While reading, correcting and enjoying the essay of Jose Manuel Rosas Escobar, I stumbled on a quote from Michael Merzenich, which I think you should read and comtemplate on.
So here goes…
“The success with any complicated prosthetic device relates as much to how the brain adjusts to it, accepts it and controls its use as it does to the device itself. If we can figure out how to engage the brain to do its part, it can make a merely adequate neural prosthetic device work marvelously.”
Wouter
Biomedical Electronics Group anno 2013
Today we made a new group picture. And thus we proudly present:
The Biomedical Electronics group anno 2013. From left to right:
Wu Chi Wing, Yao Liu, Duan Zhao, Menno Vastenholt, Sophinese Iskander-Rizk, Cees-Jeroen Bes, Alexandra-Maria Tautan, Lucho Gutierrez, Wouter Serdijn, Horacio Jimenez, Marijn van Dongen, Matthijs Weskin, Senad Hiseni, Joeri Willemse, Mark Stoopman, Yongjia Li, Andre Mansano, Wannaya Ngamkham.
Not on the photo: Sumit Bagga, Robin van Eijk, Marcel van der Horst, Marion de Vlieger, Chutham Sawigun, Sander Fondse, Joeri Biesbroek
Picture taken March 6, 2013.
Posted in General
Baron von Munchausen
Today, I received a link (http://tweakers.net/nieuws/85353/hartslag-kan-pacemaker-van-stroom-voorzien.html) from Marijn, honorary member of the Biomedical Electronics Group, in which it is mentioned that researchers have found a way to harvest enough energy from a piezo-electric transducer so that a cardiac pacemaker can be powered from the heart itself. This would render the bulky batteries in the pacemakers unnecessary and the pacemaker thus does not have to be replaced after a couple of years because of a depleted battery.
I have two concerns about this. First, there is a kind of “Baron-von-Munchausen” effect. Baron von Munchausen was an 18th-century German nobleman, who, according to Rudolf Erich Raspe’s story The Surprising Adventures of Baron Munchausen, pulls himself out of a swamp by his hair (specifically, his pigtail). Now, let’s suppose that a pacemaker, equipped with a piezo-electric energy harvester to power the pacemaker, for no particular reason, fails to operate and the heart stops its precious beating, what will then power up the pacemaker again to make the beat again? Scary thought, isn’t it?
Second concern is of another nature. Pacemakers are usually replaced, not because the battery has depleted, but simply because a next generation pacemaker can provide a better therapy to the patient. As a side note, uncomfortable but true, current pacemakers (and thus also the batteries included therein) on average live longer than their owners. Hopefully this latter aspect will change for the better soon.
Wouter
Posted in Energy Harvesting, General, Pacemakers
Animal research has shown that loss of normal acoustic stimulation can increase spontaneous firing in the central auditory system and induce cortical map plasticity. Enriched acoustic environment after noise trauma prevents map plasticity and abolishes neural signs of tinnitus. In humans, the tinnitus spectrum overlaps with the area of hearing loss. Based on these findings it can be hypothesized that stimulating the auditory system by presenting music compensating specifically for the hearing loss might also suppress chronic tinnitus. To verify this hypothesis, a study was conducted in three groups of tinnitus patients. One group listened just to unmodified music (i.e. active control group), one group listened to music spectrally tailored to compensate for their hearing loss, and a third group received music tailored to overcompensate for their hearing loss, associated with one (in presbycusis) or two notches (in audiometric dip) at the edge of hearing loss. Our data indicate that applying overcompensation to the hearing loss worsens the patients’ tinnitus loudness, the tinnitus annoyance and their depressive feelings.
