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Bibliography on: Brain-Computer Interface

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ESP: PubMed Auto Bibliography 25 Aug 2025 at 01:38 Created: 

Brain-Computer Interface

Wikipedia: A brain–computer interface (BCI), sometimes called a neural control interface (NCI), mind–machine interface (MMI), direct neural interface (DNI), or brain–machine interface (BMI), is a direct communication pathway between an enhanced or wired brain and an external device. BCIs are often directed at researching, mapping, assisting, augmenting, or repairing human cognitive or sensory-motor functions. Research on BCIs began in the 1970s at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) under a grant from the National Science Foundation, followed by a contract from DARPA. The papers published after this research also mark the first appearance of the expression brain–computer interface in scientific literature. BCI-effected sensory input: Due to the cortical plasticity of the brain, signals from implanted prostheses can, after adaptation, be handled by the brain like natural sensor or effector channels. Following years of animal experimentation, the first neuroprosthetic devices implanted in humans appeared in the mid-1990s. BCI-effected motor output: When artificial intelligence is used to decode neural activity, then send that decoded information to some kind of effector device, BCIs have the potential to restore communication to people who have lost the ability to move or speak. To date, the focus has largely been on motor skills such as reaching or grasping. However, in May of 2021 a study showed that an AI/BCI system could be use to translate thoughts about handwriting into the output of legible characters at a usable rate (90 characters per minute with 94% accuracy).

Created with PubMed® Query: (bci OR (brain-computer OR brain-machine OR mind-machine OR neural-control interface) NOT 26799652[PMID] ) NOT pmcbook NOT ispreviousversion

Citations The Papers (from PubMed®)

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RevDate: 2025-08-24

Li J, Zhang W, Liao Y, et al (2025)

Neural decoding reliability: Breakthroughs and potential of brain-computer interfaces technologies in the treatment of neurological diseases.

Physics of life reviews, 55:1-40 pii:S1571-0645(25)00126-5 [Epub ahead of print].

Neurological disorders such as Parkinson's disease, stroke, and epilepsy frequently result in irreversible disability. Brain-computer interface (BCI) technologies offer the promise of recovering or replacing impaired sensory, motor, and cognitive functions by directly stimulating cortical activity or by converting self-generated cortical activity into commands for external assistive devices. In-depth studies of cerebral cortex connectivity, function and neural hierarchical coding mechanisms can provide novel solutions for BCI-based treatments. This review summarizes the fundamental principles and history of BCI technology and current research progress, including the utilization of known cortical functions and the potential impact of newly discovered cortical functions on the future development of BCI-based applications. The article then systematically reviews the application of BCI technology for the treatment of motor, cognitive, and psychiatric disorders, innovative uses of hydrogels and carbon nanomaterials in BCI systems, and the current limitations and future research directions of BCI systems with respect to the reliability of neural decoding. This article aims to provide clinicians and researchers with the latest progress and a comprehensive overview of BCI applications for diagnosing and treating neurological diseases from in-depth studies on cerebral cortex structure and function, and to propose potential future applications based on interdisciplinary approaches, especially in enhancing the reliability of neural decoding.

RevDate: 2025-08-23

Weng Y, He B, Zhou J, et al (2025)

Potential saviour of pulmonary fibrosis: multi-pathway treatment of natural products.

Phytomedicine : international journal of phytotherapy and phytopharmacology, 147:157174 pii:S0944-7113(25)00813-X [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Pulmonary fibrosis (PF), a terminal manifestation of diverse interstitial lung diseases, remains incompletely understood in its pathogenesis. Natural products possess multifaceted biological activities and relatively favorable safety profiles, showing great advantage in treating complex disease including PF, though bioavailability limitations require formulation optimization.

PURPOSE: This review systematically consolidates insights into the underlying mechanisms of natural products and prospects several promising targets for the treatment of PF.

METHODS: A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed, Web of Science, and specialized pharmacology texts using key terms related to pulmonary fibrosis, natural products (e.g., alkaloids, terpenoids, flavonoids, saponins), inflammation, and oxidative stress. The information was reviewed to emphasize the potential mechanisms of natural products in the treatment of PF.

RESULTS: Natural products ameliorate PF through multi-pathway interventions, including suppression of inflammation, antagonism of oxidative stress, inhibition of epithelial-mesenchymal transition and endothelial-to-mesenchymal transition, targeting of fibroblast activation, modulation of metabolic homeostasis, promotion of autophagy and repression of senescence and apoptosis. These effects are mediated by modulating intricate pathways such as the TGF-β1/SMAD, PI3K/Akt/mTOR, NOX4-Nrf2, AMPK, NF-κB and STAT3 signaling pathways. In addition, the toxicology and side effects of natural products for the treatment of pulmonary fibrosis, and various clinical questions and limitations are discussed.

CONCLUSION: These unveiling mechanisms provide robust support for the exploration of novel applications of existing medications. This review aims to contribute novel insights towards the further studies of natural products for the prevention and treatment of PF.

RevDate: 2025-08-23

Yu SH, Park HY, Lee E, et al (2025)

DeepSMR: Decoding high-complex motor imagery via subject-dependent multi-feature refinement in deep convolutional networks.

Computers in biology and medicine, 197(Pt A):110920 pii:S0010-4825(25)01272-7 [Epub ahead of print].

Electroencephalography (EEG) is a noninvasive neuroimaging technique that records electrical activity in the brain using electrodes placed on the scalp. It is widely used in neuroscience, clinical diagnosis, and brain-computer interface (BCI) applications to analyze brain signals in real time. This study proposes an advanced EEG-based BCI framework designed to decode and classify individual finger movements within a single hand during a finger-tapping task involving all five fingers. Our method employs a subject-dependent multi-feature refinement framework called DeepSMR, a novel deep convolutional network architecture optimized for feature extraction from EEG signals is introduced. This approach integrates spectral, temporal, and spatial analyses, leveraging event-related desynchronization/event-related synchronization (ERD/ERS), common spatial pattern (CSP), and power spectral density (PSD) techniques. Further, a subject-dependent multi-feature refinement framework. The DeepSMR achieved high classification accuracy for fine-motor tasks, achieving an average accuracy of 0.7471 (±0.0270) for the thumb and 0.7485 (±0.0314) for the index finger during motor execution tasks. DeepSMR outperformed EEGNet and DeepConvNet across all finger classes, showing an improvement of up to 15% in accuracy compared with the baseline models. Spectral feature analysis confirmed increased activity in the sensorimotor rhythm (SMR) frequency bands (8-13 Hz and 13-30 Hz), whereas temporal analysis revealed distinct patterns during the active and relaxed states. Spatial feature analysis highlighted class-specific features, further enhancing model performance. In the motor imagery session, DeepSMR maintained a superior performance, achieving the highest accuracy of 0.6984 (±0.0324) for the index finger. The results show that DeepSMR improves BCI performance by increasing the classification accuracy and computational efficiency, particularly for challenging finger-movement tasks. The framework could provide applications in neuroprosthetics, assistive robotics, and rehabilitation. In future work, the method could be expanded to include more motor tasks and integrate additional data types to further enhance the decoding accuracy for specific users and complex actions.

RevDate: 2025-08-23

Tan H, Jin S, Lv W, et al (2025)

Hypothalamic Oxytocin Neuronal Activation Induces Bipolar-Like Mood Changes in Mice in a Sex- and Dosage-Dependent Manner.

Neuroscience bulletin [Epub ahead of print].

Clinical studies have suggested that increased plasma oxytocin (OT) levels are a promising biomarker for bipolar disorder (BD), and our earlier post-mortem study found increased OT activity in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (OT[PVN]) in BD. However, the potential contribution of the supraoptic nucleus (SON, OT[SON]), a major part of the central OT system, to BD remains unknown. We therefore systematically performed independent acute or chronic chemogenetic activation of OT[PVN], OT[SON], or OT[PVN+SON] experiments in OT-cre mice. We found that acute activation of OT[PVN+SON] neurons led to slight mania-like (anti-depression-like) behaviors both in male and female mice, while chronic activation of OT[PVN] or OT[PVN+SON] led to sex-dependent behavioural changes from depression/anxiety-like to mania-like, accompanied by stress-related molecular changes in a sex- dependent manner in the medial prefrontal cortex. Our findings imply that OT may be involved in bipolar-like mood changes in a sex- and dosage-dependent manner.

RevDate: 2025-08-22

Zhu Y, Chen J, Cheng L, et al (2025)

A Sparse-Integrated Filtering Residual Spiking Neural Network for High-Accuracy Spike Sorting and Co-optimization on Memristor Platforms.

IEEE transactions on biomedical circuits and systems, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Brain-computer interfaces rely on precise decoding of neural signals, where spike sorting is a critical step to extract individual neuronal activities from complex neural data. This works presents a spiking neural network (SNN) framework for efficient spike sorting, named SIFT-RSNN. In the SIFT-RSNN, raw neural signals are encoded into spike trains using a threshold-based temporal encoding strategy, then a sparse-integrated filtering module refines misfiring spikes, enhancing data sparsity for pattern learning. The RSNN module with a membrane shortcut structure ensures efficient feature transfer and improves generalization performance of the overall system. The SIFT-RSNN achieves an accuracy of 96.2% and 99.6% on the Difficult1 and Difficult2 subset of Leicester dataset, surpassing state-of-the-art methods. Also, we conducted it on a compute-in-memory platform with 8k memristor cells utilizing quantization-free mapping method and propose two algorithm-hardware co-optimization strategies to mitigate non-ideal hardware effects: weight outlier pre-constraint (WOP) and noise adaptation training (NAT). After optimization, our algorithm continues to outperform existing spike sorting methods, achieving accuracies of 94.2% and 99.7%, while also demonstrating improved robustness. The memristor platform only exhibits a 2% and 1.5% accuracy drop compared to software results on the two difficult subsets. Additionally, it achieves 3.52 μJ energy consumption and 0.5 ms latency per inference. This work offers promising solutions for brain-computer interfaces systems and neural prosthesis applications in the future.

RevDate: 2025-08-22

Hao Y, S Cheng (2025)

Motor imagery EEG classification method using 3D CNN and LSTM for rehabilitation application.

Cognitive neurodynamics, 19(1):131.

Due to the limitations in the accuracy and robustness of current EEG classification methods, applying motor imagery for practical Brain-Computer Interface applications remains challenging. Therefore, an EEG classification method with high accuracy and strong robustness is of significant importance. This paper proposed a method called 3D CNN and LSTM for Motor Imagery (3D-CLMI), which combines 3D CNN and LSTM network with attention to classify MI-EEG signals. This method combined MI-EEG signals from different channels into 3D features and extracted spatial features through convolution operations with multiple 3D convolutional kernels of different scales. At the same time, in order to ensure the integrity of the extracted temporal features of the MI-EEG signal, 3D-CLMI adopted a parallel structure to obtain spatial and temporal features respectively, and then combined the obtained features for classification. Experimental results showed that this method achieved a classification accuracy of 92.7% and an F1-score of 0.91 on BCI Competition IV 2a, which were both higher than the state-of-the-art methods in the field of MI tasks. Additionally, 12 participants were invited to complete a four-class MI task, and experiments on the collected dataset showed that our method also maintained the highest classification accuracy and F1-score. Our proposed method achieved the best results on both datasets, and we then demonstrated the effectiveness of each part of the proposed method through ablation experiments. Additionally, we designed a rehabilitation application system in a VR environment based on the proposed method, and the experimental results validated that it could assist patients with impaired hand motor function.

RevDate: 2025-08-22

Ding P, Wang F, Zhao L, et al (2025)

HWI encoding/decoding of a non-invasive HWI-BCI paradigm based on temporal variation abundance scale.

Cognitive neurodynamics, 19(1):130.

The performance of non-invasive Handwriting Imagery (HWI) input in Brain-computer interface (BCI) systems is highly dependent on the paradigms employed, yet there is limited research on interpretable scales to measure how HWI-BCI paradigms and neural encoding designs affect performance. This study introduces the "Temporal Variation Abundance" metric and utilizes it to design two classes of handwriting imagery paradigms: Low Temporal Variation Abundance (LTVA) and High Temporal Variation Abundance (HTVA). A dynamic time warping algorithm based on random templates (rt-DTW) is proposed to align HWI velocity fluctuations using EEG. Comprehensive comparisons of these experimental paradigms are conducted in terms of feature space distance, offline and online classification accuracy, and cognitive load assessment using functional near-infrared spectroscopy. Results indicate that HTVA-HWI exhibits lower velocity stability but demonstrates higher spatial distance, offline classification accuracy, online testing classification accuracy, and lower cognitive load. This study provides deep insights into paradigm design for non-invasive HWI-BCI and scales of neural encoding, offering new theoretical support and methodological insights for future advancements in brain-computer interaction.

RevDate: 2025-08-22

Deb N, Khan Z, Sulaiman M, et al (2025)

Editorial: Interdisciplinary synergies in neuroinformatics, cognitive computing, and computational neuroscience.

Frontiers in computational neuroscience, 19:1657167.

RevDate: 2025-08-22

Wang Y, X Wang (2025)

Entheogen: an evolutionary medicine for neuropsychiatric disorders.

National science review, 12(8):nwaf168.

RevDate: 2025-08-22

Yang W, Lu J, Luo P, et al (2025)

An exhaustive examination of the research progress in identifying potential JAK inhibitors from natural products: a comprehensive overview.

Chinese medicine, 20(1):130.

The JAK-STAT signaling pathway serves as a central regulator of diverse cellular processes encompassing proliferation, apoptosis, inflammation, and differentiation. Specifically, extracellular ligands such as interleukins, and colony-stimulating factors induce JAKs phosphorylation, subsequently triggering dimerization and nuclear translocation of STATs protein. In this way, the JAK-STAT pathway modulates target gene expression. Dysregulation of the JAK-STAT pathways has been implicated in the pathogenesis of multiple diseases, including inflammatory diseases, autoimmune diseases, malignant tumors. Therefore, JAK inhibitors have been considered promising therapeutic candidates with substantial clinical potential. While previous reviews have primarily focused on natural products targeting JAK-STAT signaling pathways for the specific disease application, this paper comprehensively collected 88 natural products demonstrating JAKs inhibitory activity across multiple pathological conditions. We mainly referenced nearly 20 years of literature from 2005 to 2025, comprising 294 different types of publications including review articles and research papers. Through systematic analysis of the compounds, we further classified these phytochemicals according to their structural characteristics (flavonoids, alkaloids, terpenoids) and molecular targets within the signaling cascades. This study provides novel insights into the pathophysiological relationships between diseases and JAK kinases, while offering valuable guidance for developing next-generation JAK inhibitors with improved therapeutic profiles.

RevDate: 2025-08-21

Liyanage KA, Yoo PE, Grayden DB, et al (2025)

Artifact removal in electrocorticography devices with cardiac contamination.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

OBJECTIVE: Electrocorticography (ECoG) devices with electronics housed near the chest are susceptible to artifacts of a differing nature to electroencephalography (EEG) and standard ECoG. Using data obtained via an endovascular neural interface, we compared different artifact removal techniques in an offline setting with the aim of improving the quality and usefulness of clinically acquired data.

METHODS: Three different methods of filtration were applied and assessed: Common Average Referencing (CAR), Independent Component Analysis (ICA) with automated ECG channel selection, and Template-Based Removal (TBR). The automated ECG channel selection method was compared to manual selection. Methods were compared using signal-to-artifact root-mean-squared (RMS) values.

RESULTS: The automated ECG source channel selection had high concordance with manual selection. All filtration methods decreased post-artifact RMS amplitudes and improved signal-to-artifact ratios. ICA took the most time to compute but had the most improved signal-to-artifact ratio. In regions with no ECG artifact, TBR preserved the underlying electrocorticography data better than the other methods.

CONCLUSION: ICA with an automated method of ECG channel selection is the preferred method out of the three tested to remove ECG artifact while preserving the underlying signal.

SIGNIFICANCE: We establish methods that can be used to improve neural data of electrocorticography devices susceptible to cardiac contamination to facilitate translation as brain-computer interfaces.

RevDate: 2025-08-21

Si JY, Lin ZY, Gan DG, et al (2025)

Informed consent competency assessment for brain-computer interface clinical research and application in psychiatric disorders: A systematic review.

World journal of psychiatry, 15(8):107593.

BACKGROUND: Brain-computer interface (BCI) technology is rapidly advancing in psychiatry. Informed consent competency (ICC) assessment among psychiatric patients is a pivotal concern in clinical research.

AIM: To analyze the assessment of ICC and form a framework with multi-dimensional elements involved in ICC of BCI clinical research among psychiatric disorders.

METHODS: A systematic review of studies regarding ICC assessments of BCI clinical research in patients with six kinds of psychiatric disorders was conducted. A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science. Peer-reviewed articles and full-text studies were included in the analysis. There were no date restrictions, and all studies published up to February 27, 2025, were included.

RESULTS: A total of 103 studies were selected for this review. Fifty-eight studies included ICC factors, and forty-five were classified in ICC related ethical issues of BCI research in six kinds of psychiatric disorders. Executive function impairment is widely recognized as the most significant factor impacting ICC, and processing speed deficits are observed in schizophrenia, mood disorders, and Alzheimer's disease. Memory dysfunction, particularly episodic and working memory, contributes to compromised ICC. Five core ethical issues in BCI research should be addressed: BCI specificity, vulnerability, autonomy, dynamic ICC, comprehensiveness, and uncertainty.

CONCLUSION: A Five-Dimensional evaluative framework, including clinical, ethical, sociocultural, legal, and procedural dimensions, is constructed and proposed for future ICC research in BCI clinical research involving psychiatric disorders.

RevDate: 2025-08-21

Wang P, Dai AL, Guo XR, et al (2025)

Portable electroencephalography in early detection of depression: Progress and future directions.

World journal of psychiatry, 15(8):107725.

