Jose L. Contreras-Vidal

Reconstructing Three-Dimensional Hand Movements from Noninvasive Electroencephalographic Signals

It is generally thought that the signal-to-noise ratio, the bandwidth, and the information content of neural data acquired via noninvasive scalp electroencephalography (EEG) are insufficient to extract detailed information about natural, multijoint movements of the upper limb. Here, we challenge this assumption by continuously decoding three-dimensional (3D) hand velocity from neural data acquired from the scalp with 55-channel EEG during a 3D center-out reaching task. To preserve ecological validity, five subjects self-initiated reaches and self-selected targets. Eye movements were controlled so they would not confound the interpretation of the results. With only 34 sensors, the correlation between measured and reconstructed velocity profiles compared reasonably well to that reported by studies that decoded hand kinematics from neural activity acquired intracranially. We subsequently examined the individual contributions of EEG sensors to decoding to find substantial involvement of scalp areas over the sensorimotor cortex contralateral to the reaching hand. Using standardized low-resolution brain electromagnetic tomography (sLORETA), we identified distributed current density sources related to hand velocity in the contralateral precentral gyrus, postcentral gyrus, and inferior parietal lobule. Furthermore, we discovered that movement variability negatively correlated with decoding accuracy, a finding to consider during the development of brain–computer interface systems. Overall, the ability to continuously decode 3D hand velocity from EEG during natural, center-out reaching holds promise for the furtherance of noninvasive neuromotor prostheses for movement-impaired individuals.

Adaptation to gradual as compared with sudden visuo-motor distortions

Abstract If visual feedback is discordant with movement direction, the visuo-motor mapping is disrupted, but can be updated with practice. In this experiment subjects practiced discrete arm movements under conditions of visual feedback rotation. One group was exposed to 10°-step increments of visual feedback rotation up to a total of 90°, a second group to a 90° visual feedback rotation throughout the experiment. After the first group reached the 90° visual feedback rotation, its subjects performed faster, with less spatial error, and showed larger aftereffects than the subjects who practiced constantly under the 90° visual feedback rotation condition. Results suggest that gradually increasing feedback distortion allows more complete adaptation than a large, sudden distortion onset.

Neural decoding of treadmill walking from noninvasive electroencephalographic signals

Chronic recordings from ensembles of cortical neurons in primary motor and somatosensory areas in rhesus macaques provide accurate information about bipedal locomotion (Fitzsimmons NA, Lebedev MA, Peikon ID, Nicolelis MA. Front Integr Neurosci 3: 3, 2009). Here we show that the linear and angular kinematics of the ankle, knee, and hip joints during both normal and precision (attentive) human treadmill walking can be inferred from noninvasive scalp electroencephalography (EEG) with decoding accuracies comparable to those from neural decoders based on multiple single-unit activities (SUAs) recorded in nonhuman primates. Six healthy adults were recorded. Participants were asked to walk on a treadmill at their self-selected comfortable speed while receiving visual feedback of their lower limbs (i.e., precision walking), to repeatedly avoid stepping on a strip drawn on the treadmill belt. Angular and linear kinematics of the left and right hip, knee, and ankle joints and EEG were recorded, and neural decoders were designed and optimized with cross-validation procedures. Of note, the optimal set of electrodes of these decoders were also used to accurately infer gait trajectories in a normal walking task that did not require subjects to control and monitor their foot placement. Our results indicate a high involvement of a fronto-posterior cortical network in the control of both precision and normal walking and suggest that EEG signals can be used to study in real time the cortical dynamics of walking and to develop brain-machine interfaces aimed at restoring human gait function.