No significant effects were obtained for the control group or for the compensation group. These clinical findings were associated with an increase in current density within the left dorsal anterior cingulate cortex in the alpha2 frequency band and within the left pregenual anterior cingulate cortex in beta1 and beta2 frequency band. In addition, a region of interest analysis also demonstrated an associated increase in gamma band activity in the auditory cortex after overcompensation in comparison to baseline measurements. This was, however, not the case for the control or the compensation groups. In conclusion, music therapy compensating for hearing loss is not beneficial in suppressing tinnitus, and overcompensating hearing loss actually worsens tinnitus, both clinically and electrophysiologically.
2012 Published by Elsevier B.V, in Hearing Research, Hear Res. 2012 Oct 23. pii: S0378-5955(12)00244-4. doi: 10.1016/j.heares.2012.10.003. Authors: Vanneste S, van Dongen M, De Vree B, Hiseni S, van der Velden E, Strydis C, Kathleen J, Norena A, Serdijn W, De Ridder D
Posted in General, Music, Understanding the Brain
Article from De Volkskrant, dd. Oct. 27, 2012, entitled “Paralyzed walks again”
Eddy was damn right when after the disk in his spinal cord was removed by the neurosurgeon and he lost almost all the feeling in one of his legs due to the acute hernia. By means of transcutaneous stimulation of his foot and leg he was able to regain feeling and control over his muscles and walk again. The method was not proven scientifically yet, but obviously worked, as we witnessed from closeby. Now the scientific proof is there.
Exciting times ahead, if you ask me.
Wouter
Wouter
Posted in Education, Electronics, General
Dear readers of and contributors to the Biomedical Electronics weblog: we have now migrated to WordPress. This rather smooth handover has been completed yesterday and has resulted in a new look, but most importantly, a better user interface. Please try it out for yourself! I look forward to seeing your fine contributions coming in. Also if you have suggestions for the look and feel of the weblog, please do not hesitate to contact me.
As a noteworthy fact, this month one of our contributions reached 10,000+ views.
Best regards,
Wouter
Posted in General
Today it was reported in ‘De Volkskrant’ that doctors of Maastricht University Medical Center have succeeded in, for the first time ever, implanting an artificial balance organ, a vestibular implant, in two patients. A vestibular implant is more or less a cochlear implant that relays information on orientation and accelleration onto the hair cells in the vestibula, the small organ attached to the cochlea that assists in preserving balance. According to Prof. Robert Stokroos of UMCM, the first measurements after the surgery showed positive results. Very important, as far as I understand, will be whether the vestibular implant will allow for perfect integration of the balance information delivered by the implant and the balance perceived by the eyes.
Despite all this, I believe we have exciting times ahead for the application of novel neurostimulating devices.
Wouter
Today, it was announced in the news that the Netherlands is again facing, now for the third time, a case of severe fraud in science. A professor in Consumer Behavior at the Erasmus University Rotterdam has resigned from his duties and two of his articles will be withdrawn from the journals they were published in.
Mark my words. We’re not dealing with intrinsically bad people here and before you raise your fingers at the scapegoats, read this [taken from the Book ‘Drive’ by Daniel H. Pink]: "Goals may cause systematic problems for organizations due to narrowed focus, unethical behavior, increased risk taking, decreased cooperation and decreased intrinsic motivation. Use care when applying goals in your organization."
It makes me wonder to what extent the universities are falling into the pits they digged themselves.
Wouter
Posted in Education, General, Understanding the Brain
In order to present the Biomedical Electronics Group of Delft University of Technology to a couple of companies, it made sense to reveal our mission statement. So here it goes…
The mission of the Biomedical Electronics Group of Delft University of Technology is "to provide the technology for the successful monitoring, diagnosis and treatment of cortical, neural, cardiac and muscular disorders by means of electricity." In order to reach this goal we investigate and design circuits and systems for electrical stimulation, ExG readout, signal specific analog signal processing, power management/conversion, energy harvesting and wireless communication, to be applied in future wearable and implantable medical devices, such as hearing instruments, cardiac pacemakers, cochlear implants and neurostimulators.
So how about that? Reactions are welcome via this blog.
Wouter