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Reposted by John Downey

BCI Society @bcisociety.bsky.social · 21d

We’re pleased to welcome Science Corporation, Synchron, and Zander Labs on board as sponsors for this year's SfN Social! Thank you for helping us bring this community together in San Diego.
Opportunities still available: bcisociety.org/bci-social-a...
#BCISocial #SfN2025

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Reposted by John Downey

Mark Iskarous @miskarous.bsky.social · Sep 4

I'm very excited to share the workshop "𝐈𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐁𝐂𝐈𝐬: 𝐓𝐞𝐜𝐡𝐧𝐨𝐥𝐨𝐠𝐢𝐞𝐬, 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐥𝐢𝐜𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐅𝐮𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐃𝐢𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬" which will be on November 11 at the IEEE/EMBS International Conference on Neural Engineering in San Diego!

#IEEE #NER25 #neurotech #BCI #iBCI

NER_2025_iBCI Workshop_Info_250903.pdf

lnkd.in

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Reposted by John Downey

BCI Society @bcisociety.bsky.social · Aug 21

Huge thanks to our generous sponsors — Blackrock Neurotech, Cleveland FES Center, Brain Products / Brain Vision, and CorTec — for supporting the BCI Society’s SfN Social 2025! Your partnership makes this special event possible.
Learn more: bcisociety.org/bci-social-a...
#BCISocial #SfN2025

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Reposted by John Downey

Hunter Schone @hunterschone.bsky.social · Aug 21

Now out in @natneuro.nature.com

What happens to the brain’s body map when a body-part is removed?

Scanning patients before and up to 5 yrs after arm amputation, we discovered the brain’s body map is strikingly preserved despite amputation

www.nature.com/articles/s41593-025-02037-7

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Reposted by John Downey

BCI Society @bcisociety.bsky.social · Aug 19

The BCI Society is excited to introduce a new, discounted membership for BCI users and their family members or caregivers.
See bcisociety.org/membership/ for details.

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Reposted by John Downey

Cortical Bionics Research Group @corticalbionics.bsky.social · Aug 13

The most recent CBRG preprint on intracortical microstimulation is now available! Over 24 combined years across 5 participants, we delivered 168 million!!! pulses of stimulation and recorded everything that happened.

www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1...

Intracortical microstimulation in humans: a decade of safety and efficacy

Background Intracortical microstimulation (ICMS) of somatosensory cortex can restore a sense of touch to people with spinal cord injury (SCI). In this early-feasibility clinical trial, we evaluate the...

www.medrxiv.org

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Reposted by John Downey

Cortical Bionics Research Group @corticalbionics.bsky.social · Jun 9

We had a great time at the @bcisociety.bsky.social meeting in Banff, Canada. We gathered almost all (@hunterschone.bsky.social?) the CBRG attendees (current and former) for the official photo.

@jenpitt.bsky.social @giacomovalle.bsky.social @johndowney.bsky.social @miskarous.bsky.social

The current and former CBRG members who attended the BCI Society Meeting, gathered together in front of a spectacular mountain view.

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Giacomo Valle @giacomovalle.bsky.social · Jun 9

Feeling energized by science, people, and the natural beauty of Canada 🌲✨
#BCI #Neuroscience #Neurotech #NeuralBionicsLab @corticalbionics.bsky.social #Chalmers

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Reposted by John Downey

Cortical Bionics Research Group @corticalbionics.bsky.social · May 7

Here’s our latest publication, from Ceci Verbaarschot and colleagues. In this study, participants controlled their own implanted BCI brain stimulation patterns to create customized sensations.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Conveying tactile object characteristics through customized intracortical microstimulation of the human somatosensory cortex - Nature Communications

In this study, three individuals with tetraplegia designed vivid, reliable and object-appropriate sensations with a variety of tactile characteristics using self-selected stimulus parameters that stim...

www.nature.com

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Reposted by John Downey

Chris Rozell @crozell.bsky.social · Apr 23

Atlanta friends, I want to extend a special invitation to have you join us for a really unique event we're hosting on May 7 called "Wired Lives: Personal Stories of Brain Implants": neuro.gatech.edu/wired-lives-...

Wired Lives: Personal Stories of Brain Implants | Neuro Next Initiative

neuro.gatech.edu

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John Downey @johndowney.bsky.social · Apr 23

I don't think EMG control fits the definition as measuring muscle activation is not "a system that measures brain activity". A standalone sensory prosthetic (like V1 stim for vision) would not fit this definition, which I think is probably controversial, but the BCI Society chose a narrow definition

John Downey @johndowney.bsky.social · Apr 23

I meant controllable by the user. The specific wording is: "a system that measures brain activity and converts it in (nearly) real-time into functionally useful outputs to replace, restore, enhance, supplement, and/or improve the natural outputs of the brain..."

