Demystifying Brain Interfaces

The human brain is the most complex machine on earth. As it powers our most important functions - cognitive ability, perception & emotion regulation - researchers for many years have performed experiments that aim to push the boundaries on understanding of how the brain works. One significant outcome of these efforts are brain interfaces, which provide a communication pathway between our brains and an external devices. In this talk, I will give an overview of brain interfaces, going beyond science fiction and delving into its current applications, how to get started with neuro technologies, and opportunities for impact when we merge advancements in software engineering & artificial intelligence with problems in this domain. If you're curious about what is possible when we leverage data from recorded brain activity, then this talk is for you!

Transcript

1. Demystifying Brain Interfaces by Ore Ogundipe Website | LinkedIn | Twitter
2. • Born & raised in Nigeria, currently work as a software engineer on the E+D Data Platform & Growth Team @ Microsoft based in Vancouver, Canada. • Grew up wanting to becoming a Neurosurgeon but my love for computers took over • Got introduced to Machine Learning in college & have been excited about the possibilities of applying advances in other domains • Recorded my first neuro experiment in 2019 and I’ve been hooked ever since :) About Me
3. How does the brain work? Main organ of the central nervous system with about 100 billions of neurons & trillions of cells Cerebral Cortex is the outer covering of the surfaces of the brain Blausen.com staff (2014). "Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014". WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. - Own work Cerebral Cortex Lobes Functions Frontal Lobe Movement, Decision-making, Problem-solving & planning Parietal Lobe Sensory information processing Occipital Lobe Visual Processing Temporal Lobe Memory, Emotion, Hearing & Language
4. What are brain interfaces? Communication pathways from our brains by leveraging recorded data from brain activity When neurons communicate, there is electrical activity Learning to Control a Brain–Machine Interface for Reaching and Grasping by Primates (nih.gov) Brain Machine Interfaces: from basic science to neuroprostheses and neurological recovery - YouTube
5. Types of brain interfaces? • Invasive • Implanting electrodes under the scalp via surgery • Partially invasive • ECoG - Electrocorticography • Non-invasive • fMRI – Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging • fNiRS – Functional Near Infrared Spectroscopy • EEG – Electroencephalography Blausen.com staff (2014). Medical gallery of Blausen Medical 2014. WikiJournal of Medicine 1 (2). DOI:10.15347/wjm/2014.010. ISSN 2002-4436. - Own work Stock image of fMRI machine EEG Device
6. Real world use cases • Paraplegic starting the 2014 world cup opener • Understanding of neurological disorders • Insights into attentiveness, focus & calm • NeuralLink demo of monkey playing pingpong Credits: Fogarty International Center, FIFA World Cup, Walk Again Project Focus metrics displayed on Neurosity Console after a recorded session
7. How is brain data collected? • Define experiments with subject performing an action • Collect raw EEG recordings using electrodes Figure1. By Laurens R. Krol - Own work, CC0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=96859272 Screenshot of raw brainwaves collected using Neurosity Notion 2 by Ore Ogundipe
8. How is brain data analyzed? • Cleaning & preprocessing data • Find timestamp in EEG recording that match events • Remove noisy data • Deciding what channels to use • Fourier transform • Spectrogram • Training a model & generating predictions • Toolset • Python - MNE — MNE 0.23.0 documentation • MATLAB - EEG / MRI Matlab Toolbox (sourceforge.net) • JavaScript - neurosity/eeg-pipes: Digital signal processing utilities as RxJS operators for working with EEG data in Node and the Browser (github.com)
9. What’s missing? • Better form factors • More accessible devices • Variability in subject data from brain recordings • Lower learning curve for getting started • Cross collaboration across institutes
10. Looking ahead • Integration with IoT devices • Insights into emotion regulation • Usage with Virtual/Augmented Reality • Thoughts as raw text in real time? Live blink detection by @devdevcharlie Developing Galea: An open source tool at the intersection of VR and neuroscience — MIT Media Lab
11. Neuro-ethics • We’ve talked about the good, what is the bad? • Neuromarketing • How is data being stored • What scenarios is are collected data enabling? • Rewards for participating in research
12. Get Involved • Resources • Lessons & Modules (neurotechedu.com) • GitHub - NeuroTechX/awesome-bci: Curated Collection of BCI resources • NeuroTechX/eeg-notebooks: A collection of classic EEG experiments implemented with Python and Jupyter notebooks (github.com) • Join a community • NeuroTechX • Neuromatch Academy • Send a message - orogundi@microsoft.com