By Shannon Turgeon
Photos by Rayni Shiring
John Ngai, director of the National Institute of Health (NIH)’s Brain Research Through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies Initiative, or the BRAIN Initiative, visited Pitt’s Rehab Neural Engineering Labs on Friday, Nov. 22.
His visit was an opportunity for researchers from the University of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Mellon University to demonstrate groundbreaking advances in neurotechnology that have been made possible by the NIH BRAIN Initiative, which has directed more than $115 million in research funding to Pittsburgh over the last 11 years. The work highlights the Pitt health sciences schools’ commitment to collaborating to improve the lives of people facing significant health challenges.
“This is amazing research that is leading to helping people, which at the end of the day is what the BRAIN Initiative is all about. I am very, very pleased to see all the progress being made here,” Ngai said.
The event began with introductions and opening remarks from Julie Fiez, professor and chair of psychology, Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences, and Matt Smith, professor of biomedical engineering, Swanson School of Engineering and Carnegie Mellon’s Department of Biomedical Engineering and Neuroscience Institute.
Fiez and Smith are codirectors of the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, a joint venture between Pitt and Carnegie Mellon that supports cross-university collaboration and research in basic, clinical, cognitive and computational neuroscience.
The group toured the UPMC Mercy Pavilion, where research space is shared by the School of Medicine’s Departments of Ophthalmology and of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation.
“This was intentionally designed to be a facility that could bring together the most advanced patient care with groundbreaking research by putting the clinical spaces and the research spaces in juxtaposition next to each other,” said Fiez.
Lee Fisher and Jennifer Collinger, both associate professors in the Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, led a tour through the low vision clinic, physical therapy gym and physical medicine and rehabilitation clinic. Attendees also had the opportunity to view the life skills apartment, where patients going through motor recovery or low vision rehabilitation learn how to navigate the world in a realistic setting.
Gwendolyn Sowa, chair and Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation Professor, School of Medicine, pointed out the significance of the artwork throughout the research and clinical spaces.
“All of the artwork was designed either by artists with a disability or with a disability focus,” she said.
Four groups involved in research projects funded by the NIH BRAIN Initiative presented highlights of their work.
Sossena Wood, assistant professor of biomedical engineering, and Pulkit Grover, professor of electrical and computer engineering, Carnegie Mellon, demonstrated their bias-free, noninvasive technologies that are designed to measure brain activity and blood oxygenation and deliver deep-brain stimulation for treatment of psychiatric conditions.
Their technology included Sevo electrodes, which are hair clips that enable neurotechnology to work more efficiently on African American hair types. “This led us to a collaboration at [UPMC Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh] with patients that have epilepsy and actually solve a very important problem for clinicians,” said Wood.
A group studying deep-brain stimulation, led by Aryn Gittis, professor of biological sciences, Carnegie Mellon; Jorge A. González-Martínez, Dr. Stuart Niles Rowe Professor of Neurological Surgery and vice chair of neurological surgery; and Elvira Pirondini, assistant professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, School of Medicine, then presented their research. Gittis works on the development of novel approaches to improve the efficacy of deep-brain stimulation, while Gonzalez-Martinez and Pirondini work together on using precision deep-brain stimulation to promote recovery of voluntary movement following damage to motor pathways in the brain and seizure control.
Their research shows promising results for the treatment of strokes and traumatic brain injuries.
Fisher and PhD students Manuel Duran and Matteo Del Brocco demonstrated their research centered around spinal cord stimulation. They are using spinal cord implants to restore sensory feedback in three patients who had lower limb amputations.
Their study is not only linked to improved gait and balance for participants but a reduction in phantom pain as well.
The tour concluded at the Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Lab, where a group led by Collinger; Douglas Weber, Afzaal Akhtar and Sarah Bhutta Professor, Carnegie Mellon; Michael Boninger, Distinguished Professor of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation; and David Lacomis, professor of neurology, School of Medicine, discussed two projects funded by the BRAIN Initiative.
The project led by Weber and Lacomis is the first intracranial BCI that doesn’t require skull surgery. “We can go in through the jugular vein and deliver sensors that are positioned right adjacent to the motor cortex, so we get rich signals that are very stable,” Weber said.
It is currently being tested in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) with the goal of preserving their ability to communicate. “This is crucial for our patients for quality of life, to restore motor function to a certain degree with digital devices and potentially monitor healthy communication in real time,” Lacomis added.
The second project is an intracortical BCI designed to restore upper limb function in three patients with paralysis. Microelectrode arrays have been surgically implanted into the motor cortex of each study participant. These microelectrodes allow researchers to record participant brain activity and determine what they are trying to do, ultimately enabling participants to control a robotic arm. Microelectrodes implanted in the somatosensory cortex can restore a sense of touch.
Researchers are also studying a portable Gemini system that enables BCI participants to use their devices at home, outside of a lab environment.