Neurological disorders affect many millions of people in the United States and throughout the world. Recent advances enable the development of adaptive neurotechnologies, powerful new technologies that interact with the nervous system to promote functional recovery. These technologies are inherently multidisciplinary: they involve neuroscience, biomedical engineering, electrical and computer science, signal processing, and clinical, ethical, and commercial domains. Very few people can function effectively across all these ?elds. As a result, only a few of these technologies have been fully developed and translated into clinical practice, and still fewer are widely used. The goal of this Short Course s to address this problem by providing a new group of leaders with the broad multidisciplinary knowledge needed to plan, develop, and implement the next generation of adaptive neurotechnologies. The Wadsworth scientists and engineers of the newly established National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies propose to create and conduct, together with additional external faculty, a comprehensive four- week Short Course in the theory and practice of adaptive neurotechnologies. This Course has three aims.
Aim 1 will provide lectures in the ?ve areas critical to understanding and implementing adaptive neurotechnologies: basic neuroscience (with emphasis on the most relevant regions and functions); engineering (how technologies monitor the nervous system and interact with it); current adaptive neurotechnologies (capabilities, limitations, future prospects); clinical translation (target populations, trial design); and commercial, regulatory, ethical, and other factors important to dissemination and use of these technologies.
Aim 2 will complement the lectures of Aim 1 with hands-on Training Exercises in which participants use the principles conveyed in the lectures and the software platform BCI2000 to design and implement three representative adaptive neurotechnologies.
Aim 3 will disseminate the curriculum to the larger research and development community by providing lecture syllabi and videos online and publishing video journal articles for the Training Exercises. It will also gather formal and informal feedback from participants and others to guide improvements in the Course. This uniquely focused multidisciplinary curriculum will enable the participants to become independent and active agents in developing, evaluating, and using adaptive neurotechnologies, and in bringing others into this rapidly growing ?eld. To enhance the long-term impact of the Course, wide publicity and a careful selection process will recruit 24 participants who are or are likely to become leaders of laboratory, clinical, or commercial research and development programs in this ?eld. In summary, this intensive Short Course will empower the next generation of scientists, engineers, and clinicians to transform promising laboratory developments and concepts into real-world systems, methods, and applications that address important scienti?c and clinical problems.
Millions of people in the US and elsewhere suffer from neurological disorders despite drugs, surgery, and other available therapies. Recent advances enable the development of adaptive neurotechnologies, which interact with the nervous system to promote recovery and improve function. This Short Course will provide the next generation of scienti?c, technical, and medical leaders with the knowledge and expertise they need to design, develop, and disseminate novel adaptive neurotechnologies that can greatly improve the treatment of stroke, brain and spinal cord injury, cerebral palsy, Parkinson's disease, and other devastating disorders.