Traditional diagnostic tools for depression, such as the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, are susceptible to subjective bias, increasing the risk of misdiagnosis and emphasizing the critical need for objective biomarkers. This minireview evaluates the emerging role of portable electroencephalography (EEG) as a cost-effective, accessible solution for early depression detection. By synthesizing findings from 45 studies (selected from 764 screened articles), we highlight EEG's capacity to identify aberrant neural oscillations associated with core depressive symptoms, including anhedonia, excessive guilt, and persistent low mood. Advances in portable systems demonstrate promising classification accuracy when integrated with machine learning algorithms, with long short-term memory models achieving > 90% accuracy in recent trials. However, persistent challenges, such as signal quality variability, motion artifacts, and limited clinical validation, hinder widespread adoption. Further innovation in sensor optimization, multimodal data integration, and real-world clinical trials is essential to translate portable EEG into a reliable diagnostic tool. This minireview underscores the transformative potential of neurotechnology in psychiatry while advocating for rigorous standardization to bridge the gap between research and clinical practice.

RevDate: 2025-08-21

Riemann D, Nissen C, Geoffroy PA, et al (2025)

Sleep and Dreams as Reflected by Science Fiction Literature and Films-Anything to Learn From?.

Journal of sleep research [Epub ahead of print].

Sleep and dreams are frequent themes in science fiction (Sci-Fi) literature and films, often used to explore questions about consciousness, reality, technology and the human experience. Sci-Fi authors and filmmakers utilise the enigmatic nature of sleep and dreams to blur the boundaries between reality and imagination, raising philosophical questions or extrapolating the effects of futuristic technologies on human life. In this article, we want to highlight some areas that have been recurring themes relating to sleep and dreams in Sci-Fi. These will include the concepts of so-called hypno-paedagogics, space hibernation, brain machine interfaces, electrostimulation, genetic engineering and the impact of substances (viruses, bacteria, drugs, toxins) on sleep and dreams. We will then confront Sci-Fi concepts with what is known from contemporary sleep science and judge what might be feasible, or not, in the future. A question we also want to address is how the relationship between sleep science and sleep Sci-Fi can be conceptualised: whether novel concepts have been instigated by Sci-Fi and taken up by sleep science or whether Sci-Fi merely reflects state of the art topics of sleep science, with just adding a touch of fiction.

RevDate: 2025-08-21

Agarwal P, Kumar S, R Singh (2025)

Motor imagery-based neural networks for assisting tetraplegic patients.

Medical & biological engineering & computing [Epub ahead of print].

Nowadays, deep network-based classification algorithms are used in a myriad of applications for brain-computer interfaces (BCIs). These interfaces can enhance the daily lives of quadriplegic patients. Electroencephalography (EEG) based motor imagery (MI) is an integral part of BCI, and the performance of the available deep classifiers is still limited. This paper presents a novel convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture designed to enhance the multiclass classification accuracy of motor imagery (MI) signals acquired through EEG-based sensing. We have selected the electrodes over the sensorimotor cortex region of the brain in the 8-30 Hz EEG frequency band. Further, we have computed the classification accuracy and kappa scores in an end-to-end deep classification network. Our framework surpasses the contemporary literature algorithms in classifying BCI competition IV-2a, a four-class MI dataset of nine subjects (left hand, right hand, both feet, tongue). The proposed network architecture has achieved an average and maximum accuracy of 95.19% and 99.28%, respectively. We have outperformed state-of-the-art accuracies of the individual subjects S1, S2, S3, S4, S5, S6, S8, and the average accuracy of the dataset by 8.28%, 40.97%, 5.54%, 14.83%, 19.09%, 25.5%, 10.43%, and 12.82% respectively.

RevDate: 2025-08-20
CmpDate: 2025-08-20

Zuo C, Yin Y, Wang H, et al (2025)

Enhancing classification of a large lower-limb motor imagery EEG dataset for BCI in knee pain patients.

Scientific data, 12(1):1451.

Chronic knee osteoarthritis pain significantly impacts patients' quality of life and motor function. While motor imagery (MI)-based brain-computer interface (BCI) systems have shown promise in rehabilitation, their application to lower-limb conditions, particularly in pain patients, is underexplored. This study evaluates the feasibility of applying an MI-BCI model to a large dataset of knee pain patients, utilizing a novel deep learning algorithm for signal decoding. This EEG data was collected and analysed from 30 knee pain patients, revealing significant event-related (de)synchronization (ERD/ERS) during MI tasks. Traditional decoding algorithms achieved accuracies of 51.43%, 55.71%, and 76.21%, while the proposed OTFWRGD algorithm reached an average accuracy of 86.41%. This dataset highlights the potential of lower-limb MI in enhancing neural plasticity and offers valuable insights for future MI-BCI applications in lower-limb rehabilitation, especially for patients with knee pain.

RevDate: 2025-08-20
CmpDate: 2025-08-20

Molokanova E, Zhou T, Vasupal P, et al (2025)

Non-genetic neuromodulation with graphene optoelectronic actuators for disease models, stem cell maturation, and biohybrid robotics.

Nature communications, 16(1):7499.

Light can serve as a tunable trigger for neurobioengineering technologies, enabling probing, control, and enhancement of brain function with unmatched spatiotemporal precision. Yet, these technologies often require genetic or structural alterations of neurons, disrupting their natural activity. Here, we introduce the Graphene-Mediated Optical Stimulation (GraMOS) platform, which leverages graphene's optoelectronic properties and its ability to efficiently convert light into electricity. Using GraMOS in longitudinal studies, we found that repeated optical stimulation enhances the maturation of hiPSC-derived neurons and brain organoids, underscoring GraMOS's potential for regenerative medicine and neurodevelopmental studies. To explore its potential for disease modeling, we applied short-term GraMOS to Alzheimer's stem cell models, uncovering disease-associated alterations in neuronal activity. Finally, we demonstrated a proof-of-concept for neuroengineering applications by directing robotic movements with GraMOS-triggered signals from graphene-interfaced brain organoids. By enabling precise, non-invasive neural control across timescales from milliseconds to months, GraMOS opens new avenues in neurodevelopment, disease treatment, and robotics.

RevDate: 2025-08-20
CmpDate: 2025-08-20

Xiao X, H Li (2025)

Improving brain-computer interface performance with optimized frequency interaction and enhancement techniques: CFC-PSO-XGBoost (CPX).

Medical engineering & physics, 143:104392.

PURPOSE: This work aims to increase the classification accuracy of motor imagery-based brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) by employing Cross-Frequency Coupling (CFC) and using spontaneous EEG as an input for the features to increase the system's robustness.

METHODS: Using a benchmark MI-BCI dataset, we examined 25 participants who completed two trials of a motor imagery task split into two classes. Our methodology involved preprocessing EEG data, using Phase-Amplitude Coupling (PAC) to extract CFC characteristics and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) to identify the optimal channels. The XGBoost method was utilized to classify the data, and 10-fold cross-validation was employed to verify the results. They are integrated into a single pipeline, named CFC-PSO-XGBoost (CPX).

RESULTS: With an average classification accuracy of 76.7 % ± 1.0 %, with only eight EEG channels, the suggested approach (CPX) outperformed cutting-edge techniques like CSP (60.2 % ± 12.4 %), FBCSP (63.5 % ± 13.5 %), FBCNet (68.8 % ± 14.6 %), and EEGNet. This significant improvement demonstrates the effectiveness of CFC features and PSO for channel selection in MI-BCI classification. Furthermore, the method was evaluated on the public BCI Competition IV-2a dataset, achieving an average multi-class classification accuracy of 78.3 % (95 % CI: 74.85-81.76 %), confirming the scalability and robustness of CPX on external benchmarks.

CONCLUSION: CPX leveraging spontaneous EEG signals and CFC features significantly improves classification accuracy. We anticipate this methodology will be a robust and practical solution in BCI applications, providing better brain-to-device communication with low-channel utilization and considerable performance metrics.

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Gupta D, Brangaccio JA, Mojtabavi H, et al (2025)

Extracting Robust Single-Trial Somatosensory Evoked Potentials for Non-Invasive Brain Computer Interfaces.

Journal of neural engineering [Epub ahead of print].

Reliable extraction of single-trial somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) is essential for developing brain-computer interface (BCI) applications to support rehabilitation after brain injury. For real-time feedback, these responses must be extracted prospectively on every trial, with minimal post-processing and artifact correction. However, noninvasive SEPs elicited by electrical stimulation at recommended parameter settings (0.1-0.2 msec pulse width, stimulation at or below motor threshold, 2-5 Hz frequency) are typically small and variable, often requiring averaging across multiple trials or extensive processing. Here, we describe and evaluate ways to optimize the stimulation setup to enhance the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of noninvasive single-trial SEPs, enabling more reliable extraction. Approach: SEPs were recorded with scalp electroencephalography in tibial nerve stimulation in thirteen healthy people, and two people with CNS injuries. Three stimulation frequencies (lower than recommended: 0.2 Hz, 1 Hz, 2 Hz) with a pulse width longer than recommended (1 msec), at a stimulation intensity based on H-reflex and M-wave at Soleus muscle were evaluated. Detectability of single-trial SEPs relative to background noise was tested offline and in a pseudo-online analysis, followed by a real-time demonstration. Results: SEP N70 was observed predominantly at the central scalp regions. Online decoding performance was significantly higher with Laplacian filter. Generalization performance showed an expected degradation, at all frequencies, with an average decrease of 5.9% (multivariate) and 6.5 % (univariate), with an AUC score ranging from 0.78 - 0.90. The difference across stimulation frequencies was not significant. In individuals with injuries, AUC of 0.86 (incomplete spinal cord injury) and 0.81 (stroke) was feasible. Real-time demonstration showed SEP detection with AUC of 0.89. Significance: This study describes and evaluates a system for extracting single-trial SEPs in real-time, suitable for a BCI-based operant conditioning. It enhances SNR of individual SEPs by alternate electrical stimulation parameters, dry headset, and optimized signal processing. .

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Zhang Z, Meng W, Sun H, et al (2025)

CausalCOMRL: Context-based offline meta-reinforcement learning with causal representation.

Neural networks : the official journal of the International Neural Network Society, 193:107955 pii:S0893-6080(25)00836-6 [Epub ahead of print].

Context-based offline meta-reinforcement learning (OMRL) methods have achieved appealing success by leveragingpre-collected offline datasets to develop task representations that guide policy learning. However, current context-based OMRL methods often introduce spurious correlations, where task components are incorrectly correlated due to confounders. These correlations can degrade policy performance when the confounders in the test taskdiffer from those in the training task. To address this problem, we propose CausalCOMRL, a context-based OMRL method that integrates causal representation learning. This approach uncovers causal relationships among the task components and incorporates the causal relationships into task representations, enhancing the generalizability of RL agents. We further improve the distinction of task representations from different tasks by using mutual information optimization and contrastive learning. Utilizing these causal task representations, we employSAC to optimize policies on meta-RL benchmarks. Experimental results show that CausalCOMRL achieves better performance than other methods on most benchmarks.

RevDate: 2025-08-20
CmpDate: 2025-08-20

Foster MW, Sanhueza C, Bahr E, et al (2025)

The effects of viewing visual artwork on patients, staff, and visitors in healthcare settings: A scoping review.

PloS one, 20(8):e0328215 pii:PONE-D-24-59075.

BACKGROUND: The integration of visual art in healthcare settings has been demonstrated to contribute to well-being. However, the impact of visual arts in healthcare has been primarily evaluated among patients. Viewing visual art could be a health resource to a greater number of people in healthcare settings, including patients, staff, and visitors.

METHODS: We conducted a scoping review to synthesize literature on the impact of viewing visual artwork among patients, staff, and visitors in healthcare settings related to the reported outcomes of well-being, wellness, and belonging. The review was informed by Arksey and O'Malley and Joanna Briggs Institute frameworks with masked pairs of reviewers. Included studies were in English, with no restrictions on geographical settings or publication dates. Nine academic databases and twelve gray literature sources were searched, in addition to a hand search and global call for submissions.

RESULTS: From an initial 25,222 records, 68 publications met inclusion criteria across 20 locations. 35 were peer-reviewed studies and 33 constituted gray literature. Included publications that reported sample sizes reflected a total of 6,006 participants with the majority being patients (3,133) followed by staff (1,343), visitors (32), and other/unspecified participants (996). Reported outcomes for patients indicated that visual arts in hospitals reduced heart rates, improved reported mental health outcomes, increased well-being, and provided a positive distraction. Reported outcomes for healthcare staff included an increased well-being, belonging, and capacity to prioritize patient needs. Reported outcomes for visitors consisted of an improved experience in healthcare environments and increased well-being.

CONCLUSIONS: Our synthesis of evidence indicates that integration of visual arts within healthcare settings has positive outcomes for its viewers. Our findings are useful to promote the generation of evidence that can reliably inform the design and experience of healthcare environments.

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Liu T, Wang Z, Shakil S, et al (2025)

Uncovering Low-dimensional Manifolds of Neural Dynamics for Motor-Imagery based Stroke Rehabilitation: An EEG-based Brain-Computer Interface study.

IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Stroke rehabilitation aims to repair neural circuits and dynamics through the remapping of neuronal functions. However, there is currently a gap in understanding the alteration of neural population dynamics-the fundamental computational unit driving functions-under clinical settings. In this study, we introduced a novel method to identify stable low-dimensional structures of neural population dynamics in stroke patients during motor tasks. Using whole-brain EEG recordings from chronic stroke patients performing motor imagery (MI) tasks before and after brain-computer interface (BCI) training, as well as a public EEG dataset of acute stroke patients performing MI tasks, we projected EEG signals from sensor space to voxel space via source localization (eLORETA), simulating neural population activity in regions of interest. By applying dimensionality reduction, we successfully obtained low-dimensional neural manifolds to represent neural population dynamics. Our analysis revealed three key findings: (1) For right-handed patients, task-related low-dimensional dynamics in the related brain regions remain stable across subjects, with their features holding potential as biomarkers for stroke rehabilitation; (2) BCI training promotes global and sustained restoration of neural population dynamics; (3) EEG theta-band oscillations show strong correlation with these dynamics, highlighting their macroscopic nature. This study proposes a new, simple, and powerful tool for comprehension and validation of stroke rehabilitation mechanisms confirming the effectiveness of BCI training in restoring neural dynamics.

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Wu X, Tan S, Zhang Y, et al (2025)

Feasibility of relaxation-exchange magnetic resonance imaging (REXI) for measuring water exchange across the blood-CSF barrier in the human choroid plexus.

Journal of cerebral blood flow and metabolism : official journal of the International Society of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism [Epub ahead of print].

The choroid plexus (CP) is important for cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) secretion and forms the blood-CSF barrier (BCSFB), which is essential for brain homeostasis. However, noninvasive methods for evaluating BCSFB function remain limited. Previously, we introduced a novel magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) technique, relaxation-exchange MRI (REXI), to quantify water exchange between CP and CSF in rats by leveraging the substantial difference in transverse relaxation times between CP tissue and CSF. Here, we adapted REXI to human applications by implementing segmented echo-planar imaging readout for enhanced acquisition speed, optimizing key parameters based on the Cramér-Rao lower bound, and refining the analysis methodology. We conducted simulations and phantom experiments for methodological validation. Subsequently, we performed a scan-rescan experiment in healthy volunteers (n = 6, mean-age ∼22 years), revealing relatively good repeatability in measurements of the apparent water exchange rate kBCSFB (intraclass correlation coefficient = 0.84). REXI detected a 34% decrease in kBCSFB among middle-aged healthy adults (n = 6, mean-age ∼55 years) compared with young healthy adults (n = 9, mean-age ∼23 years, p = 0.0048). These results demonstrate the feasibility of REXI in quantifying water exchange in human CP in vivo, providing a promising tool for future investigations of BCSFB function.

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Ma C, Li W, Gao C, et al (2025)

Multifunctional Hydrogel Materials for Advanced Neural Interfaces.

Small methods [Epub ahead of print].

Conventional rigid neural electrodes mismatch the soft, wet nature of neural tissue, hindering long-term stable interfaces. Multifunctional hydrogels, with their tissue-like compliance, ionic conductivity, and biocompatibility, offer a promising solution to bridge bioelectronic systems and neural tissues. This review systematically examines critical hydrogel properties-mechanical compliance, adhesion, biocompatibility, conductivity, and injectability-for neural interfacing. It summarizes recent advances in hydrogel-based technologies, including hydrogel coatings, conductive hydrogel electrodes, and integrated hydrogel electronics. Future challenges involve balancing biodegradation with long-term stability, developing advanced fabrication strategies, and ensuring chronic performance stability. Key future directions include optimizing hydrogel properties for chronic applications, creating smart-responsive hydrogels, integrating artificial intelligence, and advancing wireless systems. Leveraging materials science, bioengineering, and nanotechnology, hydrogel-based neural interfaces are poised to unlock unprecedented capabilities in brain-computer interfaces, neural prosthetics, neuromodulation, and regenerative therapies, heralding a paradigm shift in neurotechnology.

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Jude JJ, Haro S, Levi-Aharoni H, et al (2025)

Decoding intended speech with an intracortical brain-computer interface in a person with longstanding anarthria and locked-in syndrome.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology pii:2025.08.12.668516.

Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) for decoding intended speech have provided individuals with ALS and severe dysarthria an intuitive method for high-throughput communication. These advances have been demonstrated in individuals who are still able to vocalize and move speech articulators. Here, we decoded intended speech from an individual with longstanding anarthria, locked-in syndrome, and ventilator dependence due to advanced symptoms of ALS. We found that phonemes, words, and higher-order language units could be decoded well above chance. While sentence decoding accuracy was below that of demonstrations in participants with dysarthria, we are able to attain an extensive characterization of the neural signals underlying speech in a person with locked-in syndrome and through our results identify several directions for future improvement. These include closed-loop speech imagery training and decoding linguistic (rather than phonemic) units from neural signals in middle precentral gyrus. Overall, these results demonstrate that speech decoding from motor cortex may be feasible in people with anarthria and ventilator dependence. For individuals with longstanding anarthria, a purely phoneme-based decoding approach may lack the accuracy necessary to support independent use as a primary means of communication; however, additional linguistic information embedded within neural signals may provide a route to augment the performance of speech decoders.

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Anonymous (2025)

Corrigendum to "A Fuzzy Shell for Developing an Interpretable BCI Based on the Spatiotemporal Dynamics of the Evoked Oscillations".

Computational intelligence and neuroscience, 2025:9842516.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1155/2021/6685672.].

RevDate: 2025-08-20

Chen D, Shi J, Tao B, et al (2025)

A Novel Transfer Learning-Based Hybrid EEG-fNIRS Brain-Computer Interface for Intracerebral Hemorrhage Rehabilitation.

Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) [Epub ahead of print].

Motor imagery (MI)-based neurorehabilitation shows promise for intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) recovery, yet conventional unimodal brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) face critical limitations in cross-subject generalization. This study presents a multimodal electroencephalography (EEG)-functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) fusion framework incorporating a Wasserstein metric-driven source domain selection method that quantifies inter-subject neural distribution divergence. Through comparative neuroactivation analysis of 17 normal controls and 13 ICH patients during MI tasks, the transfer learning model achieved 74.87% mean classification accuracy on patient data when trained with optimally selected normal templates. Cross-validation on two public hybrid EEG-fNIRS datasets demonstrated generalizability, increasing baseline accuracy to 82.30% and 87.24%, respectively. The proposed system synergistically combines the millisecond temporal resolution of EEG with the hemodynamic spatial specificity of fNIRS, establishing the first clinically viable multimodal analytical protocol for ICH rehabilitation. This paradigm advances neurotechnology translation by paving the way for personalized rehabilitation regimens through robust cross-subject neural pattern transfer while addressing the critical barrier of neurophysiological heterogeneity in post-ICH populations.

RevDate: 2025-08-19

Li Y, Li H, Wang H, et al (2025)

Exploring the therapeutic potential of psychedelics in treating substance use disorders.

Molecular psychiatry [Epub ahead of print].

Psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, have garnered significant attention as potential therapeutic tools for treating substance use disorders (SUDs), such as those related to alcohol, nicotine, heroin (an opioid), or cocaine. Traditional treatments often fall short, leading to high relapse rates and an urgent need for innovative approaches. This article explores the emerging role of psychedelics in SUDs therapy, highlighting their ability to disrupt maladaptive neural circuits, promote neuroplasticity, and facilitate profound psychological insights that address the root causes of SUDs. Clinical trials demonstrate promising results across various forms of SUDs, with psilocybin-assisted therapy showing significant reductions in substance use and improved mental health outcomes. Despite the potential, challenges such as legal barriers, safety concerns, and the need for more rigorous research remain. The future of psychedelics in SUDs treatment is cautiously optimistic, with the possibility of transforming the field of SUDs therapy and offering hope to millions of individuals struggling with SUDs.

RevDate: 2025-08-19
CmpDate: 2025-08-19

Schippers A, Vansteensel MJ, Freudenburg ZV, et al (2025)

Don't put words in my mouth: speech perception can falsely activate a brain-computer interface.

Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 22(1):181.

BACKGROUND: Recent studies have demonstrated that speech can be decoded from brain activity which in turn can be used for brain-computer interface (BCI)-based communication. It is however also known that the area often used as a signal source for speech decoding BCIs, the sensorimotor cortex (SMC), is also engaged when people perceive speech, thus making speech perception a potential source of false positive activation of the BCI. The current study investigated if and how speech perception may interfere with reliable speech BCI control.

METHODS: We recorded high-density electrocorticography (HD-ECoG) data from five subjects while they performed a speech perception and a speech production task. We first evaluated whether speech perception and production activated the SMC. Second, we trained a support-vector machine (SVM) on the speech production data (including rest). To test the occurrence of false positives, this decoder was then tested on speech perception data where every perception segment that was classified as a produced syllable rather than rest was considered a false positive. Finally, we investigated whether perceived speech could be distinguished from produced speech and rest.

RESULTS: Our results show that both the perception and production of speech activate the SMC. In addition, we found that decoders that are highly reliable at detecting self-produced syllables from brain signals may generate false positive BCI activations during the perception of speech and that it is possible to distinguish perceived speech from produced speech and rest, with high accuracy.

CONCLUSIONS: We conclude that speech perception can interfere with reliable BCI control, and that efforts to limit the occurrence of false positives during daily-life BCI use should be implemented in BCI design to increase the likelihood of successful adoptation by end users.

RevDate: 2025-08-19

Brannigan J, Kian A, Eiber C, et al (2025)

Characterizing superficial cerebral cortical venous anatomy for endovascular device implantation: a cross-sectional imaging study.

Journal of neurointerventional surgery pii:jnis-2025-023532 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Neurovascular electronic devices, including brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), offer a minimally invasive approach to diagnosing and treating neurological disorders. Implanting BCIs in superficial cortical veins, owing to their proximity to sensorimotor cortices, may improve motor function restoration. However, marked anatomical variability and the complex anteriorly directed connection with the superior sagittal sinus (SSS) complicate device navigation. This exploratory study aimed to characterize cortical venous anatomy to inform device design and procedural planning.

METHODS: Retrospective imaging data from 25 patients were analyzed using magnetic resonance venography (MRV) and computed tomography venography (CTV). Vessel segmentation and analysis quantified parameters such as vein presence, diameter, length, angulation, and tortuosity. In 12 patients, T1-weighted magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) was used to extract cortical gyri and sulci, assessing vessel-cortex relationships.

RESULTS: The superior anastomotic vein (vein of Trolard) was identified bilaterally in 84% of patients, with a mean entrance diameter of 4.4 mm. Frequent transient constrictions (<2 mm) were reported. The precentral vein was present bilaterally in 52% of cases. Most cortical veins exhibited take-off angles >90 degrees from the SSS, presenting challenges for endovascular navigation, with overall considerable anatomical variability observed.

CONCLUSION: The vein of Trolard shows promise as a target for endovascular BCIs given its consistent presence and favorable dimensions. Nonetheless, constrictions and steep angulation at the SSS confluence pose challenges for device deployment. A new framework is necessary for the classification of cortical venous anatomy, to guide patient selection and procedural planning, which will require further development and validation.

RevDate: 2025-08-19

Yadav H, S Maini (2025)

Decoding brain signals: A comprehensive review of EEG-Based BCI paradigms, signal processing and applications.

Computers in biology and medicine, 196(Pt C):110937 pii:S0010-4825(25)01289-2 [Epub ahead of print].

Brain-computer interface (BCI) based on electroencephalography (EEG) is a fast-developing field with a wide range of applications such as assistive technology, neurorehabilitation, entertainment, cognitive enhancement, etc. Since EEG is a non-invasive technique that captures brain activity in real time, it is ideally suited for developing interfaces that enable direct brain-to-device communication. The different paradigms utilised in EEG-based BCIs, such as Motor Imagery (MI), Steady-State Visual Evoked Potentials (SSVEP), P300 Event-related Potentials (ERP), and Hybrid paradigms that integrate several strategies for enhanced performance, are the main emphasis of this systematic review. This paper also explores the signal processing techniques, feature extraction strategies, and classification algorithms necessary for handling low-amplitude and noisy EEG recordings. The applications of BCI in different fields, as well as the challenges and possible solutions of EEG-based BCIs, are also covered in this article. Overall, the state-of-the-art in EEG-based BCIs is thoroughly reviewed in this comprehensive review article, which also identifies important areas for further study and technological advancement.

RevDate: 2025-08-19
CmpDate: 2025-08-19

Liu N, Wang J, Wang H, et al (2025)

A noncanonical parasubthalamic nucleus-to-extended amygdala circuit converts chronic social stress into anxiety.

The Journal of clinical investigation, 135(16): pii:188246.

Anxiety disorders pose a substantial threat to global mental health, with chronic stress identified as a major etiologic factor. Over the past few decades, extensive studies have revealed that chronic stress induces anxiety states through a distributed neuronal network of interconnected brain structures. However, the precise circuit mechanisms underlying the transition from chronic stress to anxiety remain incompletely understood. Employing the chronic social defeat stress (CSDS) paradigm in mice, we uncovered a critical role of the parasubthalamic nucleus (PSTh) in both the induction and expression of anxiety-like behavior. The anxiogenic effect was mediated by an excitatory trisynaptic circuitry involving the lateral parabrachial nucleus (LPB), PSTh, and bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST). Furthermore, CSDS downregulated Kv4.3 channels in glutamatergic neurons of the PSTh. Reexpression of these channels dampened neuronal overexcitability and alleviated anxiety-like behavior in stressed animals. In parallel with the well-known anxiety network centered on the amygdala, here we identify a noncanonical LPB-PSTh-BNST pathway in the transformation of stress into anxiety. These findings suggest that the PSTh may serve as a potential therapeutic target for anxiety-related disorders.

RevDate: 2025-08-19

Martinez-Addiego F, Liu Y, Moon K, et al (2025)

Action-type mapping principles extend beyond evolutionarily conserved actions, even in people born without hands.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(34):e2503188122.

How are actions represented in the motor system? Although the sensorimotor system is broadly organized somatotopically, higher-level sensorimotor areas encode action-type information for reaching and grasping actions-regardless of the acting body part. Does the brain similarly support generalization across acting body parts for more evolutionarily recent actions, such as tool-use? We tested whether there is a body-part-independent action-type organization in sensorimotor areas by examining fMRI responses for tool-use actions that participants performed with their hands or feet. We additionally included individuals born without hands to test whether hand sensorimotor experience is necessary for the development of this action-type organization. Across analyses, we found a consistent dissociation in the motor system. The primary sensorimotor cortices encoded concrete, body-part specific information in both groups. In contrast, higher-level motor areas within the tool-use network represent abstract, action-type information independent of the body part for both groups. Together, our results suggest that the hierarchical organization of the motor system is not dependent on a long evolutionary history of an action. Further, this organization is not dependent on an individual's manual sensorimotor experience. Our results also show that the functional reorganization in congenital handlessness follows the hierarchical organization of the intact cortex, revealing the limitations of brain plasticity. Finally, the results support using a readout of a more abstract code for hierarchical brain-computer interfaces.

RevDate: 2025-08-19

Qiao MX, Yu H, Fu Z, et al (2025)

Combination Therapy Against Mood and Anxiety Disorders: Association Between Efficacy and White Blood Cell Count.

Neuropsychiatric disease and treatment, 21:1655-1668.

BACKGROUND: Numerous studies suggest that hyperactivation of the immuno-inflammatory system, as reflected in cytokine levels, is associated with more severe symptoms in mood and anxiety disorders and weaker response to treatment. Here we examined whether the efficacy of a combination of bright light therapy, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation and medication is associated with another immuno-inflammatory index, white blood cell count, before and/or after treatment, in a retrospective observational study.

METHODS: We retrospectively analyzed 467 inpatients with major depressive, bipolar, or generalized anxiety disorder who were treated with combination therapy for at least one week at Hangzhou Seventh People's Hospital between April 2022 and April 2024. Potential associations between remission incidences within four weeks after treatment and white blood cell count both before treatment and post-treatment were explored. We used mixed-effects linear modeling to examine the association between treatment characteristics and changes in white blood cell count and depressive symptoms.

RESULTS: Bipolar and major depressive disorders were associated with significantly higher white blood cell counts at baseline than generalized anxiety disorder as well as with significantly lower remission incidences. Bright light therapy's effects depended on baseline inflammation, more sessions led to greater reductions in the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale score with low baseline white blood cell count, and greater decreases in white blood cell count with high baseline count. In contrast, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation sessions showed no association with white blood cell count.

CONCLUSION: These results highlight the need to account for an individual's immuno-inflammatory state when personalizing treatment for mental health disorders.

RevDate: 2025-08-18

Priya S, Mohan S, Kuppusamy R, et al (2025)

Advances in Bio-Microelectromechanical System-Based Sensors for Next-Generation Healthcare Applications.

ACS omega, 10(31):34088-34105.

Microelectromechanical system (MEMS)-based sensors have become essential in various fields, including healthcare, automotive, and industrial applications. These sensors integrate mechanical structures and electronics on a single chip, allowing precise, compact, and efficient measurements of parameters like pressure, force, acceleration, and chemical reactions. In this context, this review article presents the essential role of MEMS sensors in healthcare applications. In healthcare, MEMS sensors are widely used for monitoring vital signs, detecting glucose levels, managing cardiovascular and intracranial pressure, and enhancing drug delivery systems. They are also key in tactile sensing during surgeries and in improving neuromuscular monitoring through electromyography (EMG). Despite their advantages, such as small size, low energy consumption, and high performance, MEMS sensors face challenges like sensitivity drift, durability concerns, and long-term calibration stability. This article addresses these limitations and highlights ongoing advancements aimed at improving sensor accuracy, energy efficiency, and adaptability to diverse environments. By examining current trends and innovations, this review provides insights into how MEMS technology is driving breakthroughs in biomedical research, early cancer diagnosis, and bioimaging treatment. We have discussed inertial sensors, MEMS-based glucose sensors, intraocular pressure (IOP) sensors, intracranial pressure sensors, cardiovascular pressure sensors, tactile sensors, and smart inhalers. In addition, we have explored recent advancements in MEMS technologies applied to healthcare, particularly in microfluidic MEMS chips and brain-machine interfaces, with a focus on developments from the last five years. Future research directions focus on enhancing the flexibility, reliability, and energy efficiency of MEMS sensors, positioning them as key components in the next generation of healthcare and medical devices.

RevDate: 2025-08-19

Kinreich S (2025)

Neural transmission in the wired brain, new insights into an encoding-decoding-based neuronal communication model.

Translational psychiatry, 15(1):288.

Brain activity is known to be rife with oscillatory activity in different frequencies, which are suggested to be associated with intra-brain communication. However, the specific role of frequencies in neuronal information transfer is still an open question. To this end, we utilized EEG resting state recordings from 5 public datasets. Overall, data from 1668 participants, including people with MDD, ADHD, OCD, Parkinson's, Schizophrenia, and healthy controls aged 5-89, were part of the study. We conducted a running window of Spearman correlation between the two frontal hemispheres' Alpha envelopes. The results of this analysis revealed a unique pattern of correlation states alternating between fully synchronized and desynchronized several times per second, likely due to the interference pattern between two signals of slightly different frequencies, also named "Beating". Subsequent analysis showed this unique pattern in every pair of ipsilateral/contralateral, across frequencies, either in eyes closed or open, and across all ages, underscoring its inherent significance. Biomarker analysis revealed significantly lower synchronization and higher desynchronization for people older than 50 compared to younger ones and lower ADHD desynchronization compared to age-matched controls. Importantly, we propose a new brain communication model in which frequency modulation creates a binary message encoded and decoded by brain regions for information transfer. We suggest that the binary-like pattern allows the neural information to be coded according to certain physiological and biological rules known to both the sender and recipient. This digital-like scheme has the potential to be exploited in brain-computer interaction and applied technologies such as robotics.

RevDate: 2025-08-15

Xu T, Yu L, Zheng Y, et al (2025)

BrainVision: Cross-domain EEG decoding for visual content retrieval and reconstruction.

Neuroscience pii:S0306-4522(25)00830-9 [Epub ahead of print].

Understanding human visual intent through brain signals remains a fundamental challenge in neuroscience and artificial intelligence. Despite recent advances in brain decoding, existing approaches typically operate within isolated datasets and modalities, limiting their generalization capabilities. This paper introduces BrainVision, a novel framework that bridges visual recognition and emotional EEG datasets to enable comprehensive visual content generation through cross-domain learning. BrainVision addresses the critical challenge of leveraging complementary information across heterogeneous EEG sources by implementing a unified cross-domain alignment strategy. Our framework maps neural patterns from the THINGS-EEG visual recognition dataset and the DEAP emotional response dataset into a shared representation space, enabling three distinct visual output capabilities: (1) accurate content retrieval and classification, (2) detailed linguistic descriptions through adapter-enhanced large language models, and (3) high-fidelity image reconstruction via stable diffusion models. Experimental results demonstrate that BrainVision significantly outperforms single-domain approaches, achieving a 15.3% increase in retrieval accuracy and a 12.7% improvement in structural similarity for reconstructed images compared to state-of-the-art methods. Furthermore, our framework demonstrates robust zero-shot generalization, maintaining 82% of its performance when applied to novel stimuli not seen during training. The multi-modal outputs provide complementary interpretations of neural activity, offering a more comprehensive understanding of visual intent. Our findings establish that integrating diverse neural datasets substantially enhances the capabilities of brain decoding systems, providing a promising direction for developing more intuitive and versatile brain-computer interfaces. BrainVision represents an important step toward bridging the gap between neural activity and rich visual experiences across different cognitive domains.

RevDate: 2025-08-15

Chen J, Chen X, Tang Z, et al (2025)

Influence of eHealth literacy on acceptance of healthcare services with risks in China: chain-mediating effect of general risk propensity and self-efficacy.

Public health, 247:105891 pii:S0033-3506(25)00337-3 [Epub ahead of print].

OBJECTIVES: To investigate factors associated with the acceptance of healthcare services with risks among Chinese public.

STUDY DESIGN: This national cross-sectional study used data from the 2023 Psychology and Behavior Investigation of Chinese Residents.

METHODS: Structural equation modelling was used to analyse the chain-mediated pathways of e-health literacy acting through general risk propensity and self-efficacy on the acceptability of five risky healthcare services (COVID-19 vaccine booster shots, mixed vaccination with COVID-19 vaccine, telemedicine, internet-based home care, and brain-computer interface technology). Subgroup analyses were performed by gender, region, and age.

RESULTS: Mean acceptance ratings for the five services ranged from 53.01 to 65.62. eHealth literacy was positively associated with self-efficacy, general risk propensity, and acceptance of five services (r = 0.012-0.048, P < 0.05). General risk propensity was positively associated with mixed vaccination with COVID-19 vaccine, telemedicine, and brain-computer interface technology (r = 0.009 to 0.041, P < 0.05). After adjusting for covariates, the correlation between general risk propensity and acceptance of the COVID-19 vaccine booster shots and telemedicine was non-significant. eHealth literacy had a significant positive effect on five services, self-efficacy, and general risk propensity (P < 0.05). Subgroup analyses showed that self-efficacy and general risk propensity acted as mediators in the relationship between e-health literacy and acceptance of four health services in addition to the mixed neocoronary vaccine in both male and urban populations.

CONCLUSIONS: This finding shows general risk propensity and self-efficacy mediate the link between eHealth literacy and risky healthcare acceptance, deepening understanding and providing practical guidance for promoting innovative healthcare services in China.

RevDate: 2025-08-14

Zhang X, Zheng W, Li Z, et al (2025)

Constraint-Driven Causal Representation Learning for Vigilance Robust Estimation in Brain-Computer Interface.

IEEE transactions on neural networks and learning systems, PP: [Epub ahead of print].