The H2 robotic exoskeleton for gait rehabilitation after stroke: early findings from a clinical study

AbstractBackgroundStroke significantly affects thousands of individuals annually, leading to considerable physical impairment and functional disability. Gait is one of the most important activities of daily living affected in stroke survivors. Recent technological developments in powered robotics exoskeletons can create powerful adjunctive tools for rehabilitation and potentially accelerate functional recovery. Here, we present the development and evaluation of a novel lower limb robotic exoskeleton, namely H2 (Technaid S.L., Spain), for gait rehabilitation in stroke survivors.MethodsH2 has six actuated joints and is designed to allow intensive overground gait training. An assistive gait control algorithm was developed to create a force field along a desired trajectory, only applying torque when patients deviate from the prescribed movement pattern. The device was evaluated in 3 hemiparetic stroke patients across 4 weeks of training per individual (approximately 12 sessions). The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Houston. The main objective of this initial pre-clinical study was to evaluate the safety and usability of the exoskeleton. A Likert scale was used to measure patient’s perception about the easy of use of the device.ResultsThree stroke patients completed the study. The training was well tolerated and no adverse events occurred. Early findings demonstrate that H2 appears to be safe and easy to use in the participants of this study. The overground training environment employed as a means to enhance active patient engagement proved to be challenging and exciting for patients. These results are promising and encourage future rehabilitation training with a larger cohort of patients.ConclusionsThe developed exoskeleton enables longitudinal overground training of walking in hemiparetic patients after stroke. The system is robust and safe when applied to assist a stroke patient performing an overground walking task. Such device opens the opportunity to study means to optimize a rehabilitation treatment that can be customized for individuals. Trial registration: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT02114450).

Effects of Parkinson's disease on visuomotor adaptation

Visuomotor adaptation to a kinematic distortion was investigated in Parkinsons disease (PD) patients and age-matched controls. Participants performed pointing movements in which the visual feedback of hand movement, displayed as a screen cursor, was normal (pre-exposure condition) or rotated by 90° counterclockwise (exposure condition). Aftereffects were assessed in a post-exposure condition in which the visual feedback of hand movement was set back to normal. In pre- and early-exposure trials, both groups showed similar initial directional error (IDE) and movement straightness (RMSE, root mean square error), but the PD group showed reduced movement smoothness (normalized jerk, NJ) and primary submovement to total movement distance ratios (PTR). During late-exposure the PD subjects, compared with controls, showed larger IDE, RMSE, NJ, and smaller PTR scores. Moreover, PD patients showed smaller aftereffects than the controls during the post-exposure condition. Overall, the PD group showed both slower and reduced adaptation compared with the control group. These results are discussed in terms of reduced signal-to-noise ratio in feedback signals related to increased movement variability and/or disordered kinesthesia, deficits in movement initiation, impaired selection of initial movement direction, and deficits in internal model formation in PD patients. We conclude that Parkinsons disease impairs visuomotor adaptation.

Adaptation of handwriting size under distorted visual feedback in patients with Parkinson's disease and elderly and young controls

Objective: The ability to use visual feedback to control handwriting size was compared in patients with Parkinsons disease (PD), elderly people, and young adults to better understand factors playing a part in parkinsonian micrographia. Methods: The participants wrote sequences of eight cursive l loops with visual target sizes of 0.5 and 2 cm on a flat panel display digitiser which both recorded and displayed the pen movements. In the pre-exposure and postexposure conditions, the display digitiser showed the actual pen trace in real time and real size. In the distortion exposure conditions, the gain of the vertical dimension of the visual feedback was either reduced to 70% or enlarged to 140%. Results: The young controls showed a gradual visuomotor adaptation that compensated for the visual feedback distortions during the exposure conditions. They also showed significant after effects during the postexposure conditions. The elderly controls marginally corrected for the size distortions and showed small after effects. The patients with PD, however, showed no trial by trial adaptations or after effects but instead, a progressive amplification of the distortion effect in each individual trial. Conclusion: The young controls used visual feedback to update their visuomotor map. The elderly controls seemed to make little use of visual feedback. The patients with Parkinsons disease rely on the visual feedback of previous or of ongoing strokes to programme subsequent strokes. This recursive feedback may play a part in the progressive reductions in handwriting size found in parkinsonian micrographia.

