Find us at the Society for Neuroscience 2014 Meeting

Please visit our poster presentations. Please stop by:

Presentation

Sat, Nov 15, 1:00 – 5:00 PM
84.02/NN3 – Transcranial direct current stimulation over ventro-medial prefrontal cortex changes human value-based decision making: A computational neurostimulation study

*D. HAEMMERER1,2, M. KLEIN-FLÜGGE3,4, J. BONAIUTO4, M. BIKSON5, S. BESTMANN4;
1Inst. of Cognitive Neurosci., United Kingdom; 2Lifespan Psychology, Germany;3WellcomeTrust,4UCL;5CUNY

Session

084. Human Decision-Making: Perceptual Processes
Sat, Nov 15, 1:00 – 5:00 PM

Presentation

Sun, Nov 16, 8:00 AM – 12:00 PM
187.22/TT71 – Optimizing tDCS and HD-tDCS for clinical trials through computational models (and trial design)

*D. Q. TRUONG1, M. ALAM2, M. BIKSON2;
1Biomed. Engin., City Col. of New York, CUNY, New York, NY; 2Biomed. Engin., City Col. of New York, New York, NY

Session

187. Computation Tools
Sun, Nov 16, 8:00 AM

Presentation
Mon, Nov 17, 1:00 – 5:00 PM

456.03/RR44 – Transcranial direct current stimulation differentially influences implicit and explicit memory in a multi-task

*M. R. SCHELDRUP1, J. VANCE2, R. MCKINLEY3, M. BIKSON4, R. PARASURAMAN2, P. GREENWOOD2;
2Psychology, 1George Mason Univ; 3Airforce Res. Lab.;4CUNY

Session

456. Direct Current Stimulation
Mon, Nov 17, 1:00 – 5:00 PM

Neural Engineering
MIT Technology Review cover our study om “A smartphone-connected device that delivers electrical stimulation to the head.”

Device Changes Your Mood with a Zap to the Head
A smartphone-connected device delivers electrical stimulation to nerves in the head.

By Kevin Bullis on November 10, 2014

The market for products that relax or energize is worth billions of dollars worldwide….Next year you should be able to buy a small device that uses electricity to change your mood at the press of a button on your smartphone. The device, from a startup called Thync, currently consists of a set of electrodes connected to a phone. It has a short-lived energizing effect that feels a little like drinking a can of Red Bull….Marom Bikson, a professor of biomedical engineering at City College of New York, recently used a prototype of Thync’s device in a 100-person study (funded by the company) that focused on its calming effects. Bikson says the study showed “with a high degree of confidence” that the device has an effect, although the results varied. “For some people—not everyone—the effect is really profound,” he says. “Within minutes, they’re feeling significantly different in a way that is as powerful as anything else I could imagine short of a narcotic.

Full Article here

Neural Engineering
Special NE Seminar at Graduate Center: Dr. Marangolo on Nov 25

TUESDAY November 25, 2014 from 4:30-5:45pm at the CUNY GRADUATE CENTER, 365 Fifth Avenue, ROOM 7300

 tDCS-Enhances Language Recovery: New Challenges in Aphasia Rehabilitation?

Paola Marangolo

Affiliation: Department of Experimental and Clinical Medicine, University Politecnica delle Marche, Ancona, Italy, IRCCS Fondazione Santa Lucia, Rome, Italy

 Abstract: New technologies has made new tools available for professional speech-language therapists. In the field of aphasia, one area is central for a positive outcome in language rehabilitation: the use of noninvasive brain stimulation techniques. A growing body of evidence has already indicated that TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) and tDCS (transcranial direct current stimulation) can have beneficial effects in the treatment of aphasia. However, although some studies have shown an improvement of lexical deficits, a persistency of the effects has not been consistently reported. Moreover, many of these studies do not have a control condition to establish the specificity of the stimulated area. More recent studies suggest that long-term effects might be more easily obtained with repeated stimulations and during simultaneous specific language training. The development of these new approaches, as potentially promising tools for aphasia rehabilitation, will be discussed together with an overview of the language deficits most suitable for intervention.