Vigilance estimation is a critical task within the field of brain-computer interfaces, extensively applied in monitoring and optimizing user states during human-machine interaction using electroencephalography (EEG). However, most existing vigilance prediction frameworks are prone to spurious correlations stemming from inherent biases in collected data. These biases involve relevant but vigilance-independent information, which may lack robustness when applied to different data distributions, i.e., out-of-distribution (OOD) scenarios. The core idea of this study is to learn constraints that capture causal information from the input based on the assumed underlying data generating process. Leveraging the disentanglement and invariance principles behind the assumptions, we propose a constraint-driven causal representation learning (CCRL) to identify and separate spurious latent variables from biased training data for generalized vigilance estimation. The CCRL training process consists of two phases: self-supervised pretraining and constraint-driven causal information disentanglement. In the first phase, based on the masked autoencoder (MAE) architecture, unlabeled training data are used for reconstructing pretext tasks to capture the comprehensive and intrinsic contextual information from EEG data, which provides a powerful input for downstream disentanglement learning. In the second phase, we propose a novel disentanglement strategy to learn spurious-free latent representations causally related to the vigilance state driven by adversarial and invariance constraints. Comprehensive validation experiments conducted on two well-known public datasets demonstrate the effectiveness and superiority of the proposed framework. In general, this work has promising implications for addressing OOD challenges in vigilance estimation.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Muraoka Y, Iwama S, J Ushiba (2024)

Neurofeedback-induced desynchronization of sensorimotor rhythm elicits pre-movement downregulation of intracortical inhibition that shortens simple reaction time in humans: A double-blind, sham-controlled randomized study.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 2:.

Sensorimotor rhythm event-related desynchronization (SMR-ERD) is associated with the activities of cortical inhibitory circuits in the motor cortex. The self-regulation of SMR-ERD through neurofeedback training has demonstrated that successful SMR-ERD regulation improves motor performance. However, the training-induced changes in neural dynamics in the motor cortex underlying performance improvement remain unclear. Here, we hypothesized that SMR-neurofeedback based on motor imagery reduces cortical inhibitory activities during motor preparation, leading to shortened reaction time due to the repetitive recruitment of neural populations shared with motor imagery and movement preparation. To test this, we conducted a double-blind, sham-controlled study on 24 participants using neurofeedback training and pre- and post-training evaluation for simple reaction time tests and cortical inhibitory activity using short-interval intracortical inhibition (SICI). The results showed that veritable neurofeedback training effectively enhanced SMR-ERD in healthy male and female participants, accompanied by reduced simple reaction times and pre-movement SICI. Furthermore, SMR-ERD changes correlated with changes in pre-movement cortical disinhibition, and the disinhibition magnitude correlated with behavioral changes. These results suggest that SMR-neurofeedback modulates cortical inhibitory circuits during movement preparation, thereby enhancing motor performance.

RevDate: 2025-08-12

Lo BWY, H Fukuda (2025)

Advances in Ischemic Stroke Treatment: Current and Future Therapies.

Neurology and therapy [Epub ahead of print].

This review summarizes current concepts in our understanding of stroke anatomy, pathophysiology of cerebral hypoperfusion, and collateral circulation. It also provides an evidence-based update in stroke trials and treatments assessed using PRISMA guidelines. Intravenous thrombolysis, endovascular thrombectomy for anterior circulation strokes, blood pressure control after endovascular thrombectomy, and medical management principles are discussed. Endovascular thrombectomy and medical therapy improves functional independence at 90 days in anterior circulation strokes even in late windows up to 24 h post symptom onset regardless of infarct core size. Intensive systolic blood pressure control acutely post thrombectomy is associated with harm and worse outcomes. This review also provides an evidence-based update on neurorehabilitation strategies with emerging interventions such as brain-computer interface and robotics having the potential to maximize neuroplasticity for potential improvement and recovery post stroke.

RevDate: 2025-08-12

Nuñez Ponasso G, Drumm DA, Oppermann H, et al (2025)

High-Resolution EEG Source Reconstruction from PCA-Corrected BEM-FMM Reciprocal Basis Funcions: A Study with Visual Evoked Potentials from Intermittent Photic Stimulation.

bioRxiv : the preprint server for biology pii:2025.07.11.664246.

Modern automated human head segmentations can generate high-resolution computational meshes involving many non-nested tissues. However, most source reconstruction software is limited to 3 -4 nested layers of low resolution and a small number of dipolar sources∼ 10, 000. Recently, we introduced modeling techniques for source reconstruction of magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals using the reciprocal approach and the boundary element fast multipole method (BEM-FMM). The technique of BEM-FMM can process both nested and non-nested models with as many as 4 million surface elements. In this paper, we present an analogue technique for source reconstruction of electroencephalographic (EEG) signals based on cortical global basis functions. The present work uses Helmholtz reciprocity to relate the reciprocally-generated lead-field matrices to their direct counterpart, while resolving the issue of possible biases toward the reference electrode. Our methodology is tested with experimental EEG data collected from a cohort of 12, young and healthy, volunteers subjected to intermittent photic stimulation (IPS). Our novel high-resolution source reconstruction models can have impact on mental health screening as well as brain-computer inter-faces.

RevDate: 2025-08-14

Tozzi A, K Jaušovec (2025)

Takens' theorem to assess EEG traces: Regional variations in brain dynamics.

Neuroscience letters, 865:138352 pii:S0304-3940(25)00240-X [Epub ahead of print].

Takens' theorem (TT) proves that the behaviour of a dynamical system can be effectively reconstructed within a multidimensional phase space. This offers a comprehensive framework for examining temporal dependencies, dimensional complexity and predictability of time series data. We applied TT to investigate the physiological regional differences in EEG brain dynamics of healthy subjects, focusing on three key channels: FP1 (frontal region), C3 (sensorimotor region), and O1 (occipital region). We provided a detailed reconstruction of phase spaces for each EEG channel using time-delay embedding. The reconstructed trajectories were quantified through measures of trajectory spread and average distance, offering insights into the temporal structure of brain activity that traditional linear methods struggle to capture. Variability and complexity were found to differ across the three regions, revealing notable regional variations. FP1 trajectories exhibited broader spreads, reflecting the dynamic complexity of frontal brain activity associated with higher cognitive functions. C3, involved in sensorimotor integration, displayed moderate variability, reflecting its functional role in coordinating sensory inputs and motor outputs. O1, responsible for visual processing, showed constrained and stable trajectories, consistent with repetitive and structured visual dynamics. These findings align with the functional specialization of different cortical areas, suggesting that the frontal, sensorimotor and occipital regions operate with autonomous temporal structures and nonlinear properties. This distinction may have significant implications for advancing our understanding of normal brain function and enhancing the development of brain-computer interfaces. In sum, we demonstrated the utility of TT in revealing regional variations in EEG traces, underscoring the value of nonlinear dynamics.

RevDate: 2025-08-13
CmpDate: 2025-08-09

Hashemi SI, Cheron G, Demolin D, et al (2025)

EEG oscillations and related brain generators of phonation phases in long utterances.

Scientific reports, 15(1):29150.

While the role of brain rhythms in respiratory and speech motor control has been mainly explored during brief utterances, the specific involvement of brain rhythms in the transition of regulating subglottic pressure phases which are concomitant to specific muscle activation during prolonged phonation remains unexplored. This study investigates whether power spectral variations of the electroencephalogram brain rhythms are related specifically to prolonged phonation phases. High-density EEG and surface EMG were recorded in nineteen healthy participants while they repeatedly produced the syllable [pa] without taking a new breath, until reaching respiratory exhaustion. Aerodynamic, acoustic, and electrophysiological signals were analyzed to detect the brain areas involved in different phases of prolonged phonation. Each phase was defined by successive thoracic and abdominal muscle activity maintaining estimated subglottic pressure. The results showed significant changes in power spectrum, with desynchronization and synchronization in delta, theta, low-alpha, and high-alpha bands during transitions among the phases. Brain source analysis estimated that the first phase (P1), associated with vocal initiation and elastic rib cage recoil, involved frontal regions, suggesting a key role in voluntary phonation preparation. Subsequent phases (P2, P3, P4) showed multiband dynamics, engaging motor and premotor cortices, anterior cingulate, sensorimotor regions, thalamus, and cerebellum, indicating progressive adaptation and fine-tuning of respiratory and articulatory muscle control. Additionally, the involvement of temporal and insular regions in delta rhythm suggests a role in maintaining phonetic representation and preventing spontaneous verbal transformations. These findings provide new insights into the mechanisms and brain regions involved in prolonged phonation. These findings pave the way for applications in vocal brain-machine interfaces, clinical biofeedback for respiratory and vocal disorders, and the development of more ecologically valid paradigms in speech neuroscience.

RevDate: 2025-08-19

Kaifosh P, Reardon TR, CTRL-labs at Reality Labs (2025)

A generic non-invasive neuromotor interface for human-computer interaction.

Nature [Epub ahead of print].

Since the advent of computing, humans have sought computer input technologies that are expressive, intuitive and universal. While diverse modalities have been developed, including keyboards, mice and touchscreens, they require interaction with a device that can be limiting, especially in on-the-go scenarios. Gesture-based systems use cameras or inertial sensors to avoid an intermediary device, but tend to perform well only for unobscured movements. By contrast, brain-computer or neuromotor interfaces that directly interface with the body's electrical signalling have been imagined to solve the interface problem[1], but high-bandwidth communication has been demonstrated only using invasive interfaces with bespoke decoders designed for single individuals[2-4]. Here, we describe the development of a generic non-invasive neuromotor interface that enables computer input decoded from surface electromyography (sEMG). We developed a highly sensitive, easily donned sEMG wristband and a scalable infrastructure for collecting training data from thousands of consenting participants. Together, these data enabled us to develop generic sEMG decoding models that generalize across people. Test users demonstrate a closed-loop median performance of gesture decoding of 0.66 target acquisitions per second in a continuous navigation task, 0.88 gesture detections per second in a discrete-gesture task and handwriting at 20.9 words per minute. We demonstrate that the decoding performance of handwriting models can be further improved by 16% by personalizing sEMG decoding models. To our knowledge, this is the first high-bandwidth neuromotor interface with performant out-of-the-box generalization across people.

RevDate: 2025-08-15
CmpDate: 2025-08-10

Toner AA, Eberlin L, Pichaimuthu R, et al (2025)

The use of robotics and artificial intelligence in upper extremity rehabilitation following traumatic injury: A scoping review.

Journal of hand therapy : official journal of the American Society of Hand Therapists, 38(2):254-265.

BACKGROUND: With the recent advances in technology and its increased use in society, healthcare practices work to identify areas where technology can be implemented to enhance patient care. Rehabilitation has begun to incorporate the use of robotics and artificial intelligence to facilitate positive outcomes and assist in achieving patient goals following injury. While traumatic upper extremity injuries can result in increased levels of pain and disability for an individual, it is not clear how robotics and artificial intelligence have been used in hand rehabilitation to address these issues.

PURPOSE: The objective of this study is to understand the extent of the use of robotics and artificial intelligence for traumatic upper extremity injuries.

STUDY DESIGN: Scoping review.

METHODS: The search strategy was conducted in Embase, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and PsycINFO and identified 7105 studies published between 2014 and 2024. Following title and abstract screening and removal of duplicates, 122 full-text articles were screened. A total of 13 papers were included that used artificial intelligence, robotics, or other technology in rehabilitation programs for individuals with traumatic upper extremity injuries.

RESULTS: Of the 13 included studies: 11 used robotics such as the KINARM Exoskeleton, the Hybrid Assistive Limb, and the WRISTBOT, and two used artificial intelligence including chatbots and brain-computer interface. Multiple outcomes were reported with the most common including range of motion, strength, pain, function, and joint sense.

CONCLUSIONS: Currently, there is a wide variety of different forms of robotics with very little reported use of artificial intelligence for traumatic upper extremity injuries. There exists opportunities for future research to further investigate how these technologies can influence clinical outcomes for patients with traumatic upper extremity injuries.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Kinfe T, Brenner S, N Etminan (2026)

Brain-computer interfaces re-shape functional neurosurgery.

Neural regeneration research, 21(3):1122-1123.

RevDate: 2025-05-30
CmpDate: 2025-05-27

Avital N, Shulkin N, D Malka (2025)

Automatic Calculation of Average Power in Electroencephalography Signals for Enhanced Detection of Brain Activity and Behavioral Patterns.

Biosensors, 15(5):.

Precise analysis of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals is critical for advancing the understanding of neurological conditions and mapping brain activity. However, accurately visualizing brain regions and behavioral patterns from neural signals remains a significant challenge. The present study proposes a novel methodology for the automated calculation of the average power of EEG signals, with a particular focus on the beta frequency band which is known for its pronounced activity during cognitive tasks such as 2D content engagement. An optimization algorithm is employed to determine the most appropriate digital filter type and order for EEG signal processing, thereby enhancing both signal clarity and interpretability. To validate the proposed methodology, an experiment was conducted with 22 students, during which EEG data were recorded while participants engaged in cognitive tasks. The collected data were processed using MATLAB (version R2023a) and the EEGLAB toolbox (version 2022.1) to evaluate various filters, including finite impulse response (FIR) and infinite impulse response (IIR) Butterworth and IIR Chebyshev filters with a 0.5% passband ripple. Results indicate that the IIR Chebyshev filter, configured with a 0.5% passband ripple and a fourth-order design, outperformed the alternatives by effectively reducing average power while preserving signal fidelity. This optimized filtering approach significantly improves the accuracy of neural signal visualizations, thereby facilitating the creation of detailed brain activity maps. By refining the analysis of EEG signals, the proposed method enhances the detection of specific neural behaviors and deepens the understanding of functional brain regions. Moreover, it bolsters the reliability of real-time brain activity monitoring, potentially advancing neurological diagnostics and insights into cognitive processes. These findings suggest that the technique holds considerable promise for future applications in brain-computer interfaces and advanced neurological assessments, offering a valuable tool for both clinical practice and research exploration.

RevDate: 2025-06-18

Haghi B, Aflalo T, Kellis S, et al (2025)

Author Correction: Enhanced control of a brain-computer interface by tetraplegic participants via neural-network-mediated feature extraction.

Nature biomedical engineering, 9(6):986.

RevDate: 2024-07-09

Li Y, Nie Y, Quan Z, et al (2024)

Brain-machine interactive neuromodulation research tool with edge AI computing.

Heliyon, 10(12):e32609.

Closed-loop neuromodulation with intelligence methods has shown great potentials in providing novel neuro-technology for treating neurological and psychiatric diseases. Development of brain-machine interactive neuromodulation strategies could lead to breakthroughs in precision and personalized electronic medicine. The neuromodulation research tool integrating artificial intelligent computing and performing neural sensing and stimulation in real-time could accelerate the development of closed-loop neuromodulation strategies and translational research into clinical application. In this study, we developed a brain-machine interactive neuromodulation research tool (BMINT), which has capabilities of neurophysiological signals sensing, computing with mainstream machine learning algorithms and delivering electrical stimulation pulse by pulse in real-time. The BMINT research tool achieved system time delay under 3 ms, and computing capabilities in feasible computation cost, efficient deployment of machine learning algorithms and acceleration process. Intelligent computing framework embedded in the BMINT enable real-time closed-loop neuromodulation developed with mainstream AI ecosystem resources. The BMINT could provide timely contribution to accelerate the translational research of intelligent neuromodulation by integrating neural sensing, edge AI computing and stimulation with AI ecosystems.

RevDate: 2024-06-25
CmpDate: 2024-06-22

Dai C, Lin X, Xue B, et al (2024)

Correlation of bilateral M1 hand area excitability and overall functional recovery after spinal cord injury: protocol for a prospective cohort study.

BMC neurology, 24(1):213.

BACKGROUND: After spinal cord injury (SCI), a large number of survivors suffer from severe motor dysfunction (MD). Although the injury site is in the spinal cord, excitability significantly decreases in the primary motor cortex (M1), especially in the lower extremity (LE) area. Unfortunately, M1 LE area-targeted repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has not achieved significant motor improvement in individuals with SCI. A recent study reported that the M1 hand area in individuals with SCl contains a compositional code (the movement-coding component of neural activity) that links matching movements from the upper extremities (UE) and the LE. However, the correlation between bilateral M1 hand area excitability and overall functional recovery is unknown.

OBJECTIVE: To clarify the changes in the excitability of the bilateral M1 hand area after SCI and its correlation with motor recovery, we aim to specify the therapeutic parameters of rTMS for SCI motor rehabilitation.

METHODS: This study is a 12-month prospective cohort study. The neurophysiological and overall functional status of the participants will be assessed. The primary outcomes included single-pulse and paired-pulse TMS. The second outcome included functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) measurements. Overall functional status included total motor score, modified Ashworth scale score, ASIA Impairment Scale grade, spinal cord independence measure and modified Barthel index. The data will be recorded for individuals with SCI at disease durations of 1 month, 2 months, 4 months, 6 months and 12 months. The matched healthy controls will be measured during the same period of time after recruitment.

DISCUSSION: The present study is the first to analyze the role of bilateral M1 hand area excitability changes in the evaluation and prediction of overall functional recovery (including motor function and activities of daily living) after SCI, which will further expand the traditional theory of the predominant role of M1, optimize the current rTMS treatment, and explore the brain-computer interface design for individuals with SCI.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ChiCTR2300068831.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Banville H, Jaoude MA, Wood SUN, et al (2024)

Do try this at home: Age prediction from sleep and meditation with large-scale low-cost mobile EEG.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 2:.

