Browsing by Author "McDowell, Kaleb"

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Biosensor Technologies for Augmented Brain-Computer Interfaces in the Next Decades
(2012-05-01)
Liao, Lun-De
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Lin, Chin-Teng
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McDowell, Kaleb
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Wickenden, Alma E.
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Gramann, Klaus
The study of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) has undergone 30 years of intense development and has grown into a rich and diverse field. BCIs are technologies that enable direct communication between the human brain and external devices. Conventionally, wet electrodes have been employed to obtain unprecedented sensitivity to high-temporal-resolution brain activity; recently, the growing availability of various sensors that can be used to detect high-quality brain signals in a wide range of clinical and everyday environments is being exploited. This development of biosensing neurotechnologies and the desire to implement them in real-world applications have led to the opportunity to develop augmented BCIs (ABCIs) in the upcoming decades. An ABCI is similar to a BCI in that it relies on biosensors that record signals from the brain in everyday environments; the signals are then processed in real time to monitor the behavior of the human. To use an ABCI as a mobile brain imaging technique for everyday, real-life applications, the sensors and the corresponding device must be lightweight and the equipment response time must be short. This study presents an overview of the wide range of biosensor approaches currently being applied to ABCIs, from their use in the laboratory to their application in clinical and everyday use. The basic principles of each technique are described along with examples of current applications of cutting-edge neuroscience research. In summary, we show that ABCI techniques continue to grow and evolve, incorporating new technologies and advances to address ever more complex and important neuroscience issues, with advancements that are envisioned to lead to a wide range of real-life applications.
Mind-Wandering Tends to Occur under Low Perceptual Demands during Driving
(2016-02-17)
Lin, Chin-Teng
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Chuang, Chun-Hsiang
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Kerick, Scott
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Mullen, Tim
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Jung, Tzyy-Ping
Fluctuations in attention behind the wheel poses a significant risk for driver safety. During transient periods of inattention, drivers may shift their attention towards internally-directed thoughts or feelings at the expense of staying focused on the road. This study examined whether increasing task difficulty by manipulating involved sensory modalities as the driver detected the lane-departure in a simulated driving task would promote a shift of brain activity between different modes of processing, reflected by brain network dynamics on electroencephalographic sources. Results showed that depriving the driver of salient sensory information imposes a relatively more perceptually-demanding task, leading to a stronger activation in the task-positive network. When the vehicle motion feedback is available, the drivers may rely on vehicle motion to perceive the perturbations, which frees attentional capacity and tends to activate the default mode network. Such brain network dynamics could have major implications for understanding fluctuations in driver attention and designing advance driver assistance systems.
Prolog to the Section on Neurotechnological Systems: The Brain-Computer Interface
(2012-05-01)
Lin, Chin-Teng
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McDowell, Kaleb
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資訊工程學系
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電機學院
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腦科學研究中心
Real-World Neuroimaging Technologies
(2013-01-01)
McDowell, Kaleb
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Lin, Chin-Teng
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Oie, Kelvin S.
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Jung, Tzyy-Ping
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Gordon, Stephen
Decades of heavy investment in laboratory-based brain imaging and neuroscience have led to foundational insights into how humans sense, perceive, and interact with the external world. However, it is argued that fundamental differences between laboratory-based and naturalistic human behavior may exist. Thus, it remains unclear how well the current knowledge of human brain function translates into the highly dynamic real world. While some demonstrated successes in real-world neurotechnologies are observed, particularly in the area of brain-computer interaction technologies, innovations and developments to date are limited to a small science and technology community. We posit that advancements in real world neuroimaging tools for use by a broad-based workforce will dramatically enhance neurotechnology applications that have the potential to radically alter human system interactions across all aspects of everyday life. We discuss the efforts of a joint government-academic-industry team to take an integrative, interdisciplinary, and multi-aspect approach to translate current technologies into devices that are truly fieldable across a range of environments. Results from initial work, described here, show promise for dramatic advances in the field that will rapidly enhance our ability to assess brain activity in real-world scenarios.