References

Marangolo P & Caltagirone C. Options to enhance recovery from aphasia by means of non-invasive brain stimulation and action observation therapy. Expert Rev. Neurother., 2014

Marangolo P et al. Electrical stimulation over the left inferior frontal gyrus (IFG) determines long-term effects in the recovery of speech apraxia in three chronic aphasics. Behav Brain Res, 2011.

Marangolo P et al., Differential involvement of the left frontal and temporal regions in verb naming: a tDCS study. Restor Neurol and Neurosci, 2013

Neural Engineering
Faculty Vacancy: Neural Engineering at CCNY

We are hiring:

Job Title: Assistant, Associate, or Full Professor – Biomedical Engineering (Tenure-track / Tenured)

Job ID: 11824
Location: City College of New York

FACULTY VACANCY ANNOUNCEMENT

The Department of Biomedical Engineering in the School of Engineering at the City College of New York (CCNY) of the City University of New York seeks to recruit an outstanding faculty member with expertise to complement their growing program in neural engineering. Other areas of specialization in the department include: tissue engineering, nanotechnology/biomaterials, cardiovascular engineering, and musculoskeletal biomechanics. It is expected that appointment will be made at the level of Assistant Professor, though outstanding candidates at more senior levels will be considered.

Responsibilities will focus on developing successful, extramurally funded research program as well as excellence in teaching at the graduate and undergraduate levels.

The City College of New York, in the heart of New York City, is building upon its strengths in neuroscience, which is currently comprised of more than 20 faculty from 5 different departments across the campus. Shared research instrumentation include state of the art microscopy, several EEG systems, TMS, tDCS, non-invasive optical imaging, and a research-dedicated MRI scanner scheduled to be operational by the end of 2014.

The research environment in the CCNY BME department is very strong, and builds upon internal strengths as will the New York Center for Biomedical Engineering (NYCBE) – a unique consortium between the Grove School of Engineering and seven of the premier health care and medical institutions in New York City. The research productivity of the faculty in the CCNY BME department is among the top in the nation and supported by over $5,000,000 annual in extramural grant support. The National Research Council rankings put the department in the top 10% in the nation terms of research productivity and #1 in the nation in terms of diversity. Its commitment to diversity is reflected in its unique composition of over 50% female or minority faculty. Additional information on the department can be found at bme.ccny.cuny.edu. CCNY is the founding and flagship college of the City University of New York (CUNY).

QUALIFICATIONS” Ph.D. degree in area(s) of experience or equivalent. Also required are the ability to teach successfully, demonstrated scholarship or achievement, and ability to cooperate with others for the good of the institution.

COMPENSATION :Commensurate with qualifications and experience.  CUNY offers faculty a competitive compensation and benefits package covering health insurance, pension and retirement benefits, paid parental leave, and savings programs. We also provide mentoring and support for research, scholarship, and publication as part of our commitment to ongoing faculty professional development.
HOW TO APPLY : Visit www.cuny.edu, access the employment page, log in or create a new user account, and search for this vacancy using the Job ID (11824) or Title. Select “Apply Now” and provide the requested information. Candidates should provide a CV, a cover letter, examples of recent publications, a brief statement of research and teaching interests, and the names and contact information for at least three professional references.
CLOSING DATE” Open until filled, with review of applications to begin December 1, 2014

JOB SEARCH CATEGORY” CUNY Job Posting: Faculty

Neural Engineering
Neural Engineering Seminar by Daniel Miklody. Oct 31

Daniel Miklody. Oct 31 at 2 pm on the 5th floor BME conference room.

Individualized head models through electrical impedance measurements

In EEG source localization,transcranial current stimulation (tCS) and other topics in neuroscience, a model of the volume conduction properties of the head is needed to estimate e.g. the sources of activity in EEG or the areas of stimulation for tCS.

To create a model, two approaches seem predominant: either an individual MRI is obtained out of which a model is created or an average head model is used. An MRI is expensive and the process to receive a head model very time consuming and labour intensive. Average head models are much cheaper but systematic errors occur through the individual differences in anatomy and conductivities. The anatomy can be morphed to fit the outer head shape as measured by localization devices. The results are acceptable but modeling errors still occur.

I am introducing a new approach to this topic, which involves Electrical Impedance Tomography (EIT) to individualize the headmodel. Therefor small electric currents are injected through a standard set of EEG electrodes. The pattern of injection is alternating between injection pairs and the resulting scalp potential is measured on the rest. The measured data is then used to individualize an average head model involving non-linear optimization techniques from machine learning.