Electroencephalography (EEG) is an established method for quantifying large-scale neuronal dynamics which enables diverse real-world biomedical applications, including brain-computer interfaces, epilepsy monitoring, and sleep staging. Advances in sensor technology have freed EEG from traditional laboratory settings, making low-cost ambulatory or at-home assessments of brain function possible. While ecologically valid brain assessments are becoming more practical, the impact of their reduced spatial resolution and susceptibility to noise remain to be investigated. This study set out to explore the potential of at-home EEG assessments for biomarker discovery using the brain age framework and four-channel consumer EEG data. We analyzed recordings from more than 5200 human subjects (18-81 years) during meditation and sleep, to predict age at the time of recording. With cross-validated R 2 scores between 0.3 - 0.5 , prediction performance was within the range of results obtained by recent benchmarks focused on laboratory-grade EEG. While age prediction was successful from both meditation and sleep recordings, the latter led to higher performance. Analysis by sleep stage uncovered that N2-N3 stages contained most of the signal. When combined, EEG features extracted from all sleep stages gave the best performance, suggesting that the entire night of sleep contains valuable age-related information. Furthermore, model comparisons suggested that information was spread out across electrodes and frequencies, supporting the use of multivariate modeling approaches. Thanks to our unique dataset of longitudinal repeat sessions spanning 153 to 529 days from eight subjects, we finally evaluated the variability of EEG-based age predictions, showing that they reflect both trait- and state-like information. Overall, our results demonstrate that state-of-the-art machine-learning approaches based on age prediction can be readily applied to real-world EEG recordings obtained during at-home sleep and meditation practice.

RevDate: 2025-08-18
CmpDate: 2024-05-13

Ramezani Z, André V, S Khizroev (2024)

Modeling the effect of magnetoelectric nanoparticles on neuronal electrical activity: An analog circuit approach.

Biointerphases, 19(3):.

This paper introduces a physical neuron model that incorporates magnetoelectric nanoparticles (MENPs) as an essential electrical circuit component to wirelessly control local neural activity. Availability of such a model is important as MENPs, due to their magnetoelectric effect, can wirelessly and noninvasively modulate neural activity, which, in turn, has implications for both finding cures for neurological diseases and creating a wireless noninvasive high-resolution brain-machine interface. When placed on a neuronal membrane, MENPs act as magnetic-field-controlled finite-size electric dipoles that generate local electric fields across the membrane in response to magnetic fields, thus allowing to controllably activate local ion channels and locally initiate an action potential. Herein, the neuronal electrical characteristic description is based on ion channel activation and inhibition mechanisms. A MENP-based memristive Hodgkin-Huxley circuit model is extracted by combining the Hodgkin-Huxley model and an equivalent circuit model for a single MENP. In this model, each MENP becomes an integral part of the neuron, thus enabling wireless local control of the neuron's electric circuit itself. Furthermore, the model is expanded to include multiple MENPs to describe collective effects in neural systems.

RevDate: 2025-02-14
CmpDate: 2024-05-02

Sadras N, Pesaran B, MM Shanechi (2024)

Event detection and classification from multimodal time series with application to neural data.

Journal of neural engineering, 21(2):.

The detection of events in time-series data is a common signal-processing problem. When the data can be modeled as a known template signal with an unknown delay in Gaussian noise, detection of the template signal can be done with a traditional matched filter. However, in many applications, the event of interest is represented in multimodal data consisting of both Gaussian and point-process time series. Neuroscience experiments, for example, can simultaneously record multimodal neural signals such as local field potentials (LFPs), which can be modeled as Gaussian, and neuronal spikes, which can be modeled as point processes. Currently, no method exists for event detection from such multimodal data, and as such our objective in this work is to develop a method to meet this need. Here we address this challenge by developing the multimodal event detector (MED) algorithm which simultaneously estimates event times and classes. To do this, we write a multimodal likelihood function for Gaussian and point-process observations and derive the associated maximum likelihood estimator of simultaneous event times and classes. We additionally introduce a cross-modal scaling parameter to account for model mismatch in real datasets. We validate this method in extensive simulations as well as in a neural spike-LFP dataset recorded during an eye-movement task, where the events of interest are eye movements with unknown times and directions. We show that the MED can successfully detect eye movement onset and classify eye movement direction. Further, the MED successfully combines information across data modalities, with multimodal performance exceeding unimodal performance. This method can facilitate applications such as the discovery of latent events in multimodal neural population activity and the development of brain-computer interfaces for naturalistic settings without constrained tasks or prior knowledge of event times.

RevDate: 2024-07-09
CmpDate: 2024-07-06

Meier K, de Vos CC, Bordeleau M, et al (2024)

Examining the Duration of Carryover Effect in Patients With Chronic Pain Treated With Spinal Cord Stimulation (EChO Study): An Open, Interventional, Investigator-Initiated, International Multicenter Study.

Neuromodulation : journal of the International Neuromodulation Society, 27(5):887-898.

OBJECTIVES: Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) is a surgical treatment for severe, chronic, neuropathic pain. It is based on one to two lead(s) implanted in the epidural space, stimulating the dorsal column. It has long been assumed that when deactivating SCS, there is a variable interval before the patient perceives the return of the pain, a phenomenon often termed echo or carryover effect. Although the carryover effect has been problematized as a source of error in crossover studies, no experimental investigation of the effect has been published. This open, prospective, international multicenter study aimed to systematically document, quantify, and investigate the carryover effect in SCS.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: Eligible patients with a beneficial effect from their SCS treatment were instructed to deactivate their SCS device in a home setting and to reactivate it when their pain returned. The primary outcome was duration of carryover time defined as the time interval from deactivation to reactivation. Central clinical parameters (age, sex, indication for SCS, SCS treatment details, pain score) were registered and correlated with carryover time using nonparametric tests (Mann-Whitney/Kruskal-Wallis) for categorical data and linear regression for continuous data.

RESULTS: In total, 158 patients were included in the analyses. A median carryover time of five hours was found (interquartile range 2.5;21 hours). Back pain as primary indication for SCS, high-frequency stimulation, and higher pain score at the time of deactivation were correlated with longer carryover time.

CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms the existence of the carryover effect and indicates a remarkably high degree of interindividual variation. The results suggest that the magnitude of carryover may be correlated to the nature of the pain condition and possibly stimulation paradigms.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: The Clinicaltrials.gov registration number for the study is NCT03386058.

RevDate: 2024-10-23
CmpDate: 2024-01-29

Wu H, Hou Y, Yoon J, et al (2024)

Down-selection of biomolecules to assemble "reverse micelle" with perovskites.

Nature communications, 15(1):772.

Biological molecule-semiconductor interfacing has triggered numerous opportunities in applied physics such as bio-assisted data storage and computation, brain-computer interface, and advanced distributed bio-sensing. The introduction of electronics into biological embodiment is being quickly developed as it has great potential in providing adaptivity and improving functionality. Reciprocally, introducing biomaterials into semiconductors to manifest bio-mimetic functionality is impactful in triggering new enhanced mechanisms. In this study, we utilize the vulnerable perovskite semiconductors as a platform to understand if certain types of biomolecules can regulate the lattice and endow a unique mechanism for stabilizing the metastable perovskite lattice. Three tiers of biomolecules have been systematically tested and the results reveal a fundamental mechanism for the formation of a "reverse-micelle" structure. Systematic exploration of a large set of biomolecules led to the discovery of guiding principle for down-selection of biomolecules which extends the classic emulsion theory to this hybrid systems. Results demonstrate that by introducing biomaterials into semiconductors, natural phenomena typically observed in biological systems can also be incorporated into semiconducting crystals, providing a new perspective to engineer existing synthetic materials.

RevDate: 2022-12-02

Weisinger B, Pandey DP, Saver JL, et al (2022)

Frequency-tuned electromagnetic field therapy improves post-stroke motor function: A pilot randomized controlled trial.

Frontiers in neurology, 13:1004677.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Impaired upper extremity (UE) motor function is a common disability after ischemic stroke. Exposure to extremely low frequency and low intensity electromagnetic fields (ELF-EMF) in a frequency-specific manner (Electromagnetic Network Targeting Field therapy; ENTF therapy) is a non-invasive method available to a wide range of patients that may enhance neuroplasticity, potentially facilitating motor recovery. This study seeks to quantify the benefit of the ENTF therapy on UE motor function in a subacute ischemic stroke population.

METHODS: In a randomized, sham-controlled, double-blind trial, ischemic stroke patients in the subacute phase with moderately to severely impaired UE function were randomly allocated to active or sham treatment with a novel, non-invasive, brain computer interface-based, extremely low frequency and low intensity ENTF therapy (1-100 Hz, < 1 G). Participants received 40 min of active ENTF or sham treatment 5 days/week for 8 weeks; ~three out of the five treatments were accompanied by 10 min of concurrent physical/occupational therapy. Primary efficacy outcome was improvement on the Fugl-Meyer Assessment - Upper Extremity (FMA-UE) from baseline to end of treatment (8 weeks).

RESULTS: In the per protocol set (13 ENTF and 8 sham participants), mean age was 54.7 years (±15.0), 19% were female, baseline FMA-UE score was 23.7 (±11.0), and median time from stroke onset to first stimulation was 11 days (interquartile range (IQR) 8-15). Greater improvement on the FMA-UE from baseline to week 4 was seen with ENTF compared to sham stimulation, 23.2 ± 14.1 vs. 9.6 ± 9.0, p = 0.007; baseline to week 8 improvement was 31.5 ± 10.7 vs. 23.1 ± 14.1. Similar favorable effects at week 8 were observed for other UE and global disability assessments, including the Action Research Arm Test (Pinch, 13.4 ± 5.6 vs. 5.3 ± 6.5, p = 0.008), Box and Blocks Test (affected hand, 22.5 ± 12.4 vs. 8.5 ± 8.6, p < 0.0001), and modified Rankin Scale (-2.5 ± 0.7 vs. -1.3 ± 0.7, p = 0.0005). No treatment-related adverse events were reported.

CONCLUSIONS: ENTF stimulation in subacute ischemic stroke patients was associated with improved UE motor function and reduced overall disability, and results support its safe use in the indicated population. These results should be confirmed in larger multicenter studies.

CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04039178, identifier: NCT04039178.

RevDate: 2025-07-28
CmpDate: 2022-06-22

Nickl RW, Anaya MA, Thomas TM, et al (2022)

Characteristics and stability of sensorimotor activity driven by isolated-muscle group activation in a human with tetraplegia.

Scientific reports, 12(1):10353.

Understanding the cortical representations of movements and their stability can shed light on improved brain-machine interface (BMI) approaches to decode these representations without frequent recalibration. Here, we characterize the spatial organization (somatotopy) and stability of the bilateral sensorimotor map of forearm muscles in an incomplete-high spinal-cord injury study participant implanted bilaterally in the primary motor and sensory cortices with Utah microelectrode arrays (MEAs). We built representation maps by recording bilateral multiunit activity (MUA) and surface electromyography (EMG) as the participant executed voluntary contractions of the extensor carpi radialis (ECR), and attempted motions in the flexor carpi radialis (FCR), which was paralytic. To assess stability, we repeatedly mapped and compared left- and right-wrist-extensor-related activity throughout several sessions, comparing somatotopy of active electrodes, as well as neural signals both at the within-electrode (multiunit) and cross-electrode (network) levels. Wrist motions showed significant activation in motor and sensory cortical electrodes. Within electrodes, firing strength stability diminished as the time increased between consecutive measurements (hours within a session, or days across sessions), with higher stability observed in sensory cortex than in motor, and in the contralateral hemisphere than in the ipsilateral. However, we observed no differences at network level, and no evidence of decoding instabilities for wrist EMG, either across timespans of hours or days, or across recording area. While map stability differs between brain area and hemisphere at multiunit/electrode level, these differences are nullified at ensemble level.

RevDate: 2023-12-21

Li R, Ren C, Zhang X, et al (2022)

A novel ensemble learning method using multiple objective particle swarm optimization for subject-independent EEG-based emotion recognition.

Computers in biology and medicine, 140:105080.

Emotion recognition is a vital but challenging step in creating passive brain-computer interface applications. In recent years, many studies on electroencephalogram (EEG)-based emotion recognition have been conducted. Ensemble learning has been widely used in emotion recognition because of its superior accuracy and generalization. In this study, we proposed a novel ensemble learning method based on multiple objective particle swarm optimization for subject-independent EEG-based emotion recognition. First, we used a 4 s sliding time window with a 2 s overlap to extract 13 different features from EEG signals and construct a feature vector. Then, we employed L1 regularization to select effective features. Second, a model selection method was applied to choose the optimal basic analysis submodels. Afterward, we proposed an ensemble operator that converts the classification results of a single model from discrete values to continuous values to better characterize the classification results. Subsequently, multiple objective particle swarm optimization was adopted to confirm the optimal parameters of the ensemble learning model. Finally, we conducted extensive experiments on two public datasets: DEAP and SEED. Considering the generalization of the model, we applied leave-one-subject-out cross-validation to evaluate the performance of the model. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method achieves a better recognition performance than single methods, commonly used ensemble learning methods, and state-of-the-art methods. The average accuracies for arousal and valence are 65.70% and 64.22%, respectively, on the DEAP database, and the average accuracy on the SEED database is 84.44%.

RevDate: 2025-07-23
CmpDate: 2022-01-26

Brydges CR, Fiehn O, Mayberg HS, et al (2021)

Indoxyl sulfate, a gut microbiome-derived uremic toxin, is associated with psychic anxiety and its functional magnetic resonance imaging-based neurologic signature.

Scientific reports, 11(1):21011.

It is unknown whether indoles, metabolites of tryptophan that are derived entirely from bacterial metabolism in the gut, are associated with symptoms of depression and anxiety. Serum samples (baseline, 12 weeks) were drawn from participants (n = 196) randomized to treatment with cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), escitalopram, or duloxetine for major depressive disorder. Baseline indoxyl sulfate abundance was positively correlated with severity of psychic anxiety and total anxiety and with resting state functional connectivity to a network that processes aversive stimuli (which includes the subcallosal cingulate cortex (SCC-FC), bilateral anterior insula, right anterior midcingulate cortex, and the right premotor areas). The relation between indoxyl sulfate and psychic anxiety was mediated only through the metabolite's effect on the SCC-FC with the premotor area. Baseline indole abundances were unrelated to post-treatment outcome measures, and changes in symptoms were not correlated with changes in indole concentrations. These results suggest that CBT and antidepressant medications relieve anxiety via mechanisms unrelated to modulation of indoles derived from gut microbiota; it remains possible that treatment-related improvement stems from their impact on other aspects of the gut microbiome. A peripheral gut microbiome-derived metabolite was associated with altered neural processing and with psychiatric symptom (anxiety) in humans, which provides further evidence that gut microbiome disruption can contribute to neuropsychiatric disorders that may require different therapeutic approaches. Given the exploratory nature of this study, findings should be replicated in confirmatory studies.Clinical trial NCT00360399 "Predictors of Antidepressant Treatment Response: The Emory CIDAR" https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00360399 .

RevDate: 2021-04-09

Mencel J, Jaskólska A, Marusiak J, et al (2021)

Motor Imagery Training of Reaching-to-Grasp Movement Supplemented by a Virtual Environment in an Individual With Congenital Bilateral Transverse Upper-Limb Deficiency.

Frontiers in psychology, 12:638780.

This study explored the effect of kinesthetic motor imagery training on reaching-to-grasp movement supplemented by a virtual environment in a patient with congenital bilateral transverse upper-limb deficiency. Based on a theoretical assumption, it is possible to conduct such training in this patient. The aim of this study was to evaluate whether cortical activity related to motor imagery of reaching and motor imagery of grasping of the right upper limb was changed by computer-aided imagery training (CAIT) in a patient who was born without upper limbs compared to a healthy control subject, as characterized by multi-channel electroencephalography (EEG) signals recorded before and 4, 8, and 12 weeks after CAIT. The main task during CAIT was to kinesthetically imagine the execution of reaching-to-grasp movements without any muscle activation, supplemented by computer visualization of movements provided by a special headset. Our experiment showed that CAIT can be conducted in the patient with higher vividness of imagery for reaching than grasping tasks. Our results confirm that CAIT can change brain activation patterns in areas related to motor planning and the execution of reaching and grasping movements, and that the effect was more pronounced in the patient than in the healthy control subject. The results show that CAIT has a different effect on the cortical activity related to the motor imagery of a reaching task than on the cortical activity related to the motor imagery of a grasping task. The change observed in the activation patterns could indicate CAIT-induced neuroplasticity, which could potentially be useful in rehabilitation or brain-computer interface purposes for such patients, especially before and after transplantation. This study was part of a registered experiment (ID: NCT04048083).

RevDate: 2023-11-10
CmpDate: 2013-10-10

O'Rawe JA, Fang H, Rynearson S, et al (2013)

Integrating precision medicine in the study and clinical treatment of a severely mentally ill person.

PeerJ, 1:e177.

Background. In recent years, there has been an explosion in the number of technical and medical diagnostic platforms being developed. This has greatly improved our ability to more accurately, and more comprehensively, explore and characterize human biological systems on the individual level. Large quantities of biomedical data are now being generated and archived in many separate research and clinical activities, but there exists a paucity of studies that integrate the areas of clinical neuropsychiatry, personal genomics and brain-machine interfaces. Methods. A single person with severe mental illness was implanted with the Medtronic Reclaim(®) Deep Brain Stimulation (DBS) Therapy device for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD), targeting his nucleus accumbens/anterior limb of the internal capsule. Programming of the device and psychiatric assessments occurred in an outpatient setting for over two years. His genome was sequenced and variants were detected in the Illumina Whole Genome Sequencing Clinical Laboratory Improvement Amendments (CLIA)-certified laboratory. Results. We report here the detailed phenotypic characterization, clinical-grade whole genome sequencing (WGS), and two-year outcome of a man with severe OCD treated with DBS. Since implantation, this man has reported steady improvement, highlighted by a steady decline in his Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS) score from ∼38 to a score of ∼25. A rechargeable Activa RC neurostimulator battery has been of major benefit in terms of facilitating a degree of stability and control over the stimulation. His psychiatric symptoms reliably worsen within hours of the battery becoming depleted, thus providing confirmatory evidence for the efficacy of DBS for OCD in this person. WGS revealed that he is a heterozygote for the p.Val66Met variant in BDNF, encoding a member of the nerve growth factor family, and which has been found to predispose carriers to various psychiatric illnesses. He carries the p.Glu429Ala allele in methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) and the p.Asp7Asn allele in ChAT, encoding choline O-acetyltransferase, with both alleles having been shown to confer an elevated susceptibility to psychoses. We have found thousands of other variants in his genome, including pharmacogenetic and copy number variants. This information has been archived and offered to this person alongside the clinical sequencing data, so that he and others can re-analyze his genome for years to come. Conclusions. To our knowledge, this is the first study in the clinical neurosciences that integrates detailed neuropsychiatric phenotyping, deep brain stimulation for OCD and clinical-grade WGS with management of genetic results in the medical treatment of one person with severe mental illness. We offer this as an example of precision medicine in neuropsychiatry including brain-implantable devices and genomics-guided preventive health care.

