Brain-Computer Interfaces for SCI (Episode 109)
Guests: Luke Bashford and Daniel Kramer
Today we are talking about Brain Computer Interfaces (or BCI) with Luke Bashford and Daniel Kramer. Daniel is a neurosurgeon and faculty member at the University of Colorado, Anschutz. He is also the co-founder of the Neural Engineering Research and Design of Colorado (or NERDco). Luke is a researcher in neuroscience and neurotechnology. He is co-affiliated with the University of Colorado and Newcastle University in the UK.
We discuss the application of BCI in spinal cord injury, what is happening currently and what’s on the horizon. We also discuss the clinical study they have been running for several years in California and which is now recruiting in Colorado.
As always, please share your thoughts with us via email at curecast@u2fp.org. Thanks for listening!
Listen on: Spotify | Apple Podcasts | Soundcloud
Bumper music: Dig a Hole by Freaque
Guest Bios
Daniel R. Kramer, MD, is a neurosurgeon and neuroscientist. He joined the faculty at the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus in 2020 as a Stereotactic and Functional Neurosurgeon treating movement disorders, epilepsy, and facial pain. He is also the co-founder of the Neural Engineering Research and Design of Colorado (NERDco) lab. Our lab is interested in two foundational aspects of brain function and how aberrations result in disease states. First, our lab utilizes high density intracranial recordings in Brain Computer Interface (Utah arrays), or during other surgical interventions (Neuropixels) to understand how the human brain achieves the nearly infinite flexibility of Executive Function (EF). Executive Function describes the set of cognitive control mechanisms that allow for attention, future planning, problem solving, and abstraction. By understanding how the brain moves from thought to action successfully, we can develop treatments for disorders of EF and improve brain computer interface devices. Second, at the core of many disease states, particularly movement disorders like Parkinson’s disease and essential tremor, are a set of critical circuits that involve the basal ganglia, the thalamus, the cerebellum, and the cortex. Our lab aims to understand the functional role the thalamus, basal ganglia, and cortex play in normal action and in disease states. Learn more about the work Dr. Kramer does at the Chen Brain-Machine Interface Center.
Dr. Luke Bashford is a scientist specializing in Neuroscience and Neurotechnology in the Department of Neurosurgery, University of Colorado, USA and the Faculty of Medical Sciences, Newcastle University, UK. Luke uses Brain-Computer Interfaces to investigate the neural mechanisms underlying human motor, sensory and cognitive function for basic science and clinical translation. This is achieved by recording and stimulating through electrodes implanted in the brain during various clinical studies.
Connect with Luke Bashford here:
- Email: luke.bashford@cuanschutz.edu
More Links
- Clinical trial: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT01964261
- Collaborative community: https://www.ibci-cc.org/
Media Coverage
-
Daniel Kramer, MD, assistant professor of neurosurgery, studies neural signals and communication between brain areas that produce movement and somatosensation. He is developing a brain-computer interface (BCI) program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine focused on...
Sponsored By