In my talk I will give a gentle introduction to different ways of modeling the head (concentric spheres, spherical harmonics, BEM and FEM), their advantages and drawbacks.

I will continue with an introduction to Electrical Impedance Tomography and different approaches within. I will also present the EIT device (virtually only) that I have designed an constructed within my Master’s thesis and some of the results.

Currently I am working on two algorithms for this problem in parallel: a leadfield based approach and a geometry based approach involving dimensionality reduction through PCA. I will introduce some basic concepts of those.

I will also present some preliminary results on 4-shell (scalp,skull,CSF,brain) BEM head modeling and the leadfield based approach.


Neural Engineering
“Edison” Computational Cluster Installed

Through support from the DURIP mechanism of the DoD (PO Patrick Bradshaw, PI Marom Bikson). the Neural Engineering group is excited to activate our newest and most powerful cluster: Edison. Starting with 204 cores. 2.6 TB optimized for high-throughput and massive-scale finite element modeling of transcranial electrical stimulation.

Good job Andy Huang and Dennis Truong along with staff from DEH Microsystems.

 

Neural Engineering
Special NE Seminar: Moritz Dannhauer

Moritz Dannhauer, Scientific Computing and Imaging Institute, University of Utah

“Simulating noninvasive brain stimulation using SCIRun: an open source software package.”

Sept 26, 2014 at 2 PM. BME Conference room 402 – Steinman Hall

Abstract:

In my talk I will present how to setup, solve and analyze simulations of non-invasive brain stimulation techniques (tDCS, TMS) using SCIRun.

SCIRun is a generic tool to solve scientific problems that contains a software package called “BrainStimulator” in the new version SCIRun5.

I will explain goals, algorithms and implementation details regarding these simulations.

Neural Engineering
New Paper: tDCS in Pediatric Stroke

Pediatric Stroke and transcranial Direct Current Stimulation: Methods for Rational Individualized Dose Optimization

Bernadette T. Gillick, Adam Kirton, Jason Carmel, Preet Minhas and Marom Bikson

Front. Hum. Neurosci. | doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00739

Free online

Background- Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been investigated mainly in adults and doses may not be appropriate in pediatric applications. In perinatal stroke where potential applications are promising, rational adaptation of dosage for children remains under investigation. Objective – Construct child-specific tDCS dosing parameters through case study within a perinatal stroke tDCS safety and feasibility trial. Methods- 10-year-old subject with a diagnosis of presumed perinatal ischemic stroke and hemiparesis was identified. T1 MRI scans used to derive computerized model for current flow and electrode positions. Workflow using modeling results and consideration of dosage in previous clinical trials was incorporated. Prior Ad hoc adult montages versus de novo optimized montages provided distinct risk benefit analysis. Approximating adult dose required consideration of changes in both peak brain current flow and distribution which further tradeoff between maximizing efficacy and adding safety factors. Electrode size, position, current intensity, compliance voltage, and duration were controlled independently in this process. Results- Brain electric fields modeled and compared to values previously predicted models. Approximating conservative brain current flow patterns and intensities used in previous adult trials for comparable indications, the optimal current intensity established was 0.7 mA for 10 minutes with a tDCS C3/C4 montage. Specifically 0.7 mA produced comparable peak brain current intensity of an average adult receiving 1.0 mA. Electrode size of 5×7 cm2 with 1.0 mA and low-voltage tDCS was employed to maximize tolerability. Safety and feasibility confirmed with subject tolerating the session well and no serious adverse events. Conclusion- Rational approaches to dose customization, with steps informed by computational modeling, may improve guidance for pediatric stroke tDCS trials.


Neural Engineering
New Paper: tDCS facilitates cognitive multi-task performance

Transcranial direct current stimulation facilitates cognitive multi-task performance differentially depending on anode location and subtask 

M.Scheldrup, P.M. Greenwood, R. McKendrick, J. Strohl, M. Bikson, M. Alam, R.A.McKinley, R. Parasuraman.