RevDate: 2017-11-16
CmpDate: 2013-03-07

Manea P, Ghiuru R, Gavrilescu MC, et al (2012)

Long-term prognosis of polyvascular patients with associated chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Revista medico-chirurgicala a Societatii de Medici si Naturalisti din Iasi, 116(3):669-673.

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate by various tools the prognosis of the polyvascular patients (defined as the presence of more than one affected vascular bed), who also associate chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Fifty-eight patients discharged after an episode of acute cardiorespiratory failure were examined at 3 month-intervals for 1, 2 and 3 years (2010-2012). The following were performed: physical examination, biochemical and hematological tests, spirometry, electrocardiography, transthoracic echocardiography, brain computer tomography or magnetic resonance imaging. All patients in our study were smokers with chronic pulmonary obstructive disease. Treatment relied on the European recommendations for cardiac pathology and associated medical conditions.

RESULTS: A favorable clinical course was noticed in compliant patients. Patients with metabolic syndrome and/or old stroke, and peripheral arterial disease have a poor prognosis. A strong link seems to exist between systolic function of the right ventricle and cardiovascular mortality. The association of this condition to ischemic heart disease modifies the right ventricle hemodynamics.

CONCLUSIONS: Polyvascular patients in acute cardiorespiratory failure have a mortality of 36% in the first 3 weeks. After 3 years, 86% of the patients survive. The modern methods of diagnosis and treatment allow improving the quality of life and increasing its duration.

RevDate: 2012-12-14
CmpDate: 2013-05-28

Smits-Bandstra S, LF De Nil (2013)

Early-stage chunking of finger tapping sequences by persons who stutter and fluent speakers.

Clinical linguistics & phonetics, 27(1):72-84.

This research note explored the hypothesis that chunking differences underlie the slow finger-tap sequencing performance reported in the literature for persons who stutter (PWS) relative to fluent speakers (PNS). Early-stage chunking was defined as an immediate and spontaneous tendency to organize a long sequence into pauses, for motor planning, and chunks of fluent motor performance. A previously published study in which 12 PWS and 12 matched PNS practised a 10-item finger tapping sequence 30 times was examined. Both groups significantly decreased the duration of between-chunk intervals (BCIs) and within-chunk intervals (WCIs) over practice. PNS had significantly shorter WCIs relative to PWS, but minimal differences between groups were found for the number of, or duration of, BCI. Results imply that sequencing differences found between PNS and PWS may be due to differences in automatizing movements within chunks or retrieving chunks from memory rather than chunking per se.

RevDate: 2025-08-18

Voskoboinikov A, Aliverdiev M, Nekrasova Y, et al (2025)

Towards stimulation-free automatic electrocorticographic speech mapping in neurosurgery patients.

Journal of neural engineering [Epub ahead of print].

The precise mapping of speech-related functions is crucial for successful neurosurgical interventions in epilepsy and brain tumor cases. Traditional methods like Electrocortical Stimulation Mapping (ESM) are effective but carry a significant risk of inducing seizures. Methods. To address this, we have prepared a comprehensive ESM+ECM dataset from 14 patients with chronically implanted stereo-EEG electrodes. Then we explored several compact machine learning (ML) approaches to convert the Electrocorticographic Mapping (ECM) signals to the ground truth derived from the risky ESM procedure. Both procedures involved the standard picture naming task. As features, we used gamma-band power within successive temporal windows in the data averaged with respect to picture and voice onsets. We focused on a range of classifiers, including XGBoost, Linear Support Vector Classification, Regularized Logistic Regression, Random Forest, k-Nearest Neighbors, Decision Tree, Multi-Layer Perceptron, AdaBoost and Gaussian Naive Bayes classifiers and equipped them with confidence interval estimates, crucial in a real-life application. We validated the ML approaches using a leave-one-patient-out procedure and computed ROC and Precision-Recall curves for various feature combinations. Results. For Linear Support Vector Classification we achieved ROC-AUC and PR-AUC scores of 0.91 and 0.88, respectively, which effectively distinguishes speech-related from non-related iEEG channels. We have also observed that the use of information on the voice onset moment notably improved the classification accuracy. Significance. We have for the first time rigorously compared the ECM and ESM results and mimicked a real-life use of the ECM technology. We have also provided public access to the comprehensive ECM+ESM dataset to pave the road towards safer and more reliable eloquent cortex mapping procedures.

RevDate: 2025-08-18

Fang P, Li GH, Rao YB, et al (2025)

Serum Cytokines as Biomarkers for Comorbid Anxiety in Postpartum Depression: A Machine Learning Approach.

Psychiatry and clinical psychopharmacology, 35(3):245-252.

Background: This study aimed to investigate the serum levels of interleukin 2, interleukin 6 (IL-6), interleukin 10, and tumor necrosis factor-alpha in patients with postpartum depression (PPD) and to explore their potential as biomarkers for PPD and comorbid anxiety using machine learning techniques. Methods: Serum samples were collected from 53 patients diagnosed with PPD and 35 healthy controls. Cytokine levels were measured using a flow cytometer analyzer. Machine learning models, including Multinomial Logistic Regression, Decision Trees, Random Forest, and Support Vector Machines (SVMs), were developed to predict PPD and comorbid anxiety based on cytokine levels. Results: Patients with PPD exhibited significantly elevated serum levels of IL-6 compared to the control group. A positive correlation was found between psychological anxiety scores and IL-6 levels (r = 0.483, P < .001). Machine learning models, particularly the Random Forest and SVMs, demonstrated high accuracy in predicting PPD and comorbid anxiety, with IL-6 being identified as a key predictor. Conclusion: The activation of serum cytokines is evident in PPD patients, with IL-6 potentially serving as an auxiliary biomarker for the diagnosis of PPD and comorbid anxiety. The incorporation of machine learning techniques has enhanced the understanding of the complex relationships between cytokines and PPD, with IL-6 levels showing a correlation to the severity of clinical symptoms.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Kontogianni A, Yang H, W Chen (2025)

Brain insulin resistance and neuropsychiatric symptoms in Alzheimer's disease: A role for dopamine signaling.

Neural regeneration research pii:01300535-990000000-00811 [Epub ahead of print].

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Shao X, Chung RS, Cavaleri JM, et al (2025)

Directional hand movement can be classified from insular cortex SEEG signals using recurrent neural networks and high-gamma band features.

Scientific reports, 15(1):29993.

Motor BCIs, with the help of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning, have shown promise in decoding neural signals for restoring motor function. Structures beyond motor cortex have provided additional sources for movement signals. New evidence points to the role of the insula in motor control, specifically directional hand-movements. In this study, we applied AI and machine learning techniques to decode directional hand-movements from high-gamma band (70-200 Hz) activity in the insular cortex. Seven participants with medication-resistant epilepsy underwent stereo electroencephalographic (SEEG) implantation of depth electrodes for seizure monitoring in the insula. SEEG data were sampled throughout a cued motor task involving three conditions: left-hand movement, right-hand movement, or no movement. Neural signal processing focused on high-gamma band activity. Demixed Principal Component Analysis (dPCA) was used for dimension reduction (d = 10) and feature extraction from the time-frequency analysis. For movement classification, we implemented a bidirectional Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) architecture with a single layer, utilizing the capacity to process temporal sequences in forward and back directions for optimal decoding of movement direction. Our findings revealed robust directional-specific high-gamma modulation within the insular cortex during motor execution. Temporal decomposition through dPCA demonstrated distinct spatiotemporal patterns of high-gamma activity across movement conditions. Subsequently, LSTM networks successfully decoded these condition-specific neural signatures, achieving a classification accuracy of 72.6% ± 13.0% (mean ± SD), which significantly exceeded chance-level performance of 33.3% (p < 0.0001, n = 16 sessions). Furthermore, we identified a strong negative correlation between temporal distance of training-testing sessions and decoding performance (r = -0.868, p < 0.0001), indicating temporal difference of the neural representations. Our study highlights the potential role of deep brain structures, such as the insula, in conditional movement discrimination. We demonstrate that LSTM networks and high-gamma band analysis can advance the understanding of neural mechanisms underlying movement. These insights may pave the way for improvements in SEEG-based BCI.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Wei W, Li C, Li W, et al (2025)

Study of a non-water-cooled microwave ablation needle based on a vacuum needle rod to achieve carbonization-free operation: design, simulation, and experimental research.

Minimally invasive therapy & allied technologies : MITAT : official journal of the Society for Minimally Invasive Therapy [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: At present, the microwave ablation needle used in clinic needs to add water circulation in the needle rod to reduce the rod temperature. However, the water circulation will take away a lot of heat during the ablation process, which requires increasing the ablation dose to achieve the expected thermal coagulation target volume. This undoubtedly increases the risk of carbonization.

METHODS: A design scheme of non-water-cooled microwave ablation needle based on double-layer vacuum structure was proposed. Two types of non-water-cooled microwave ablation needles with long and short needles were designed, and the ablation simulation was carried out by establishing the finite element simulation model.

RESULTS: Simulation and experimental results indicate that, at 20 W power, the long-needle vacuum tube ablation needle can create a carbonization-free solidification zone with a length of 34 mm after 180 s of ablation, whereas the short-needle vacuum tube ablation needle requires 300 s to form a similar zone with a length of 30 mm. Additionally, the axial ratio of the solidification zone created by the long-needle vacuum tube ablation needle exceeds that of the short-needle one. Consequently, the long-needle vacuum tube ablation needle is more apt for creating a larger solidification zone with minimal carbonization, while also achieving a more spherical shape.By comparing the ablation effects of long needle vacuum tube ablation needle and ky-2450b1 under low power,It is verified that the vacuum tube non-water-cooled ablation needle can ensure the effective ablation volume and non carbonization ablation under low-power and short-time ablation, which provides an important technical scheme for clinical optimization of the therapeutic effect of microwave ablation.

CONCLUSIONS: The LPH-W-F-MWA is more adept at creating a larger coagulation zone with minimal carbonization, achieving a more spherical shape to a greater extent. This ensures both an effective ablation volume and char-free ablation, offering a crucial technical solution for optimizing the therapeutic effect of MWA in clinical settings.

RevDate: 2025-08-18

Jiang L, Genon S, Ye J, et al (2025)

Gene transcription, neurotransmitter, and neurocognition signatures of brain structural-functional coupling variability.

Nature communications, 16(1):7623.

The relationship between brain structure and function, known as structural-functional coupling (SFC), is highly dynamic. However, the temporal variability of this relationship, referring to the fluctuating extent to which functional profiles interact with anatomy over time, remains poorly elucidated. Here, we propose a framework to quantify SFC temporal variability and determine its neurocognitive map, genetic architecture, and neurochemical basis in 1206 healthy human participants. Results reveal regional heterogeneity in SFC variability and a composite emotion dimension co-varying with variability patterns involving the dorsal attention, somatomotor, and visual networks. The transcriptomic signatures of SFC variability are enriched in synapse- and cell cycle-related biological processes and implicated in emotion-related disorders. Moreover, regional densities of serotonin, glutamate, γ-aminobutyric acid, and opioid systems are predictive of SFC variability across the cortex. Collectively, SFC variability mapping provides a biologically plausible framework for understanding how SFC fluctuates over time to support macroscale neurocognitive specialization.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Kong K, Wang J, Li M, et al (2025)

Action sequence guidance with exposure trajectory technology improves performance of motor imagery-based brain-computer interface.

Journal of neuroscience methods, 423:110553 pii:S0165-0270(25)00197-9 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: The paradigms greatly influence the performance of motor imagery (MI)-based brain-computer interfaces (BCI) by guiding subjects to imagine. How to make the guidance clear and intuitive is important for MI-BCI to improve performance.

NEW METHODS: This study proposes a novel MI-BCI paradigm based on action sequence (AS) guidance, which visualizes and choreographs sequential actions to support motor imagery. In a drawing task, the action exposure trajectory technique presents a gray nib at the starting point of the next stroke while the current stroke is being drawn, highlighting the order and details of the movement. Ten subjects participated in offline and online experiments under both AS and traditional MI conditions. EEG activation regarding multiple frequencies and periods, and MI-BCI performance are evaluated.

RESULTS: The AS paradigm evokes more significant ERD/ERS features, and improves offline and online BCI accuracies and information transfer rates to 85.69 %, 78.77 %, and 15.60 bits/min, which are 8.37 %, 7.95 %, and 7.13 bits/min higher than the traditional paradigm. In addition, the subjects are demonstrated more comfortable subjective feelings.

The AS paradigm offers clearer and more intuitive guidance, enhances EEG feature activation, and significantly improves MI-BCI performance in both offline and online experiments.

CONCLUSIONS: Dynamic action sequences action with exposure trajectory technique could enhance the subject's brian activation by offering richer content and more intuitive guidance, providing a new way for prompting BCI performance.

RevDate: 2025-08-15

Kunz EM, Abramovich Krasa B, Kamdar F, et al (2025)

Inner speech in motor cortex and implications for speech neuroprostheses.

Cell pii:S0092-8674(25)00681-6 [Epub ahead of print].

Speech brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) show promise in restoring communication to people with paralysis but have also prompted discussions regarding their potential to decode private inner speech. Separately, inner speech may be a way to bypass the current approach of requiring speech BCI users to physically attempt speech, which is fatiguing and can slow communication. Using multi-unit recordings from four participants, we found that inner speech is robustly represented in the motor cortex and that imagined sentences can be decoded in real time. The representation of inner speech was highly correlated with attempted speech, though we also identified a neural "motor-intent" dimension that differentiates the two. We investigated the possibility of decoding private inner speech and found that some aspects of free-form inner speech could be decoded during sequence recall and counting tasks. Finally, we demonstrate high-fidelity strategies that prevent speech BCIs from unintentionally decoding private inner speech.

RevDate: 2025-08-15

Padrão N, Gregoricchio S, Eickhoff N, et al (2025)

TRIM24 as a therapeutic target in endocrine treatment-resistant breast cancer.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 122(33):e2507571122.

While Estrogen receptor alpha (ERα)+ breast cancer treatment is considered effective, resistance to endocrine therapy is common. Since ERα is still the main driver in most therapy-resistant tumors, alternative therapeutic strategies are needed to disrupt ERα transcriptional activity. In this work, we position TRIM24 as a therapeutic target in endocrine resistance, given its role as a key component of the ERα transcriptional complex. TRIM24 interacts with ERα and other well-known ERα cofactors to facilitate ERα chromatin interactions and allows for maintenance of active histone marks including H3K23ac and H3K27ac. Consequently, genetic perturbation of TRIM24 abrogates ERα-driven transcriptional programs and reduces tumor cell proliferation capacity. Using a recently developed degrader targeting TRIM24, ERα-driven transcriptional output and growth were blocked, effectively treating not only endocrine-responsive cell lines but also drug-resistant derivatives thereof as well as cell line models bearing activating ESR1 point mutations. Finally, using human tumor-derived organoid models, we could show the efficacy of TRIM24 degrader in the endocrine-responsive and -resistant setting. Overall, our study positions TRIM24 as a central component for the integrity and activity of the ERα transcriptional complex, with degradation-mediated perturbation of TRIM24 as a promising therapeutic avenue in the treatment of primary and endocrine resistance breast cancer.

RevDate: 2025-08-18

Li Z, Li M, Y Yang (2025)

Motor imagery decoding network with multisubject dynamic transfer.

Brain informatics, 12(1):20.

Brain computer interface (BCI) provides a promising and intelligent rehabilitation method for motor function, and it is crucial to acquire the patient's movement intentions accurately through decoding motor imagery EEG (MI-EEG) . Because of the inter-individual heterogeneity, the decoding model should demonstrate dynamic adaptation abilities.Domain adaptation (DA) is effective to enhance model generalization by reducing the inherent distribution difference among subjects. However, the existing DA methods usually mix the multiple source domains into a new domain, the resulting multi-source domain conflict may cause negative transfer. In this paper, we propose a multi-source dynamic conditional domain adaptation network (MSDCDA). First, a multi-channel attention block is employed in the feature extractor to focus on the channels relevant to the corresponding MI task. Subsequently, the shallow spatial-temporal features are extracted using a spatial-temporal convolution block. And a dynamic residual block is applied in the feature extractor to dynamically adapt specific features of each subject to alleviate conflicts among multiple source domains since each domain is viewed as a distribution of electroencephalogram (EEG) signals. Furthermore, we employ the Margin Disparity Discrepancy (MDD) as the metric to achieve conditional distribution domain adaptation between the source and target domains through adversarial learning with an auxiliary classifier. MSDCDA achieved accuracies of 78.55 % and 85.08 % on Datasets IIa and IIb of BCI Competition IV, respectively. Our experimental results demonstrate that MSDCDA can effectively address multi-source domain conflicts and significantly enhance the decoding performance of target subjects. This study positively facilitates the application of BCI based on motor function rehabilitation.

RevDate: 2025-08-18

Hendry MF, Cruz-Garza JG, Delgado-Jiménez EA, et al (2025)

Mobile Brain-Body Imaging and Visual Data of Theatrical Actors During Rehearsal and Performance.

Scientific data, 12(1):1421.

This longitudinal Mobile Brain-Body Imaging dataset was acquired during six rehearsal sessions and three public performances of a scene from a play with highly emotional components. Three student actor dyads (N=6), one theatre director (N=1) and three audience members (N=3) participated in this study. The MoBI data recorded includes mobile electroencephalography, electrooculography, blood volume pulse, heart rate, body temperature, electrodermal activity, triaxial arm and head acceleration. The visual data includes five streams of video. This article describes the experimental setup, the multi-modal data streams acquired using a hyperscanning methodology, and an assessment of the data quality.

RevDate: 2025-08-14

Xie J, Xu G, Yang Z, et al (2025)

Modeling multiscale time-frequency complex networks on Riemannian manifolds for motor imagery BCI classification with graph convolutional networks.

ISA transactions pii:S0019-0578(25)00407-0 [Epub ahead of print].