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John Downey @johndowney.bsky.social · Apr 23

The BCI society definition says 'no'. A cochlear implant is definitely an important neural interface, but a BCI must have a controllable output to earn the 'C' in the middle by this definition: bcisociety.org/bci-definiti...

BCI Definition | bcisociety.org

bcisociety.org

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Reposted by John Downey

Ashley Dalrymple @dr-shlee.bsky.social · Mar 17

Are you …Ready for It? In this Era of neurotechnology, we wrote this TIMEly review of the technological and biological failure modes of implanted neural interfaces and how to overcome these challenges, Swiftly published in Bioelectronic Medicine. PS I’m so proud of these figures. rdcu.be/eduek

Implanted neural interfaces throughout the body

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Reposted by John Downey

Giacomo Valle @giacomovalle.bsky.social · Mar 3

@NIH Research Matters featuring our work on #bionic touch in #iBCI @corticalbionics.bsky.social

www.nih.gov/news-events/...

Creating an artificial sense of touch

Tiny electrodes placed precisely in the brain let people with spinal cord injuries feel sensations of shape, motion, and the orientation of objects on the skin.

www.nih.gov

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Reposted by John Downey

Amy Orsborn @neuroamyo.bsky.social · Jan 17

Is our brain infinitely flexible or constrained? Oby & colleagues cleverly uses BCIs to test what cortical activity can/can't be generated quickly. Highly recommend!
www.nature.com/articles/s41...

And you can get a tl;dr + my takes on why this is exciting here: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Dynamical constraints on neural population activity - Nature Neuroscience

Oby, Degenhart, Grigsby and colleagues used a brain–computer interface to challenge monkeys to override their natural time courses of neural activity. They found the time courses to be highly robust, ...

www.nature.com

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Giacomo Valle @giacomovalle.bsky.social · Jan 17

New in @science.org our study "Tactile edges and motion via patterned microstimulation of the human somatosensory cortex". 🦾 🧠 ⚡
science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Interesting related perspective by prof. Paul Marasco science.org/doi/10.1126/...

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Reposted by John Downey

BCI Society @bcisociety.bsky.social · Jan 15

New Deadline: Thursday, January 23, 2025
This extension applies to abstract submissions for individual oral and poster presentations for the upcoming BCI Meeting.

Learn more at bcisociety.org/bci-meeting/...

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Reposted by John Downey

Giacomo Valle @giacomovalle.bsky.social · Jan 10

Our paper examining the #ethical and #technical requirements in clinical trials for implantable neural prostheses is out in #LancetDigitalHealth today.

www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...

Neural Bionics Lab Chalmers University of Technology @corticalbionics.bsky.social #neuroprosthetics

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John Downey @johndowney.bsky.social · Dec 30

This was a big team project, including research and clinical teams at the Universities of Pittsburgh and Chicago. The @corticalbionics.bsky.social BCI study enabled this work, particularly @hunterschone.bsky.social @jenpitt.bsky.social and many others not on bluesky.

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John Downey @johndowney.bsky.social · Dec 30

Using these maps, we placed 2 stimulating electrode arrays in each participants. During subsequent stimulation, 9 out of 10 arrays evoked sensations in fingers that had been mapped to their location before surgery.

Progression for 5 participants from planned implant location to actual implant location to mapping of evoked sensation locations.

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John Downey @johndowney.bsky.social · Dec 30

We used fMRI and MEG to map finger representation of somatosensory cortex in paralyzed participants. The order of the map was consistent across participants, but the exact location on the gyrus was variable.

Functional maps showing finger related activity in somatosensory cortex of 5 BCI study participants, as imaged with fMRI or MEG.

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John Downey @johndowney.bsky.social · Dec 30

Our new publication in Human Brain Mapping is a roadmap to implanting stimulation electrodes to evoke tactile sensations on the fingers of Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) users. We share the plan and results for 5 study participants across a decade at 2 sites.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Progression of implant plan from placement map, to surgical image, to stimulation results.

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Jonathan A. Michaels @jonathanamichaels.bsky.social · Dec 23

Can the motor system use sensory expectations to prepare for unexpected events?

Excited to share my latest work with @andpru.bsky.social – where we establish that sensory expectations shape neural population dynamics in motor circuits!

🧵 and paper below
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Cortical Bionics Research Group @corticalbionics.bsky.social · Dec 19

Marc Schieber has published his insightful thoughts on the below paper and where it fits in the broader efforts towards dexterous neuroprosthetic hands in Nature BME:

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

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