Probability Distributions.- Linear Models for Regression.- Linear Models for Classification.- Neural Networks.- Kernel Methods.- Sparse Kernel Machines.- Graphical Models.- Mixture Models and EM.- Approximate Inference.- Sampling Methods.- Continuous Latent Variables.- Sequential Data.- Combining Models.

Pattern Recognition and Machine Learning

Co-Planar Stereotaxic Atlas of the Human Brain—3-Dimensional Proportional System: An Approach to Cerebral Imaging, J. Talairach, P. Tournoux. Georg Thieme Verlag, New York (1988), 122 pp., 130 figs. DM 268

I have developed "tennis elbow" from lugging this book around the past four weeks, but it is worth the pain, the effort, and the aspirin. It is also worth the (relatively speaking) bargain price. Including appendixes, this book contains 894 pages of text. The entire panorama of the neural sciences is surveyed and examined, and it is comprehensive in its scope, from genomes to social behaviors. The editors explicitly state that the book is designed as "an introductory text for students of biology, behavior, and medicine," but it is hard to imagine any audience, interested in any fragment of neuroscience at any level of sophistication, that would not enjoy this book. The editors have done a masterful job of weaving together the biologic, the behavioral, and the clinical sciences into a single tapestry in which everyone from the molecular biologist to the practicing psychiatrist can find and appreciate his or

Principles of Neural Science

Neuromotor prostheses (NMPs) aim to replace or restore lost motor functions in paralysed humans by routeing movement-related signals from the brain, around damaged parts of the nervous system, to external effectors. To translate preclinical results from intact animals to a clinically useful NMP, movement signals must persist in cortex after spinal cord injury and be engaged by movement intent when sensory inputs and limb movement are long absent. Furthermore, NMPs would require that intention-driven neuronal activity be converted into a control signal that enables useful tasks. Here we show initial results for a tetraplegic human (MN) using a pilot NMP. Neuronal ensemble activity recorded through a 96-microelectrode array implanted in primary motor cortex demonstrated that intended hand motion modulates cortical spiking patterns three years after spinal cord injury. Decoders were created, providing a ‘neural cursor’ with which MN opened simulated e-mail and operated devices such as a television, even while conversing. Furthermore, MN used neural control to open and close a prosthetic hand, and perform rudimentary actions with a multi-jointed robotic arm. These early results suggest that NMPs based upon intracortical neuronal ensemble spiking activity could provide a valuable new neurotechnology to restore independence for humans with paralysis. The cover shows Matt Nagle, first participant in the BrainGate pilot clinical trial. He is unable to move his arms or legs following cervical spinal cord injury. Researchers at the Department of Neuroscience at Brown University, working with biotech company Cyberkinetics and 3 other institutions, demonstrate that movement-related signals can be relayed from the brain via an implanted BrainGate chip, allowing the patient to drive a computer screen cursor and activate simple robotic devices. Such neuromotor prostheses could pave the way towards systems to replace or restore lost motor function in paralysed humans. Prior to this advance, this type of work has been performed chiefly in monkeys. The latest example of such research has achieved a large increase in speed over current devices, enhancing the prospects for clinically viable brain-machine interfaces.

Neuronal ensemble control of prosthetic devices by a human with tetraplegia

Over the past 20 years, neuroimaging has become a predominant technique in systems neuroscience. One might envisage that over the next 20 years the neuroimaging of distributed processing and connectivity will play a major role in disclosing the brain's functional architecture and operational principles. The inception of this journal has been foreshadowed by an ever-increasing number of publications on functional connectivity, causal modeling, connectomics, and multivariate analyses of distributed patterns of brain responses. I accepted the invitation to write this review with great pleasure and hope to celebrate and critique the achievements to date, while addressing the challenges ahead.

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Functional and effective connectivity: a review.

Towards a novel control paradigm based on decoding imagined movements from EEG

A Novel Approach to Auditory EEG-Based Spelling

Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Systems

On the removal of physiological artifacts from fNIRS

Applications for (hybrid) brain-computer interfaces ((h)BCIs) are usually custom-made and adapted to compensate for the low information transfer rates achieved by such devices. Users are consequently not enabled to operate off-the-shelf software applications. Here, we introduce a general-purpose application control framework that allows (i) flexible and easy mapping of (h)BCI outputs to keyboard and mouse inputs and (ii) creating customized graphical user interfaces (GUI) and overlay elements for providing essential visual feedback. We demonstrate the validity of the framework by interfacing the popular puzzle-platform video game Portal2 (Valve Corporation) and a hBCI consisting of 3-class SSVEP and 7-class electromyogram-based (EMG) hand movement detection.

Gernot Müller-Putz

Papers

Towards a novel control paradigm based on decoding imagined movements from EEG

A Novel Approach to Auditory EEG-Based Spelling

Using Near-Infrared Spectroscopy (NIRS) for Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) Systems

On the removal of physiological artifacts from fNIRS

BCI-based Operation of Off-the-Shelf Software Applications: Towards a General-Purpose Application Control Framework