Connectionists: 1st Bernstein Sparks Workshop on Cortical Neurointerfaces (March 6 - 10, 2013)

[David Rotermund]

Dear colleagues,

wewould like to draw your attention to the 1st Bernstein Sparks Workshop 
on Cortical Neurointerfaces (March 6 - 10, 2013 in Northern Germany 
(close to Bremen).

The Organisers were able to win speakers from all relevant disciplines, 
viz.:

Barrese, James (Brown University, USA)
Bellamkonda, Ravi (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Gohvanloo, Maysam (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Harrison, Reid (Intan Technologies, USA)
Hierlemann, Andreas (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Kipke, Daryl (University of Michigan, USA)
Knöpfel, Thomas (Riken, Japan)
Lang, Walter (University of Bremen, Germany)
Logothetis, Nikos (BCCN Tübingen, MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Germany)
Manoli, Yiannos (University of Freiburg, Germany)
Nurmikko, Arto (Brown University, USA)
Ortmanns, Maurits (University of Ulm, Germany)
Rabaey, Jan (UC Berkeley, USA)
Schalk, Gerwin (Wadsworth Center, USA)
Scherberger, Hansjörg (German Primate Center and University of
Göttingen, Germany)
Schwartz, Andrew (University of Pittsburg, USA)
Schwarz, Cornelius (Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research,
BCCN Tübingen, D-USA Collaboration, Germany)
Solzbacher, Florian (University of Utah, USA)
Stieglitz, Thomas (University and BCF Freiburg, Germany)
Tass, Peter (Research Center Jülich, Germany)
Thewes, Roland (TU Berlin, Germany)
Trieu, Khiem-Hoc (Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany)
Walker, Ross (Stanford University, USA)

For more information please visit
http://www.nncn.de/termine-en/corticalneurointerfaces .

Topic of the workshop:


Interfaces that reliably connect the brain with electronic devices hold 
huge promises for basic research and medical applications. While there
is encouraging progress current technologies are still far from 
realising the vision of chronically and simultaneously connecting to
large numbers of individual neurons enabling either direction of 
information flow.

On the one hand this would e.g. allow to carefully monitor cortical 
activity leading to progress in understanding brain functions and laying
ground for long term neuroprosthetic applications. On the other hand, 
the ability to selectively induce specific neuronal activities will
reveal yet unknown neuronal processes and can e.g. help to re-establish 
lost sensory inputs. To reach these objectives, numerous challenges,
ranging from cutting edge basic research in neuroscience to novel 
technological developments from diverse engineering fields, have to be
met. Besides basic problems of recording and stimulation, also problems 
ranging from biocompability via microelectronics to fluid-proof and
flexible structures have to be solved. Last but not least, also the 
development of neuroprosthetic devices, e.g., replacing lost body
functions, poses challenges for data analysis and robotics.

The aim of this meeting will be to bring together leading researchers 
from these disciplines and research fields, gain an overview over most
recent developments, enable fruitful exchanges and discussions and, last 
but not least identify interesting new directions of research. The
specific topics to be covered include the neuroscientific foundations, 
neuro-electronic interfaces,  integrated circuits for neural interfaces
and complete recording and stimulation systems. Besides talks by these 
main speakers, there will be plenty of time for discussions and poster
demonstrations.

Please find the preliminary program here:
http://www.nncn.uni-freiburg.de/pdfs/sparksworkshopprogram

Best regards

David Rotermund


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