Distinguished Lecture Series: Niels Birbaumer (Tübingen)

“Applications, achievements, and unresolved problems of Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI)”

Please note: For Mind and Brain doctoral students there will be a "Meet the Speaker" session with Professor Birbaumer on 4 November, 16.30-17.30, before his talk. Location: Luisenstraße 56, Haus 1, Room 220. Zertifiziert durch Ärztekammer Berlin: VNR 2761102010091960006, 2 Punkte Abstract: Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCIs) using brain activity to activate machines, computers and other devices without motor system involvement.  Most BCIs train people to regulate their own brain activity voluntarily with reward learning. The lecture reviews the clinical applications, achievements and unresolved problems of BCI. Locked-in patients are completely paralysed but their emotional and cognitive functions are intact. Most of them learn to communicate basic needs with BCI. Extended completely locked-in or vegetative state destroys voluntary (operant-instrumental) learning. For these patients a semantic classical conditioning procedure was developed avoiding controlled attention and goal-directed thinking.
First BCI based reconstruction of movement in chronic stroke shows some success but transfer of training needs to be improved.
Finally we report self-regulation of local metabolic changes (BOLD) with real time functional magnetic resonance imaging (rtfMRI) in schizophrenics and criminal psychopaths demonstrating specific behavioral changes of self-modification of single brain areas and their connected brain systems.
Ethical implications and future applications in dementia and small infants are discussed. NB is supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG), The research network on Computational Neuroscience of the BMBF and an European Research Council (ERC) grant. Professor Dr. Niels Birbaumer, Institute of Medical Psychology & Behavioral Neurobiology, Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen Interview with Niels Birbaumer on Deutschlandfunk “Zwischentöne” (Audio on Demand): http://www.dradio.de/aod/html/?broadcast=196860 6. Zwischentöne ohne Musik mit Niels Birbaumer vom 02.05.2010, Teil 1, Sendezeit: 02.05.2010 13:30, Autor: Michael Langer, Länge: 21:40 Minuten 5. Zwischentöne ohne Musik mit Niels Birbaumer vom 02.05.2010, Teil 2, Sendezeit: 02.05.2010 14:10, Autor: Michael Langer, Länge: 39:04 Minuten

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