Funded Awards

Project Summary Learning and performing complex skills such as speech or music requires precise control of motor variability. While elevated motor variability can spur the learning of new behaviors, excessive variability can impair performance of learned skills.

Abstract Currently, the brain-computer interface (BCI) field has demonstrated two distinct device strategies - macroelectrodes (e.g., surface grids and depth) versus microelectrode arrays, and some are even pushing the field to smaller, higher density arrays hoping to address the general signal d

PROJECT SUMMARY The courtship song of male zebra finches is a classical model for learning complex motor behaviors and shows important parallels to human speech and communication. Male zebra finches learn a song from an adult tutor and then reproduce this song throughout adulthood.

Electrocortical stimulation (ECS) has been used for functional mapping for many decades to identify brain areas that are “critical” for speech and language (i.e., that impair function when stimulated) prior to epilepsy or tumor surgery.

Project Abstract/Summary The objective of this psychological technology SBIR/STTR Fast-Track proposal is to provide an innovative gamified biofeedback solution (software-only) to improve the effectiveness of functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) for pediatric pre-neurosurgical planning.

Neuroimaging methods such as functional MRI and magneto- / electroencephalography (MEG/EEG) cannot directly reveal causal relationships between regional brain activity and behavior.

How are complex behaviors that require the coordination of multiple muscle systems produced? How does the brain suddenly turn them “on”? Vocalizations are seemingly simple, yet to occur, ~100 muscles must be coordinated, such as those for articulation (laryngeal and tongue) and breathing.

PROJECT SUMMARY Intracortical brain-computer interfaces (iBCIs) can restore lost function for people with severe speech and motor impairment (SSMI) due to neurological injury or disease. Despite tremendous recent progress, iBCI performance remains well below that of able-bodied people.

The ability to listen and identify sounds in the presence of competing background noise is a critical function of the healthy auditory system.

7. Project Summary Multiple early feasibility trials in humans have demonstrated that implantable Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) can enable people with severe paralysis to use neural signals to control remote and digital communication technologies, including messaging and email.

PROJECT SUMMARY Actions are not mediated solely by cortical processes but rely on communication within basal ganglia- thalamocortical loops. Speech is one example, although how the basal ganglia participate in this uniquely human behavior is not clear, due to a lack of empirical data.

Project Summary Complex motor sequences are fundamental to many highly skilled behaviors, ranging from athletics to musical and vocal expression.

For many years brain-computer interfaces (BCI's) have been explored as a means of restoring communication to patients with Locked-In Syndrome (LIS), a devastating and often irreversible neurological condition in which cognition is intact but nearly all motor output from the brain is interrupted, eff

PROJECT SUMMARY The basic mechanisms underlying comprehension of spoken language are unknown. We are only beginning to understand how the human brain extracts the most fundamental linguistic elements (consonants and vowels) from a complex and highly variable acoustic signal.

We experience the world as a continuous sequence of events, but we remember the events as segmented episodes (e.g., my sister’s wedding). During encoding, we associate a sequence of relevant events and segment deviant events.

Project Summary/Abstract Speech perception is inherently multisensory: when conversing with someone that we can see, our brains combine auditory information from the voice with visual information from the face. Speech perception lies at the heart of our interactions with other people and is thus one

Project Summary Throughout life, humans and other animals learn statistical regularities in the natural acoustic environment. They adapt their hearing to emphasize the features of sound that are important for making behavioral decisions.

When we speak, listeners hear us and understand us we speak correctly. But we also hear ourselves, and this auditory feedback affects our ongoing speech: delaying it causes dysfluency; perturbing its pitch or formants induces compensation.

ABSTRACT The proposed project will build and evaluate the safety and design needs of a new type of intracranial auditory prosthesis that targets the auditory nerve between the cochlea and the brainstem (auditory nerve implant, ANI) in order to substantially improve hearing performance over the curre

Project Summary/Abstract Improved understanding of the brain processes underlying normal and abnormal function is necessary for devising better ways to diagnose, alleviate, or cure neurological or psychiatric disorders.