culture. The analysis focuses on neurofeedback as a ‘technology of the self’ and asks how the installation might reproduce, negotiate and/or challenge previous applications and framings of the technology. I will argue that Wave UFO allows for a sensory and imaginary exploration of cyborg notions of self and subjectivity, in which body and technology are seamlessly bound in a new age–inspired vision for a connected world. However, the installation does not seem to explicitly question the status of neurofeedback as a potent technology for accessing the inner workings of the mind.