The H2 robotic exoskeleton for gait rehabilitation after stroke

AbstractBackgroundStroke significantly affects thousands of individuals annually, leading to considerable physical impairment and functional disability. Gait is one of the most important activities of daily living affected in stroke survivors. Recent technological developments in powered robotics exoskeletons can create powerful adjunctive tools for rehabilitation and potentially accelerate functional recovery. Here, we present the development and evaluation of a novel lower limb robotic exoskeleton, namely H2 (Technaid S.L., Spain), for gait rehabilitation in stroke survivors.MethodsH2 has six actuated joints and is designed to allow intensive overground gait training. An assistive gait control algorithm was developed to create a force field along a desired trajectory, only applying torque when patients deviate from the prescribed movement pattern. The device was evaluated in 3 hemiparetic stroke patients across 4 weeks of training per individual (approximately 12 sessions). The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board at the University of Houston. The main objective of this initial pre-clinical study was to evaluate the safety and usability of the exoskeleton. A Likert scale was used to measure patient’s perception about the easy of use of the device.ResultsThree stroke patients completed the study. The training was well tolerated and no adverse events occurred. Early findings demonstrate that H2 appears to be safe and easy to use in the participants of this study. The overground training environment employed as a means to enhance active patient engagement proved to be challenging and exciting for patients. These results are promising and encourage future rehabilitation training with a larger cohort of patients.ConclusionsThe developed exoskeleton enables longitudinal overground training of walking in hemiparetic patients after stroke. The system is robust and safe when applied to assist a stroke patient performing an overground walking task. Such device opens the opportunity to study means to optimize a rehabilitation treatment that can be customized for individuals. Trial registration: This study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (https://clinicaltrials.gov/show/NCT02114450).

Independent component analysis of dynamic brain responses during visuomotor adaptation.

To investigate the spatial and temporal changes in electro-cortical brain activity and hand kinematics during the acquisition of an internal model of a novel screen-cursor transformation, we employed single-trial infomax independent component analysis (ICA), spectral estimation, and kinematics methods. Participants performed center-out drawing movements under normal and rotated visual feedback of pen movements displayed on a computer screen. Clustering of task-related and adaptation-related independent components identified a selective recruitment of brain activation/deactivation foci associated with the exposure to the distorted visual feedback, including networks associated with frontal-, central-, and lateral-posterior alpha rhythms, and frontal-central error-related negativity potential associated with transient theta and low beta rhythms locked to movement onset. Moreover, adaptation to the rotated reference frame was associated with a reduction in the imposed directional bias and decreases in movement path length and movement time by late-exposure trials, as well as after-effects after removal of the visual distortion. The underlying spatiotemporal pattern of activations is consistent with recruitment of frontal-parietal, sensory-motor, and anterior cingulate cortical areas during visuomotor adaptation.

High accuracy decoding of user intentions using EEG to control a lower-body exoskeleton

Brain-Machine Interface (BMI) systems allow users to control external mechanical systems using their thoughts. Commonly used in literature are invasive techniques to acquire brain signals and decode users attempted motions to drive these systems (e.g. a robotic manipulator). In this work we use a lower-body exoskeleton and measure the users brain activity using non-invasive electroencephalography (EEG). The main focus of this study is to decode a paraplegic subjects motion intentions and provide him with the ability of walking with a lower-body exoskeleton accordingly. We present our novel method of decoding with high offline evaluation accuracies (around 98%), our closed loop implementation structure with considerably short on-site training time (around 38 sec), and preliminary results from the real-time closed loop implementation (NeuroRex) with a paraplegic test subject.

Exercise, APOE, and working memory: MEG and behavioral evidence for benefit of exercise in epsilon4 carriers.

Performance on the Sternberg working memory task, and MEG cortical response on a variation of the Sternberg task were examined in middle-aged carriers and non-carriers of the APOE epsilon4 allele. Physical activity was also assessed to examine whether exercise level modifies the relationship between APOE genotype and neurocognitive function. Regression revealed that high physical activity was associated with faster RT in the six- and eight-letter conditions of the Sternberg in epsilon4 carriers, but not in the non-carriers after controlling for age, gender, and education (N=54). Furthermore, the MEG analysis revealed that sedentary epsilon4 carriers exhibited lower right temporal lobe activation on matching probe trials relative to high-active epsilon4 carriers, while physical activity did not distinguish non-carriers (N=23). The M170 peak was identified as a potential marker for pre-clinical decline as epsilon4 carriers exhibited longer M170 latency, and highly physically active participants exhibited greater M170 amplitude to matching probe trials.