Description
The Neurorehabilitation and Brain Research Group has multiple resources, some of them framed within the research microcluster of Presence and Mixed Reality (Virtual and Augmented) oriented to Human Being of the Institute for Human-Centered Technology Research, funded by the campus of excellence VLC/CAMPUS. All the available resources allow for, through immersive and multimedia technologies, the controlled stimulation of individuals and, through physiological and behavioral recording systems, the collection of information on their voluntary and involuntary responses.
Stimulation
Transcranial direct current stimulation
Transcranial direct current stimulation delivers constant low electric currents to the brain area of interest through electrodes on the scalp. The StarStim (Neuroelectrics, Barcelona, Spain) is a wireless hybrid EEG/tDCS 8-channel neurostimulator that includes a comfortable neoprene headcap with 39 positions based on the 10-10 system where the electrodes can be inserted.
Transcranial magnetic stimulation
Transcranial magnetic stimulation induces electric currents at a specific area of the brain through electromagnetic induction. The Magstim Rapid² (Magstim, Eden Prairie, MN, USA), equipped with a D70 Alpha Flat Coil, is capable of high-frequency repetitive protocols for both cortical and peripheral stimulation.
Head mounted displays
Different head mounted displays are available for augmented, mixed, and virtual reality applications. Available devices for virtual reality applications include several Meta Quest 3 (Meta, Menlo Park, CA, USA) and HTC Vive Pro Eye (HTC, New Taipei, Taiwan), and the Varjo XR-3 (Varjo, Helsinki, Finland).
Neuroimaging, neurophysiological and physiological sensing, and motion capture
Electroencephalography
Electroencephalography records the electrical activity of the brain through electrodes that are fixed to the scalp. Different solutions can be used depending on the experimental conditions. The LiveAmp system (BrainVision, Morrisville, USA) with actiCAP electrodes is a 32-channel ambulatory and stationary system for physiological research that allows to retrieve data from active electrodes. The StarStim allows to retrieve data from 8 channels wirelessly in hybrid configurations of transcraneal direct current stimulation.
Functional near infrared spectroscopy
Functional near infrared spectroscopy is a neuroimaging technique based on near-infrared spectroscopy that allows for estimating the cortical hemodynamic activity which is expected to occur in response to neural activity. The NIRSport2 (NIRx Medizintechnik, Berlin, Germany) includes 8 sources with high powered dual LEDs with 32mW maximum illumination, and 8 detectors that allows for 20-channel settings. The Brite24 system (Artinis Medical Systems, Gelderland, The Netherlands) stores and wirelessly transmits up to 27 channels of fNIRS signals from any region of the scalp.
Eye tracking
Eye tracking technology estimates where individuals direct their eyes along time. These data can provide information about attention, information processing, presence, focus, drowsiness, consciousness, or other mental states. Eye tracking information can be retrieved using different devices. The Tobii TX30 (Tobii Technology AB, Danderyd, Sweden) collects gaze data at 300 Hz yet allows large head movements, thus enabling the study of saccades, correction saccades, fixations, pupil size changes, and blinks. Other portable solutions are also available for different setups, as the HTC Vive Pro Eye (HTC, New Taipei, Taiwan) or the high-performance SMI Eye Tracking Glasses 2 (SensoMotoric Instruments GmbH, Teltow, Germany), which enables registering the gaze behaviour in real-time in a broad range of daily life applications.
Other physiological responses
Electrocardiography, electrodermal activity, surface electromyography, respiration, and other physiological responses can be registered using dedicated and multipurpose devices, such as the Wings (NIRx Medizintechnik, Berlin, Germany) or the TMSi Refa (Twente Medical Systems International B.V., Oldenzaal, Netherlands).
Motion capture
Motion capture allows for recording the movement of objects or people in 3D, usually from overlapped images registered from multiple cameras that are spread in a dedicated room. A 12x6 m full motion capture and analysis laboratory equipped with 24 OptiTrack Prime14 and 4 OptiTrack Prime17w cameras (NaturalPoint, Corvallis, Oregon, USA), and face tracking, is available for human motion analysis and multiperson virtual reality experiences.
Data and signal processing
Machine learning and deep learning
Machine learning and deep learning are of artificial intelligence that are capable of building models based on sample data in order to make predictions, classifications or decisions without being explicitly programmed to do so, which is specially interesting in those cases where human programming is unaffordable or unachievable. Servers dedicated to CPU-intensive and GPU-intensive tasks are available. The server dedicated to CPU-intensive tasks features 2 Intel Xeon @ 2.20GHz Skylake-E/EP with a total of 96 cores, 2 NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 with 24 GB of RAM each, and 512 GB of RAM. The server dedicated to GPU-intensive tasks features an Intel Core i9 10920X @ 3.50GHz Cascade Lake-X with a total of 24 cores, 4 NVIDIA Quadro RTX 6000 with 24 GB of RAM each, and 128 GB of RAM.