Front. Hum. Neurosci. DOI: 10.3389/fnhum.2014.00665  Free ONLINE

Abstract: There is a need to facilitate acquisition of real world cognitive multi-tasks that require long periods of training (e.g., air traffic control, intelligence analysis, medicine). Non-invasive brain stimulation – specifically transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS) – has promise as a method to speed multi-task training. We hypothesized that during acquisition of the complex multi-task Space Fortress, subtasks that require focused attention on ship control would benefit from tDCS aimed at the dorsal attention network while subtasks that require redirection of attention would benefit from tDCS aimed at the right hemisphere ventral attention network. We compared effects of 30 min prefrontal and parietal stimulation to right and left hemispheres on subtask performance during the first 45 min of training. The strongest effects both overall and for ship flying (control and velocity subtasks) were seen with a right parietal (C4 to left shoulder) montage, shown by modeling to induce an electric field that includes nodes in both dorsal and ventral attention networks. This is consistent with the re-orienting hypothesis that the ventral attention network is activated along with the dorsal attention network if a new, task-relevant event occurs while visuospatial attention is focused (Corbetta et al., 2008). No effects were seen with anodes over sites that stimulated only dorsal (C3) or only ventral (F10) attention networks. The speed subtask (update memory for symbols) benefited from an F9 anode over left prefrontal cortex. These results argue for development of tDCS as a training aid in real world settings where multi-tasking is critical.

Neural Engineering
Dr. Bikson quoted in NY Times and The Atlantic

Our labs work on neuromodulation recognized in several recent press articles including:

The Atlantic. Prepare to Be Shocked. August 13, 2014

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/09/prepare-to-be-shocked/375072/

New York Times. This Procedure May Improve Your Brain — and Uncover the Real You. July 17, 2014 http://op-talk.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/17/this-procedure-may-improve-your-brain-and-uncover-the-real-you/

Neural Engineering
Nature Communications: Brainwaves Can Predict Audience Reaction

Media and marketing experts have long sought a reliable method of forecasting responses from the general population to future products and messages. According to a study conducted at the Neural Engineering group The City College of New York, it appears that the brain responses of just a few individuals are a remarkably strong predictor.

By analyzing the brainwaves of 16 individuals as they watched mainstream television content, researchers led by Prof. Lucas Parra were able to accurately predict the preferences of large TV audiences, up to 90 % in the case of Super Bowl commercials. The findings appear in a paper entitled, “Audience Preferences Are Predicted by Temporal Reliability of Neural Processing,” published July 29, 2014, in “Nature Communications.”

Ready Full CCNY Press Release Here

Neural Engineering
New Paper: Sham Protocols for tDCS

Title: Toward Development of Sham Protocols for High- Definition Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (HD-tDCS) 

Jessica D. Richardson, Paul Fillmore, Abhishek Datta, Dennis Truong, Marom Bikson, Julius Fridriksson

NeuroRegulation Vol. 1(1):62-72 2014 doi:10.15540/nr.2014.1.1.62

PDF: Download

Abstract : High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD-tDCS) is a noninvasive cortical
stimulation (NICS) technique that, due to the utilization of multi-electrode stimulation, may
enable development of sham conditions characterized by indistinguishable scalp sensations
compared to active conditions, with little or no cortical influence. We sought to contribute to
the development of an optimal sham electrode configuration for HD-tDCS protocols by
gathering ratings of overall sensation reported by participants during different electrode
configurations and current intensities. Twenty healthy participants completed a magnitude
estimation task during which they rated their “overall sensation” in 1-minute intervals during
five 5-minute stimulation conditions. A 5 x 5 (Time x Stimulation condition) analysis of
variance (ANOVA) was conducted to determine if sensation measurements differed over
time, and how this varied by condition. Null hypothesis significance tests and equivalence
tests were conducted to determine which sham conditions were statistically indistinguishable
from the experimental condition. The ANOVA revealed main effects for Time and Stimulation
condition. Planned comparisons, comparing each sham condition to the experimental
condition (4×1 ring configuration, 2 mA), revealed differences in sensation ratings for all but
one condition (Sham 1x1A); no sham conditions were found to be statistically equivalent to
the experimental condition. Our HD-tDCS findings build upon previous NICS reports of
differences in sensation ratings between sham versus experimental conditions when
traditional “ramping down” approaches were used. Alternative multi-electrode configurations
that manipulate electrode placement to shunt current across the scalp warrant further
investigation as valid blinding methods.

Neural Engineering