Motor imagery brain-computer interface (MI-BCI) classification faces challenges such as low decoding accuracy and difficulty in capturing the spatiotemporal dynamics of EEG signals. The use of Riemannian geometry classifiers for this task has become one of the most popular classification methods. However, current Riemannian geometry classifiers typically compute the covariance matrix over a period of time to capture spatial features, neglecting the multiscale characteristics of EEG signals in both time and frequency, which limits their classification performance. To address these issues, this study proposes a novel framework. Specifically, we introduce graph convolutional network (GCN) on Riemannian geometry (GR) to process multiscale networks, using virtual nodes to capture global topological features and integrating spatial features across time and frequency domains. This method significantly enhances the feature extraction capability of Riemannian geometry classifiers. The proposed method was validated on three public datasets, with average classification accuracies of 91.87 % ± 7.33 %, 87.96 % ± 7.6 %, and 82.50 % ± 7.74 %, respectively. Ablation experiments show that, compared to traditional single-scale methods, the average classification accuracy improved by 9.85 %, highlighting the effectiveness and versatility of the proposed method. This research provides a new perspective for multiscale EEG signal analysis and advances the development of motor imagery BCI classification technology.

RevDate: 2025-08-14

Zhang M, Zhai H, Yang L, et al (2025)

The Medial Prefrontal Cortex Modulates Psychedelic-like Effects of Psilocin.

ACS pharmacology & translational science, 8(8):2767-2776.

Recent advancements in the study of psilocybin and its active metabolite psilocin have highlighted their unique psychedelic properties and potential therapeutic applications, particularly in the rapid and sustained treatment of depression. However, the potent acute psychedelic effects of psilocybin necessitate a deeper understanding of the neural mechanisms underlying its action. In this study, we investigated the psilocin-induced neural activity in male mice using c-Fos immunofluorescent labeling and identified brain regions associated with psychedelic-like activity. Among the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC), orbitofrontal cortex (OFC), interstitial nucleus of the posterior limb of the anterior commissure (IPAC), and dorsomedial striatum (DMS), only the mPFC was specifically associated with the head twitch response (HTR), a hallmark of psychedelic-like behavior. A picomolar dose of psilocin in the mPFC was sufficient to induce significant HTR, suggesting that c-Fos-positive neurons in this region modulate psychedelic-like activity. To validate this hypothesis, optogenetic activation of these neurons significantly increased spontaneous HTR in TRAP2 mice, whereas acute inhibition suppressed drug-induced HTR. These findings establish the mPFC as a critical regulator of psilocin-induced psychedelic-like activity and provide valuable insights for enhancing the clinical safety and therapeutic application of psychedelics.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Chen J, Yang C, Wei R, et al (2025)

Steady-State Visual-Evoked-Potential-Driven Quadrotor Control Using a Deep Residual CNN for Short-Time Signal Classification.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(15):.

In this paper, we study the classification problem of short-time-window steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) and propose a novel deep convolutional network named EEGResNet based on the idea of residual connection to further improve the classification performance. Since the frequency-domain features extracted from short-time-window signals are difficult to distinguish, the EEGResNet starts from the filter bank (FB)-based feature extraction module in the time domain. The FB designed in this paper is composed of four sixth-order Butterworth filters with different bandpass ranges, and the four bandwidths are 19-50 Hz, 14-38 Hz, 9-26 Hz, and 3-14 Hz, respectively. Then, the extracted four feature tensors with the same shape are directly aggregated together. Furthermore, the aggregated features are further learned by a six-layer convolutional neural network with residual connections. Finally, the network output is generated through an adaptive fully connected layer. To prove the effectiveness and superiority of our designed EEGResNet, necessary experiments and comparisons are conducted over two large public datasets. To further verify the application potential of the trained network, a virtual simulation of brain computer interface (BCI) based quadrotor control is presented through V-REP.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Huang Y, Cao L, Chen Y, et al (2025)

Optimization of Dynamic SSVEP Paradigms for Practical Application: Low-Fatigue Design with Coordinated Trajectory and Speed Modulation and Gaming Validation.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(15):.

Steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) paradigms are widely used in brain-computer interface (BCI) systems due to their reliability and fast response. However, traditional static stimuli may reduce user comfort and engagement during prolonged use. This study proposes a dynamic stimulation paradigm combining periodic motion trajectories with speed control. Using four frequencies (6, 8.57, 10, 12 Hz) and three waveform patterns (sinusoidal, square, sawtooth), speed was modulated at 1/5, 1/10, and 1/20 of each frequency's base rate. An offline experiment with 17 subjects showed that the low-speed sinusoidal and sawtooth trajectories matched the static accuracy (85.84% and 83.82%) while reducing cognitive workload by 22%. An online experiment with 12 subjects participating in a fruit-slicing game confirmed its practicality, achieving recognition accuracies above 82% and a System Usability Scale score of 75.96. These results indicate that coordinated trajectory and speed modulation preserves SSVEP signal quality and enhances user experience, offering a promising approach for fatigue-resistant, user-friendly BCI application.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Aziz MZ, Yu X, Guo X, et al (2025)

BCINetV1: Integrating Temporal and Spectral Focus Through a Novel Convolutional Attention Architecture for MI EEG Decoding.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(15):.

Motor imagery (MI) electroencephalograms (EEGs) are pivotal cortical potentials reflecting cortical activity during imagined motor actions, widely leveraged for brain-computer interface (BCI) system development. However, effectively decoding these MI EEG signals is often overshadowed by flawed methods in signal processing, deep learning methods that are clinically unexplained, and highly inconsistent performance across different datasets. We propose BCINetV1, a new framework for MI EEG decoding to address the aforementioned challenges. The BCINetV1 utilizes three innovative components: a temporal convolution-based attention block (T-CAB) and a spectral convolution-based attention block (S-CAB), both driven by a new convolutional self-attention (ConvSAT) mechanism to identify key non-stationary temporal and spectral patterns in the EEG signals. Lastly, a squeeze-and-excitation block (SEB) intelligently combines those identified tempo-spectral features for accurate, stable, and contextually aware MI EEG classification. Evaluated upon four diverse datasets containing 69 participants, BCINetV1 consistently achieved the highest average accuracies of 98.6% (Dataset 1), 96.6% (Dataset 2), 96.9% (Dataset 3), and 98.4% (Dataset 4). This research demonstrates that BCINetV1 is computationally efficient, extracts clinically vital markers, effectively handles the non-stationarity of EEG data, and shows a clear advantage over existing methods, marking a significant step forward for practical BCI applications.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Siribunyaphat N, Tohkhwan N, Y Punsawad (2025)

Investigation of Personalized Visual Stimuli via Checkerboard Patterns Using Flickering Circles for SSVEP-Based BCI System.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(15):.

In this study, we conducted two steady-state visual evoked potential (SSVEP) studies to develop a practical brain-computer interface (BCI) system for communication and control applications. The first study introduces a novel visual stimulus paradigm that combines checkerboard patterns with flickering circles configured in single-, double-, and triple-layer forms. We tested three flickering frequency conditions: a single fundamental frequency, a combination of the fundamental frequency and its harmonics, and a combination of two fundamental frequencies. The second study utilizes personalized visual stimuli to enhance SSVEP responses. SSVEP detection was performed using power spectral density (PSD) analysis by employing Welch's method and relative PSD to extract SSVEP features. Commands classification was carried out using a proposed decision rule-based algorithm. The results were compared with those of a conventional checkerboard pattern with flickering squares. The experimental findings indicate that single-layer flickering circle patterns exhibit comparable or improved performance when compared with the conventional stimuli, particularly when customized for individual users. Conversely, the multilayer patterns tended to increase visual fatigue. Furthermore, individualized stimuli achieved a classification accuracy of 90.2% in real-time SSVEP-based BCI systems for six-command generation tasks. The personalized visual stimuli can enhance user experience and system performance, thereby supporting the development of a practical SSVEP-based BCI system.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Leerskov KS, Spaich EG, Jochumsen MR, et al (2025)

Design and Demonstration of a Hybrid FES-BCI-Based Robotic Neurorehabilitation System for Lower Limbs.

Sensors (Basel, Switzerland), 25(15):.

BACKGROUND: There are only a few available options for early rehabilitation of severely impaired individuals who must remain bedbound, as most exercise paradigms focus on out-of-bed exercises. To enable these individuals to exercise, we developed a novel hybrid rehabilitation system combining a brain-computer interface (BCI), functional electrical stimulation (FES), and a robotic device.

METHODS: The BCI assessed the presence of a movement-related cortical potential (MRCP) and triggered the administration of FES to produce movement of the lower limb. The exercise trajectory was supported by the robotic device. To demonstrate the system, an experiment was conducted in an out-of-lab setting by ten able-bodied participants. During exercise, the performance of the BCI was assessed, and the participants evaluated the system using the NASA Task Load Index, Intrinsic Motivation Inventory, and by answering a few subjective questions.

RESULTS: The BCI reached a true positive rate of 62.6 ± 9.2% and, on average, predicted the movement initiation 595 ± 129 ms prior to the MRCP peak negativity. All questionnaires showed favorable outcomes for the use of the system.

CONCLUSIONS: The developed system was usable by all participants, but its clinical feasibility is uncertain due to the total time required for setting up the system.

RevDate: 2025-08-13

Kamali S, Baroni F, P Varona (2025)

Mu and beta power effects of fast response trait double dissociate during precue and movement execution in the sensorimotor cortex.

Computers in biology and medicine, 196(Pt C):110874 pii:S0010-4825(25)01225-9 [Epub ahead of print].

A better understanding of the neural and muscular mechanisms underlying motor responses is essential for advancing neurorehabilitation protocols, brain-computer interfaces (BCI), feature engineering for biosignal classification algorithms, and identifying biomarkers of disease and performance enhancement strategies. In this study, we examined the neuromuscular dynamics of healthy individuals during a sequential finger-pinching task, focusing on the relationships between cortical oscillations and muscle activity in simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and electromyography (EMG) recordings. We contrasted two pairs of subsets of the dataset based on the latency of EMG onset: an across-subjects trait-based comparison and a within-subjects state-based comparison. Trait-based analyses showed that fast responders had higher baseline beta power, indicating stronger motor inhibition and efficient resetting of motor networks, and greater mu desynchronization during movement, reflecting enhanced motor cortex activation. Visual association areas also displayed more pronounced changes in different phases of the task in subjects with lower latency. Fast responders exhibited lower baseline EMG activity and stronger EMG power during movement initiation, showing effective motor inhibition and rapid muscle activation. State-based analyses revealed no significant EEG differences between fast and slow trials, while EMG differences were only detected after movement onset. These results highlight that fast response trait is related to electrophysiological differences at specific frequency bands and task phases, offering insights for enhancing motor function in rehabilitation, biomarker identification and BCI applications.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Henderson FC, K Tuchman (2025)

Angiogenic Cell Precursors and Neural Cell Precursors in Service to the Brain-Computer Interface.

Cells, 14(15):.

The application of artificial intelligence through the brain-computer interface (BCI) is proving to be one of the great advances in neuroscience today. The development of surface electrodes over the cortex and very fine electrodes that can be stereotactically implanted in the brain have moved the science forward to the extent that paralyzed people can play chess and blind people can read letters. However, the introduction of foreign bodies into deeper parts of the central nervous system results in foreign body reaction, scarring, apoptosis, and decreased signaling. Implanted electrodes activate microglia, causing the release of inflammatory factors, the recruitment of systemic inflammatory cells to the site of injury, and ultimately glial scarring and the encapsulation of the electrode. Recordings historically fail between 6 months and 1 year; the longest BCI in use has been 7 years. This article proposes a biomolecular strategy provided by angiogenic cell precursors (ACPs) and nerve cell precursors (NCPs), administered intrathecally. This combination of cells is anticipated to sustain and promote learning across the BCI. Together, through the downstream activation of neurotrophic factors, they may exert a salutary immunomodulatory suppression of inflammation, anti-apoptosis, homeostasis, angiogenesis, differentiation, synaptogenesis, neuritogenesis, and learning-associated plasticity.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Kostorz K, Nguyen T, Pan Y, et al (2025)

Investigating short windows of interbrain synchrony: A step toward fNIRS-based hyperfeedback.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 3:.

Social interaction is of fundamental importance to humans. Prior research has highlighted the link between interbrain synchrony and positive outcomes in human social interaction. Neurofeedback is an established method to train one's brain activity and might offer a possibility to increase interbrain synchrony, too. Consequently, it would be advantageous to determine the feasibility of creating a neurofeedback system for enhancing interbrain synchrony to benefit human interaction. One vital step toward developing a neurofeedback setup is to determine whether the target metric can be determined in relatively short time windows. In this study, we investigated whether the most widely employed metric for interbrain synchrony, wavelet transform coherence, can be assessed accurately in short time windows using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is recognized for its mobility and ecological suitability for interactive research. To this end, we have undertaken a comprehensive approach where we created artificial data of different noise levels of a dyadic interaction and re-processed two human-interaction datasets. For both artificial and in vivo data, we computed short windows of interbrain synchrony of varying size and assessed significance at each window size. Our findings indicate that relatively short windows of wavelet transform coherence of integration durations of about 1 minute are feasible. This would align well with the methodology of an intermittent neurofeedback procedure. Our investigation lays a foundational step toward an fNIRS-based system to measure interbrain synchrony in real time and provide participants with information about their interbrain synchrony. This advancement is crucial for the future development of a neurofeedback training system tailored to enhance interbrain synchrony to potentially benefit human interaction.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Papadopoulos S, Darmet L, Szul MJ, et al (2024)

Surfing beta burst waveforms to improve motor imagery-based BCI.

Imaging neuroscience (Cambridge, Mass.), 2:.

Our understanding of motor-related, macroscale brain processes has been significantly shaped by the description of the event-related desynchronization (ERD) and synchronization (ERS) phenomena in the mu and beta frequency bands prior to, during, and following movement. The demonstration of reproducible, spatially- and band-limited signal power changes has, consequently, attracted the interest of non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) research for a long time. BCIs often rely on motor imagery (MI) experimental paradigms that are expected to generate brain signal modulations analogous to movement-related ERD and ERS. However, a number of recent neuroscience studies has questioned the nature of these phenomena. Beta band activity has been shown to occur, on a single-trial level, in short, transient, and heterogeneous events termed bursts rather than sustained oscillations. In a previous study, we established that an analysis of hand MI binary classification tasks based on beta bursts can be superior to beta power in terms of classification score. In this article, we elaborate on this idea, proposing a signal processing algorithm that is comparable to- and compatible with state-of-the-art techniques. Our pipeline filters brain recordings by convolving them with kernels extracted from beta bursts and then applies spatial filtering before classification. This data-driven filtering allowed for a simple and efficient analysis of signals from multiple sensors, thus being suitable for online applications. By adopting a time-resolved decoding approach, we explored MI dynamics and showed the specificity of the new classification features. In accordance with previous results, beta bursts improved classification performance compared to beta band power, while often increasing information transfer rate compared to state-of-the-art approaches.

RevDate: 2025-08-13

Zhao SJ, Yin ZY, Yu SB, et al (2025)

Block-based compressive imaging with a swin transformer.

Optics express, 33(5):9587-9603.

Block-based compressive imaging (BCI) is based on the compressive sensing principle, which uses a spatial light modulator and a low-resolution detector to perform parallel high-speed sampling, followed by super-resolution algorithm to reconstruct target image. When compared with traditional compressive imaging, BCI reduces the computational effort but introduces block artifacts. This paper proposes a data-driven deep neural network based on the swin transformer called SwinBCI, which introduces the local attention and shifted window mechanisms to improve the target image reconstruction quality. By using the dataset to train the model to obtain priori knowledge and performing graphics processing unit-accelerated computation, the computation time is greatly reduced to realize real-time BCI. We achieve better reconstruction performances with cake cutting-Hadamard matrix sampling than with Bernoulli matrix sampling. Comparison with three other classical compressed sensing reconstruction methods on four common image datasets and images acquired experimentally using the actual BCI system show that SwinBCI achieves faster high-quality reconstruction at each sampling rate.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Tang A, Jiang H, Li J, et al (2025)

Gut microbiota links to cognitive impairment in bipolar disorder via modulating synaptic plasticity.

BMC medicine, 23(1):470.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive impairment is an intractable clinical manifestation of bipolar disorder (BD), but its underlying mechanisms remain largely unexplored. Preliminary evidence suggests that gut microbiota can potentially influence cognitive function by modulating synaptic plasticity. Herein, we characterized the gut microbial structure in BD patients with and without cognitive impairment and explored its influence on neuroplasticity in mice.

METHODS: The gut structure of microbiota in BD without cognitive impairment (BD-nCI) patients, BD with cognitive impairment (BD-CI) patients, and healthy controls (HCs) were characterized, and the correlation between specific bacterial genera and clinical parameters was determined. ABX-treated C57 BL/J male mice were transplanted with fecal microbiota from BD-nCI, BD-CI patients or HCs and subjected to behavioral testing. The change of gut microbiota in recipient mice and its influence on the dendritic complexity and synaptic plasticity of prefrontal neurons were examined. Finally, microbiota supplementation from healthy individuals in the BD-CI mice was performed to further determine the role of gut microbiota.

RESULTS: 16S-ribosomal RNA gene sequencing reveals that gut microbial diversity and composition are significantly different among BD-nCI patients, BD-CI patients, and HCs. The Spearman correlation analysis suggested that glucose metabolism-related bacteria, such as Prevotella, Faecalibacterium, and Roseburia, were correlated with cognitive impairment test scores, and inflammation-related bacteria, such as Lachnoclostridium and Bacteroides, were correlated with depressive severity. Fecal microbiota transplantation resulted in depression-like behavior, impaired working memory and object recognition memory in BD-CI recipient mice. Compared with BD-nCI mice, BD-CI mice exhibited more severely impaired object recognition memory, along with greater reductions in dendritic complexity and synaptic plasticity. Supplementation of gut microbiota from healthy individuals partially reversed emotional and cognitive phenotypes and neuronal plasticity in BD-CI mice.

CONCLUSIONS: This study first characterized the gut microbiota in BD-CI patients and highlighted the potential role of gut microbiota in BD-related cognitive deficits by modulating neuronal plasticity in mice model.

RevDate: 2025-08-16

Li D, Zalesky A, Wang Y, et al (2025)

Mapping the coupling between tract reachability and cortical geometry of the human brain.

Nature communications, 16(1):7489.

