[Comp-neuro] 1st Bernstein Sparks Workshop on Cortical Neurointerfaces (March 6 - 10, 2013)

Dear colleagues,

we would like to draw your attention to the 1st Bernstein Sparks Workshop on Cortical Neurointerfaces (March 6 - 10, 2013 in Northern Germany (close to Bremen).

The Organisers were able to win speakers from all relevant disciplines, viz.:

Barrese, James (Brown University, USA)
Bellamkonda, Ravi (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Gohvanloo, Maysam (Georgia Institute of Technology, USA)
Harrison, Reid (Intan Technologies, USA)
Hierlemann, Andreas (ETH Zürich, Switzerland)
Kipke, Daryl (University of Michigan, USA)
Knöpfel, Thomas (Riken, Japan)
Lang, Walter (University of Bremen, Germany)
Logothetis, Nikos (BCCN Tübingen, MPI for Biological Cybernetics, Germany)
Manoli, Yiannos (University of Freiburg, Germany)
Nurmikko, Arto (Brown University, USA)
Ortmanns, Maurits (University of Ulm, Germany)
Rabaey, Jan (UC Berkeley, USA)
Schalk, Gerwin (Wadsworth Center, USA)
Scherberger, Hansjörg (German Primate Center and University of
Göttingen, Germany)
Schwartz, Andrew (University of Pittsburg, USA)
Schwarz, Cornelius (Hertie Institute for Clinical Brain Research,
BCCN Tübingen, D-USA Collaboration, Germany)
Solzbacher, Florian (University of Utah, USA)
Stieglitz, Thomas (University and BCF Freiburg, Germany)
Tass, Peter (Research Center Jülich, Germany)
Thewes, Roland (TU Berlin, Germany)
Trieu, Khiem-Hoc (Technical University Hamburg-Harburg, Germany)
Walker, Ross (Stanford University, USA)

For more information please visit
http://www.nncn.de/termine-en/corticalneurointerfaces .

Topic of the workshop:

Interfaces that reliably connect the brain with electronic devices hold huge promises for basic research and medical applications. While there
is encouraging progress current technologies are still far from realising the vision of chronically and simultaneously connecting to
large numbers of individual neurons enabling either direction of information flow.

On the one hand this would e.g. allow to carefully monitor cortical activity leading to progress in understanding brain functions and laying
ground for long term neuroprosthetic applications. On the other hand, the ability to selectively induce specific neuronal activities will
reveal yet unknown neuronal processes and can e.g. help to re-establish lost sensory inputs. To reach these objectives, numerous challenges,
ranging from cutting edge basic research in neuroscience to novel technological developments from diverse engineering fields, have to be
met. Besides basic problems of recording and stimulation, also problems ranging from biocompability via microelectronics to fluid-proof and
flexible structures have to be solved. Last but not least, also the development of neuroprosthetic devices, e.g., replacing lost body
functions, poses challenges for data analysis and robotics.

The aim of this meeting will be to bring together leading researchers from these disciplines and research fields, gain an overview over most
recent developments, enable fruitful exchanges and discussions and, last but not least identify interesting new directions of research. The
specific topics to be covered include the neuroscientific foundations, neuro-electronic interfaces,  integrated circuits for neural interfaces
and complete recording and stimulation systems. Besides talks by these main speakers, there will be plenty of time for discussions and poster
demonstrations.

Please find the preliminary program here:
http://www.nncn.uni-freiburg.de/pdfs/sparksworkshopprogram

Best regards

David Rotermund