Research Project
10239067
NCAN Training & Dissemination focuses on enabling the widespread use of new neurotechnologies for important purposes and improving the training of scientists, engineers, and clinicians to develop and use them. While many exciting neurotechnologies have been developed and validated in the lab, few have been translated to clinical practice, largely due to the lack of an appropriate environment, or ecosystem. An effective neurotechnology ecosystem requires: people who understand the principles of the technology and are skilled in its use; access to robust, compatible, and supported hardware and software; and mechanisms that support effective interactions among the scientists, engineers, and clinicians involved. Over the past 20 years, Wadsworth staff created such an ecosystem for BCI2000, a general-purpose software platform that facilitates neurotechnology research and development. NCAN Training and Dissemination activities are building on this experience to create a much more comprehensive ecosystem for a wide range of adaptive neurotechnologies. To train scientists, engineers, and clinicians in the theory and practice of adaptive neurotechnologies in the next grant period, NCAN will: (a) update and expand its comprehensive curriculum by incorporating the new theoretical understanding about CNS plasticity conceived in the NCAN's ?rst grant period and practical aspects of the design and use of the neurotechnologies developed through each TR&D's collaborative projects; (b) design and conduct courses and workshops based on this updated curriculum, including the comprehensive Short Course in Adaptive Neurotechnologies, ECoG and BCI2000 workshops, and new ?ve-day Focus Courses in EEG-based BCIs and spinal re?ex conditioning methodologies; (c) expand the undergraduate and graduate intramural training programs; and (d) obtain continual feedback on these training activities and use it to improve them. To disseminate knowledge of and access to adaptive neurotechnologies to scientists, engineers and clinicians, NCAN will: (a) develop topic-speci?c Mini-Courses that will allow other institutions to create or supplement their own curricula with material on adaptive neurotechnologies; (b) update and expand its dissemination channels, including the NCAN and BCI2000 websites and newsletters, NCAN exhibits at relevant meetings, and NCAN's online BCI article database; and (c) evaluate the ef?cacy of these dissemination activities through periodic quantitative assessments (e.g., website use, research and clinical studies published) and modify them in response to this feedback. In summary, NCAN will continue and enhance training and dissemination activities that create and maintain an ecosystem of people, knowledge, and technology that enables and promotes the widespread use of adaptive technologies by scientists, engineers, and clinicians to address important scienti?c and clinical problems.
