Projects

In order to build closed-loop devices that read the status of a certain brain area to steer a prosthetic limb and provide feedback information from a sensor via stimulation, it is necessary to learn about the coding mechanism in the involved brain areas. There are currently many technical limitations that hamper the implementation of such devices. The first limitation is due to the recording of neural signals, which is either relatively unspecific (e.g. EEG signals), or captures only signals of very few neurons (electrophysiology). The same problem applies to the techniques available for electrical or optogenetic stimulation. The third limitation, which is to be approached in this project, is the lacking understanding of the relationship between the neural code in the brain, e.g. motor cortex and other areas involved in motor control, and the corresponding action at the limb (decoding), as well as how certain sensory inputs cause neural activity in the brain, e.g. somatosensory cortex or other brain areas relevant for tactile perception. To overcome the second challenge of recording signals from only one or two brain areas, we will develop and customize a multisite recording and stimulation device using our established silicon-based probe technology adapted to the specific scientific requests of the Deep Decode Project. Further details are provide here: www.brainlinks-braintools.uni-freiburg.de/de/forschung/projekte/deepdecode/