Univerity of California, Berkeley logo (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

As a kid growing up in Ahmedabad, Vikram Rao loved spending time with his grandfather, professor Annaswami Ranganath Rao-one of India‘s known mathematicians who pioneered the idea of maths labs in schools across India. It was Rao senior’s idea to create three-dimensional models that would make learning complex mathematical theories fun for kids. The labs have been started in hundreds of schools across the country. And those early years in the company of a bright mind inculcated in the grandson a deep love for academics and research.

National Brain Research Center : NBRC, Gurgaon Invites application for PhD and Integrated PhD Admissions 2012

PROGRAMME ELIGIBILITY
Ph.D. (NEUROSCIENCE)

Master’s degree or equivalent in any branch of Science such as Life Science / Physics/ Chemistry / Mathematics / Statistics / Computer application / Pharmacy / Veterinary Science/ Psychology
OR
A minimum of four-year bachelor’s degree or equivalent in Engineering / Technology / Medicine.

INTEGRATED Ph.D. (NEUROSCIENCE)

Bachelor’s degree or equivalent in any branch of Science such as Life Science / Physics / Chemistry / Mathematics / Statistics / Computer applications / Pharmacy / Veterinary Science / Psychology / Engineering / Technology / Medicine.

11th and 12th February 2012

A dozen years have passed into the new millennium and  we now have the honour of inviting you all to the Annual meet of the Neurological Society of India –Kerala chapter in the year 2012(Neurocon ’12) , to be held in the complacent  city of Lord Sree Padmanabha with all its splendours on Febrary11th & 12th,2012. As you have noticed in the past the Trivandrum NSI conference (Nanons) has always been in the forefront in discussing the technology as well as the problems  that we are going to face in future. This year  we have decided to  name our  rendezvous as The Interface to commemorate the advances in the field of brain machine interface which will aid in overcoming many short comings  of the damaged brain and nerves with the help of a machine or computer to do the job directly.

What are Neurosprosthetics?

Neuroprosthetics (also called Neural Prosthetics) is a discipline related to neuroscience and biomedical engineering concerned with developing neural prostheses, artificial implantable devices to replace or improve the function of an impaired nervous system.Neuroprosthetics are the set of physical devices that interact with the brain or other neural tissue to augment, restore, or otherwise impact function.
Neuroprosthetics are electrical stimulation technologies that replace or assist damaged or malfunctioning neuromuscular organ systems and attempt to restore normal body processes, create or improve function, and/or reduce pain. These systems are either implanted or worn externally on the body. Such assistive devices range from intramuscular stimulation systems designed to limit limb atrophy in paralysis, to implanted bladder voiding systems and more complex implanted neuromuscular control.
The process of transitioning this technology into a clinically useful device will require two parallel paths of research. In the first path, experimental paradigms involving microelectrode array recordings in behaving animals will be developed in conjunction with signal processing techniques for studying the unknown aspects of neural coding and functional neurophysiology. These signal processing techniques will then be implemented in portable, low-power, wireless hardware.The second path, high-density array ECoG recordings in humans, provides a less invasive technique for neural interfaces however it still remains unknown how to extract BMI control signatures that are sufficiently spatially and temporally resolved. Neuroprosthetics is an area of intense scientific and clinical interest and rapid progress. The word’ prosthesis’ is derived from the Greek word for ‘addition’. A breakdown of the word includes ‘pros’ meaning ‘to’, and ‘thesis’, meaning ‘a placing’. Neuroprosthetic are in their infancy just now, but they offer two things that are truly wonderful:
1. Bypassing the body, and letting the mind interface directly with VR, for the ultimate immersive experience – the virtual body becomes as the normal functioning body
2. Augmented body parts will be able to be fitted to the body, and controlled by the brain as if you were born with them – after a little training, without conscious thought.