Thesis Project Form

Body-Machine interfaces (BoMIs) allow individuals with disabilities to interact with the environment by providing novel ways to coordinate residual mobility. It is still unclear what the neural correlates of the movement reorganization mediated by BoMIs are and to which extent BoMIs can be also used to actually retrain and potentiate specific muscles in individuals with cervical spinal cord injury.

The study aims at investigating the effect of motor skill learning mediated by a Body-machine interface on the excitability of corticospinal pathways to the muscle/muscle groups involved in controlling the interface. The study at this stage will involve participants with no history of motor impairment. In particular, the proposed project will look into:

Aim 1: developing techniques for high-dimensional EMG signal visualization in quasi-real time with the objective of monitoring motor evoked potentials from a grid of electrodes during Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation.

Aim 2: developing, implementing and administering a training protocol for targeting specific muscles in the operation of the Body-Machine Interface to individuals with no neurological impairment with direct application to individuals with injury to the spinal cord or stroke.

The student will confront with engineering problems such as: i) collection, processing, and analysis of electromyographic data from voluntary and evoked muscle activity and movement data from inertial measurement unit sensors, ii) development and implementation of a human-machine interface for controlling external devices using signals from the body, iii) implementation of GUIs for on-line visualization of EMG signals.
The student will also receive human subjects ethical training.