Towards Ubiquitous and Continuous Measurement of the Brain Function

Wednesday, January 24, 2018

4:00 PM-5:30 PM

BIOMED Seminar

Title:
Towards Ubiquitous and Continuous Measurement of the Brain Function
 
Speaker:
Hasan Ayaz, PhD
Associate Research Professor
School of Biomedical Engineering, Science and Health Systems
Drexel University
 
Details:
Significant progress has been made over the last decades in understanding the physiological and neural bases of cognitive processes and behavior. The advent of new and improved brain imaging tools, which allow monitoring brain activity in natural environments, is expected to provide a complementary perspective into the relationship of neurophysiological markers. Functional near infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), which is an emerging brain monitoring technology that relies on optical techniques to detect changes of cortical hemodynamic responses to sensory, motor, or cognitive activation, is an ideal candidate tool. Consistent with the neuroergonomic approach, ultra-portable and wireless fNIRS sensors can allow capturing the brain at work in naturalistic environments during completion of complex tasks.

This presentation will discuss emerging trends for fNIRS applications, from aerospace to medicine, with diverse populations and towards clinical life saving solutions. We will review recent projects, such as mental workload assessment of special operators performing standardized and complex cognitive tasks and development of expertise during practice of complex cognitive and visuomotor tasks (ranging from aircraft piloting and robot control to surgical tool use). Various recent synergistic fNIRS applications for human-human and human-machine interaction will be discussed, including synthetic speech perception, interpersonal neural synchronization, and brain computer interfaces.
 
Biosketch:
Hasan Ayaz, PhD, is an Associate Research Professor of Biomedical Engineering at Drexel University, with adjunct affiliations at the University of Pennsylvania and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and is a member of the Functional Optical Brain Imaging Group of the Cognitive Neuroengineering and Quantitative Experimental Research (CoNQuER) Collaborative.

For over 15 years, Dr. Ayaz has worked on the development and deployment of miniaturized continuous wave near infrared spectroscopy, focusing on brain imaging in natural environments and everyday settings. He has designed and developed enabling tools for brain monitoring instruments that are now utilized routinely for clinical and field research in university and corporate research labs. Dr. Ayaz’s research interests include functional optical neuroimaging and neuroengineering, as well as neuroergonomic applications for clinical and field settings, development, function, and disease.

Contact Information

Ken Barbee
215-895-1335
barbee@drexel.edu