The study of cortical geometry and connectivity is prevalent in human brain research. However, these two aspects of brain structure are usually examined separately, leaving the essential connections between the brain's folding patterns and white matter connectivity unexplored. In this study, we aim to elucidate the fundamental links between cortical geometry and white matter tract connectivity. We develop the concept of tract-geometry coupling (TGC) by optimizing the alignment between tract connectivity to the cortex and multiscale cortical geometry. We confirm in two independent datasets that cortical geometry reliably characterizes tract reachability, and that TGC demonstrates high test-retest reliability and individual-specificity. Interestingly, low-frequency TGC is more heritable and behaviorally informative. Finally, we find that TGC can reproduce task-evoked cortical activation patterns and exhibits non-uniform maturation during youth. Collectively, our study provides an approach to mapping cortical geometry-connectivity coupling, highlighting how these two aspects jointly shape the connected brain.

RevDate: 2025-08-12

Kim J, Hong SK, Lee A, et al (2025)

Activity-Dependent Effects of ERK1/2 on Hepatic Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury.

Transplantation proceedings pii:S0041-1345(25)00350-1 [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Liver transplantation remains the only cure for end-stage liver disease, but ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI) limits graft availability. Although extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK1/2) signaling is involved in cellular responses to IRI, its precise role in hepatic IRI remains unclear. We investigated the role of ERK1/2 in hepatic IRI by modulating its activity using small-molecule chemical inhibitors.

METHODS: ERK1/2 activation was monitored at different phases of hepatic IRI using a rat model in which liver ischemia was induced with varying reperfusion times. ERK1/2 activity was modulated in this model by administering different doses of trametinib (MEK1/2 inhibitor) and BCI (DUSP1/6 inhibitor). Liver injury was evaluated through histological assessment, serum markers, and molecular analysis of cell death pathways.

RESULTS: ERK1/2 activity increased early in the reperfusion phase and gradually decreased over 6 hours thereafter. Inhibiting the ERK1/2 activity increase using trametinib (0.3 mg/kg) as well as inhibiting its decreases using BCI (7.5 mg/kg) worsened the liver injury. However, the injury was reduced upon titrating ERK1/2 activity to a moderately increased level by BCI and trametinib coadministration. The reduced liver injury was accompanied by decreased expression of ferroptosis markers.

CONCLUSIONS: Our data demonstrate that ERK1/2 activity is required for hepatic cells to tolerate IRI. Our results suggest that modulation of ERK1/2 activity using existing drugs may be a potential therapeutic strategy for mitigating hepatic IRI.

RevDate: 2025-08-12

Li J, Le T, Fan C, et al (2025)

Brain-to-text decoding with context-aware neural representations and large language models.

Journal of neural engineering [Epub ahead of print].

Decoding attempted speech from neural activity offers a promising avenue for restoring communication abilities in individuals with speech impairments. Previous studies have focused on mapping neural activity to text using phonemes as the intermediate target. While successful, decoding neural activity directly to phonemes ignores the context dependent nature of the neural activity-to-phoneme mapping in the brain, leading to suboptimal decoding performance. In this work, we propose the use of diphone - an acoustic representation that captures the transitions between two phonemes - as the context-aware modeling target. We integrate diphones into existing phoneme decoding frameworks through a novel divide-and-conquer strategy in which we model the phoneme distribution by marginalizing over the diphone distribution. Our approach effectively leverages the enhanced context-aware representation of diphones while preserving the manageable class size of phonemes, a key factor in simplifying the subsequent phoneme-to-text conversion task. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on the Brain-to-Text 2024 benchmark, where it achieves state-of-the-art Phoneme Error Rate (PER) of 15.34% compared to 16.62% PER of monophone-based decoding. When coupled with finetuned Large Language Models (LLMs), our method yields a Word Error Rate (WER) of 5.77%, significantly outperforming the 8.93% WER of the leading method in the benchmark.

RevDate: 2025-08-12

Albahri AS, Hamid RA, Alqaysi ME, et al (2025)

Trust and explainability in robotic hand control via adversarial multiple machine learning models with EEG sensor data fusion: A fuzzy decision-making solution.

Computers in biology and medicine, 196(Pt C):110922 pii:S0010-4825(25)01274-0 [Epub ahead of print].

In the field of brain‒computer interfaces (BCIs), developing a reliable machine learning (ML) model for real-time robotic hand control systems based on motor imagery (MI) brain signals requires substantial research. For this purpose, a set of ML models has been developed and tested to identify robust models via MI sensor data fusion under both nonadversarial and adversarial attack conditions. This paper addresses numerous essential areas, including the development of ML models for electroencephalography (EEG) MI signal datasets, with a focus on proper preprocessing and evaluation under both nonadversarial and adversarial attack conditions. Three phases make up the process. In the first phase, raw MI-EEG datasets from the Graz University BCI competition are identified and preprocessed. The preprocessing encompasses six key stages: EEG-MI signal filtering, segmentation, time‒frequency domain feature extraction, merging and labeling, normalization (resulting in Dataset I), and feature fusion (resulting in Dataset II). In the second phase, both datasets are used to develop nine different ML methods and are evaluated via nine performance metrics. These models are trained and tested against adversarial and nonadversarial scenarios. In the third phase, the fuzzy decision by opinion score method (FDOSM) and the multiperspective decision matrix (MPDM) are combined to benchmark the ML models via the fuzzy multicriteria decision-making (MCDM) approach. The random forest (RF) model achieved the best overall performance, with the lowest FDOSM scores: 0.18241 for Dataset I and 0.21636 for Dataset II. A lower FDOSM score means better results across all evaluation criteria. To further assess the developed methodology, the RF model was tested on Dataset III, comprising EEG data from four participants collected via the EMOTIV EPOC. The mean classification accuracy achieved by the RF model was 83 % with standard preprocessing, and it improved to 86 % with the application of feature fusion techniques. Additionally, this study employed the local interpretability model-agnostic explanation (LIME) method to provide an understanding of the RF model's behavior and enhance the interpretability of the results in the context of individual predictions.

RevDate: 2025-08-12

Loss J, von Sommoggy Und Erdödy J, Rüter J, et al (2025)

[Using behavioral and cultural insights to promote physical activity among university students-the "Smart Moving" project].

Bundesgesundheitsblatt, Gesundheitsforschung, Gesundheitsschutz [Epub ahead of print].

BACKGROUND: Physical inactivity is widespread at universities. To promote physical activity among students, it is important to understand their needs. Behavioral and cultural insights (BCIs) help to identify barriers to physical activity and to develop appropriate interventions. The aim of "Smart Moving" was to use BCIs to implement measures to promote physical activity in two universities.

METHOD: "Smart Moving" was carried out at the universities of Bayreuth and Regensburg between 2018 and 2021. The project was implemented in four steps: (1) the target behavior was defined as students being physically active on campus; (2) knowledge about physical activity behavior was gained using a standardized survey of students, photo voice, and expert interviews; (3) a planning group at each university developed and implemented measures to promote physical activity; and (4) acceptance and short-term effects of selected measures were evaluated in short surveys.

RESULTS: University students spent an average of 34 h per week sitting during their stay on campus. Factors influencing physical activity were assigned to the following categories: capability (cognitive/physical ability), opportunity (physical/social environment), and motivation. These included, for example, a lack of knowledge about access, poor accessibility of exercise opportunities, the prevailing norm that learning involves sitting, and shame when exercising in front of others. Various approaches to promote physical activity were developed: movement breaks in lectures, activating desk furniture with sitting/standing options, movement instructions in the outdoor area, and motivational interventions for exercise. The measures were well received by students.

DISCUSSION: The BCI data helped implement needs-based physical activity promotion at universities. Further studies are needed to investigate the long-term effects on physical activity behavior.

RevDate: 2025-08-12

Han S, Pasquini D, Sorieul M, et al (2025)

Implantable Ion-Selective Organic Electrochemical Transistors Enable Continuous, Long-Term, and In Vivo Plant Monitoring.

Advanced science (Weinheim, Baden-Wurttemberg, Germany) [Epub ahead of print].

The development of plant-specific biosensors holds the potential to uncover new insights into plant physiology and advance precision agriculture. Current sensing platforms mainly focus on broad plant phenotypes (e.g., elongation and hydration) and local environmental monitoring (e.g., temperature and moisture). Here, an ion-selective organic electrochemical transistor (IS-OECT) is introduced that enables real-time monitoring of variations in potassium ion concentration within the xylem of pine trees. This work demonstrates that the high sensitivity of the IS-OECT enables the detection of subtle variations in potassium ion concentrations in the xylem sap of living trees, and the high stability of the sensor allows for in vivo measurements over five weeks. Furthermore, the implantable sensors are fabricated using processes that are compatible with low-cost manufacturing (i.e., lithography-free). This sensing technology, therefore, has great potential to be a game-changer in precision forestry and could extend to precision agriculture and horticulture practices.

RevDate: 2025-08-13

Chen ZS (2024)

Emerging Brain-to-Content Technologies from Generative AI and Deep Representation Learning.

IEEE signal processing magazine, 41(6):94-104.

Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence (AI) and deep representation learning have revolutionized numerous engineering applications in signal processing, computer vision, speech recognition and translation, and natural language processing due to amazingly powerful representation power (e.g., [1,2]). Generative AI-empowered tools, such as ChatGPT and Sora, have fundamentally changed the landscape of human-computer communications research. One emerging application along this line is to link the brain to the computer (i.e., brain-computer interface or BCI) and to develop paradigm-shift brain-to-content technologies. This BCI system upgrade (i.e., BCI 2.0) is empowered by generative AI and deep learning ("new engine") and large amounts of data ("gas"). In this article, we will revisit the old song sung in a new tune, highlight some state-of-the-art progresses, and briefly discuss the future outlook.

RevDate: 2025-08-13

Zulfiqar AA (2025)

Hypervitaminemia B12 in the Elderly: A Forgotten Marker of Serious Underlying Diseases.

European journal of case reports in internal medicine, 12(8):005553.

UNLABELLED: Hypervitaminemia B12, long neglected in clinical practice, is a biological anomaly whose pathological significance remains largely underestimated, particularly in the elderly. While medical attention has historically focused on vitamin B12 deficiency, several recent studies suggest that elevated levels of this vitamin may reveal serious underlying pathologies, such as solid neoplasia, haematological malignancies, chronic liver disease or renal failure. We report the case of a 91-year-old man hospitalized for asthenia, anorexia and altered general condition, in whom vitamin B12 assay revealed major hypervitaminemia (1318 pg/ml). The work-up revealed hepatic cirrhosis of alcoholic origin, complicated by hepatocellular carcinoma which was metastatic from the outset. This case illustrates the potential prognostic value of vitamin B12 dosage, particularly when coupled with C-reactive protein (BCI index), a high value (> 40,000) of which is associated with short-term mortality in patients with advanced cancer. Beyond hepatopathy, hypervitaminemia B12 is associated in the literature with increased haptocorrin release in myeloproliferative syndromes, excess transcobalamins in renal failure, or paradoxical elevation in certain inflammatory diseases. This biological marker, which is easy to obtain, could therefore become part of standardized geriatric assessment, particularly in oncogeriatrics, in order to guide diagnostic and prognostic strategy. The systematic inclusion of vitamin B12 assays in the general assessment of elderly patients, particularly in oncology settings, deserves to be reassessed.

LEARNING POINTS: Hypervitaminemia B12 is an often overlooked but potentially significant marker of serious underlying pathologies-including solid neoplasms, liver disease, renal failure, and hematologic malignancies-especially in elderly patients.The B12 × C-reactive protein (CRP) index, easily obtainable from routine labs, may serve as a prognostic tool in oncology, with values over 40,000 being strongly associated with short-term mortality in advanced cancers.Routine screening for vitamin B12 levels in geriatric assessments should consider both deficiency and excess, with hypervitaminemia prompting systematic diagnostic evaluation to uncover latent or advanced disease.

RevDate: 2025-08-17

Wu K, Gao L, Feng Z, et al (2025)

Multimodal brain network analysis reveals divergent dysconnectivity patterns during mental fatigue: A concurrent EEG-fMRI study.

Brain research bulletin, 230:111505 pii:S0361-9230(25)00317-X [Epub ahead of print].

For the apparent importance of mental fatigue in neuroergonomics, continuous efforts have been made to reveal the underlying neural mechanisms. Using concurrent EEG-fMRI network analysis, this work aims to reveal fatigue-related brain network reorganization. Specifically, multimodal neuroimaging data were acquired from 35 healthy participants during a 15-min sustained attention task (i.e., psychomotor vigilance task). A monotonically decreasing pattern of behavioral performance was revealed where the first and last 3-min windows were determined as the most vigilant and fatigued states. Multimodal brain network architectures within these two states were then quantitatively compared. We found that EEG and fMRI networks exhibited divergent yet interrelated reorganizations. Specifically, MF-related deficiency in parallel information transmission was revealed in multiple EEG frequency bands, yet only local efficiency was altered in fMRI networks. Moreover, a convergent decrease of nodal efficiency mainly resided in the default mode network was found in both EEG and fMRI networks, indicating a decline in cognitive control capacity during mental fatigue. Overall, by integrating multimodal EEG-fMRI network analyses, this work provides novel insights into the dynamic neural adaptations to mental fatigue, enhancing our understanding of the underlying neural mechanisms.

RevDate: 2025-08-08

Qiu SJ, Zhang YL, Gong WB, et al (2025)

BCI inhibits MKP3 by targeting the kinase-binding domain and disrupting ERK2 interaction.

The Journal of biological chemistry pii:S0021-9258(25)02421-4 [Epub ahead of print].

Mitogen-activated protein kinase phosphatase 3 (MKP3), also known as dual-specificity phosphatase 6 (DUSP6), is a critical regulator of ERK signaling, and its dysregulation is implicated in diseases such as cancer. The small-molecule inhibitor BCI ((E)-2-benzylidene-3-(cyclohexylamino)-2,3-dihydro-1H-inden-1-one) has been reported to inhibit MKP3, thereby enhancing ERK signaling and promoting selective cytotoxicity in cancer cells. However, the molecular mechanism underlying BCI-mediated MKP3 inhibition remains unclear. In this research, we characterized the interaction between BCI and MKP3 using NMR titration, microscale thermophoresis (MST), enzymatic assays, and AlphaFold 3 (AF3) modeling. Our results demon-strate that BCI selectively binds to the kinase-binding domain (KBD) of MKP3, rather than its catalytic domain (CD), thereby disrupting the MKP3-ERK2 interaction and impairing MKP3 activation. Enzymatic assays further reveal that BCI significantly reduces ERK2-mediated MKP3 activity without directly interfering with substrate binding at the active site. AF3 structural modeling suggests that BCI binding induces local conformational changes, notably an outward shift of the α4-helix, which exposes a hydrophobic pocket essential for BCI accommodation. Moreover, BCI exhibits differential bind-ing affinities across the MKP family, showing significant interactions with the KBDs of MKPX and MKP5, but markedly weaker or negligible binding to those of MKP1, MKP2, and MKP4. Together, these findings uncover a novel KBD-targeting mechanism of MKP3 inhibition by BCI and highlight the potential of selectively modulating MAPK phosphatases through allosteric disruption of kinase-phosphatase interactions. This strategy may offer a new avenue for the design and optimization of targeted phosphatase inhibitors.

RevDate: 2025-08-09
CmpDate: 2025-08-07

Liang R, Gao J, Liu X, et al (2025)

Regulatory measures for mitigating physical and mental health impacts in aerospace environment: A systematic review.

Life sciences in space research, 46:106-114.

Long-term spaceflight poses significant challenges to astronauts' physical and mental health, resulting in physiological issues such as osteoporosis, muscle atrophy, and cardiovascular dysfunction, as well as psychological problems like depression, anxiety, social withdrawal, and cognitive decline. As the duration of space missions continues to increase, the above challenges cannot be ignored. Therefore, identifying effective regulatory measures is essential. This article provides a concise review of the latest domestic and international research on strategies to mitigate physiological and psychological risks in aerospace environment. Including coping strategies for musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and psychological problems, such as exercise, physical stimulation, psychotherapy, and medication, especially traditional Chinese medicine, which need to be further explored and applied. Its ultimate goal is to offer insights for ensuring the safe execution of space missions by astronauts and advancing the field of space medicine.

RevDate: 2025-08-07

Constant M, Mandal A, Asanowicz D, et al (2025)

A multilab investigation into the N2pc as an indicator of attentional selectivity: Direct replication of Eimer (1996)☆,☆☆,☆☆☆,☆☆☆☆,☆☆☆☆☆.

Cortex; a journal devoted to the study of the nervous system and behavior, 190:304-341 pii:S0010-9452(25)00151-0 [Epub ahead of print].

The N2pc is widely employed as an electrophysiological marker of an attention allocation. This interpretation was largely driven by the observation of an N2pc elicited by an isolated relevant target object, which was reported as Experiment 2 in Eimer (1996). All subsequent refined interpretations of the N2pc had to take this crucial finding into account. Despite its central role for neurocognitive attention research, there have been no direct replications and only few conceptual replications of this seminal work. Within the context of #EEGManyLabs, an international community-driven effort to replicate the most influential EEG studies ever published, the present study was selected due to its strong impact on the study of selective attention. We revisit the idea of the N2pc being an indicator of attentional selectivity by delivering a high powered direct replication of Eimer's work through analysis of 779 datasets acquired from 22 labs across 14 countries. Our results robustly replicate the N2pc to form stimuli, but a direct replication of the N2pc to color stimuli technically failed. We believe that this pattern not only sheds further light on the functional significance of the N2pc as an electrophysiological marker of attentional selectivity, but also highlights a methodological problem with selecting analysis windows a priori. By contrast, the consistency of observed ERP patterns across labs and analysis pipelines is stunning, and this consistency is preserved even in datasets that were rejected for (ocular) artifacts, attesting to the robustness of the ERP technique and the feasibility of large-scale multilab EEG (replication) studies.

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Rajesh Rao has written the perfect introduction to the exciting world of brain-computer interfaces. The book is remarkably comprehensive — not only including full descriptions of classic and current experiments but also covering essential background concepts, from the brain to Bayes and back. Brain-Computer Interfacing will be welcomed by a wide range of intelligent readers interested in understanding the first steps toward the symbiotic merger of brains and computers. Eberhard E. Fetz, UW

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