Seminars hosted by the Rehabilitation Engineering Lab

Upcoming Seminars

Dissecting the Compensatory Mechanism after Partial Spinal Cord Injury
Prof. Tadashi Isa, M.D. Ph.D.
National Institute for Physiological Sciences, Okazaki, JAPAN
Tuesday, November 27, 2012, 13h15–14h15
ETH Zentrum, HG E 23, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zurich

Abstract
It is generally accepted that the direct pathway from the motor cortex to the spinal motor neurons (direct cortico-motoneuronal (CM) connection) is the basis of fractionated digit movements in higher primates. Such concept is largely derived from the evolution of the CM pathway and finger dexterity, and observation of hand movements in non-human primates with pyramidotomy or patients with brain infarction. However, in addition to the direct CM pathway, there are several indirect routes, such as those mediated by reticulospinal neurons and spinal interneurons. Especially, when the corticospinal tract is lesioned at the lower cervical level (C5), the fractionated finger movements were found to exhibit marked recovery in macaque monkeys. Applying various experimental techniques such as brain imaging and reversible inactivation to this animal model, we have studied the neural mechanism of functional recovery following the partial spinal cord injury. We found that propriospinal neurons (PNs) in the mid-cervical segments are responsible for the recovery at the spinal level, and different cortical regions are involved at different recovery stages. Furthermore, we also found that the ventral striatum modulates the recovery process through the cooperation with the motor cortex. On the other hand, we assessed the normal function of the PNs by using a novel pathway-selective and reversible blocking with double virus vectors in intact non-human primates. This technique is expected to dissect the neural mechanisms responsible for the compensatory process in future studies.

References:
Nishimura et al. (2007) Science 318:1150-1155.
Nishimura et al,. (2011) PLoS ONE 6: e24854
Kinoshita et al. (2012) Nature 487: 235-238
Alstermark and Isa (2012) Ann Rev Neurosci 35:559-578.

Sensori-motor learning and motion perception in virtual environments
Prof. Jean-Pierre Bresciani
University of Fribourg
Tuesday, December 11, 2012
TBA

Past Seminars

When the skin sings the body dances: tactile proprioception
and implications for haptic devices
Prof. Bernard Martin
University of Michigan, Department of Industrial and Operation Engineering
Wednesday, November 14, 2012, 10h15–11h15
HG G 26.1, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich

Re-engineering the Brain for Recovery of Motor Function
Prof. Theodore E. Milner
McGill University
Friday, June 8, 2012, 14h15–15h15
CLA E 4, Tannenstrasse 3, 8092 Zürich

Multi-level representations of dexterous manipulation: digits, objects, and tasks
Prof. Marco Santello
Arizona State University, School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering
Monday, December 19, 2011, 16h15–17h15
CLA E 4, Tannenstrasse 3, 8092 Zürich

Surface Haptics: Virtual Touch on Physical Surfaces
Prof. Ed Colgate
Northwestern University
Friday, October 21, 2011, 15h15–16h15
ML E 12, Sonneggstrasse 3, 8092 Zürich

A functional threshold in stroke recovery
Prof. Nicolas Schweighofer
University of Southern California
Tuesday, June 7, 2011, 16h15–17h15
HG F 26.3, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich

World's most advanced 21 DOF robotic arm and hand:
The DARPA Revolutionizing Prosthetics 2009 program delivers the Modular Prosthetic Limb
Eric L. Faulring, Ph.D.
Kinea Design, LLC (Evanston, IL, USA)
Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 10h30-11h30
HG F 26.1, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich

Restoration of Haptic Sensation for Upper Extremity Prostheses
Keehoon Kim, Ph.D.
Korea Institute of Science and Technology
Monday, May 23, 2011, 10h30-11h30
HG F26.3, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich

Neuroimaging of plasticity and recovery
Nick Ward, Ph.D.
Clinical Senior Lecturer and Honorary Consultant Neurologist, Institute of Neurology, National Hospital for Neurology and Neurosurgery, University College, London
Tuesday, May 03, 2011, 17h00-18h00
Personalrestaurant, Balgrist University Hospital, Zürich

"Where am I?": Robotics/fMRI joint approach to study subjectivity
Silvio Ionta, Ph.D.
Laboratory of Cognitive Neuroscience (LNCO), EPFL, Lausanne
Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 16h15 -17h00
HG F 26.1, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich

Interactive and self-adaptive mechanisms: exploring the hardly possible
Prof. Just Herder
Part-time full professor at the University of Twente and part-time associate professor at Delft University of Technology
Tuesday, October 12, 2010, 14h15 -15h15
HG F 33.5, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich

From Image Guided Surgery to Sensor Guided Surgery; Technical Innovations
Kiyoyuki Chinzei, Ph.D.
Leader, Surgical Assist Technology Group, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Japan
Monday, June 21, 2010, 14h15–15h15
ML E 13, Sonneggstr. 3, 8092 Zürich

Physically and perceptually based haptics
Prof. Vincent Hayward
Institut des Systèmes Intelligents et de Robotique, Université Pierre et Marie Curie, Paris
Thursday, November 12, 2009, 14h00
HG E 5, Rämistrasse 101, 8092 Zürich

Human-centered robotics, medical robotics and welfare technology at the Nagoya Inst. of Technology
Profs. Hideo Fujimoto, Naoyuki Takesue, Jumpei Arata and Yoshihiro Tanaka
Nagoya Institute of Technology, Japan
Thursday, September 24, 2009, 11h15
CLA E4, Tannenstrasse 3, 8092 Zürich

New Actuators for Advanced Mechatronics
Prof. Toshiro Higuchi
Dept. of Precision Machinery Engineering, The University of Tokyo, Japan
Wednesday, August 12, 2009, 11h00
CLA J1, Tannenstrasse 3, 8092 Zürich