An IAH and ART-AI Seminar
We are pleased to have Dr. Jonathan R Wolpaw, who is a neurologist at the NCAN, join us for this joint IAH (Bath Institute for the Augmented Human) and ART-AI seminar entitled ‘Neurorehabilitation in the 21st Century’.
This seminar will take place in person in 1W 3.30, on Tuesday 2nd June 2026, 12.15pm-13.15pm (GMT). Damien Coyle will chair the seminar. There is also an option to join online. For more information, please e-mail [email protected].
Title
Neurorehabilitation in the 21st Century
Abstract
Neurorehabilitation is among the most vibrant areas of biomedical research. Its main strategy has been skill-specific practice, which often fails to produce adequate recovery. Now, new recognition of central nervous system (CNS) plasticity, new understanding of skills, and new technologies provide new strategies that enhance the efficacy of practice. The substrate of a skill is a network of neurons and synapses that extends from cortex to spinal cord and is now called a heksor. A heksor changes continually to maintain the key features of its skill, the attributes that make the skill satisfactory. Muscle activity and kinematics may change; key features are maintained. Heksors share neurons and synapses. Through their concurrent changes, they keep the CNS in a negotiated equilibrium that enables each to maintain its skill. When CNS damage occurs, the goal is to enable damaged heksors to repair themselves. Two new strategies enhance the efficacy of skill-specific practice. One increases plasticity. A damaged heksor shapes the additional plasticity through practice. The other targets beneficial plasticity to a critical site in a damaged heksor. This improves practice, enabling the heksor to achieve wider beneficial plasticity. In animals and humans, protocols that combine these strategies with practice enhance lasting recovery. The challenge is to develop, optimize, and validate these combined protocols. Computational modeling can accelerate the process. Controlled trials and comprehensive outcome assessments are essential. Pre-morbid factors and physiological measures may identify biomarkers that can predict efficacy or guide patient-specific protocol design. Many combined protocols will be noninvasive and suitable for home use. References: doi:10.1113/JP283291 & doi:10.1177/15459683251412309
Bio
Dr. Wolpaw is a neurologist who has spent 50 years exploring spinal cord and brain plasticity in animals and humans. His lab originated the protocol for operant conditioning of spinal stretch reflexes. Together with Drs. Xiang Yang Chen, Jonathan Carp, and Yu Wang, he led extensive physiological and anatomical studies that revealed the complex plasticity in spinal cord and brain associated with this ostensibly simple learning. They showed that appropriate reflex conditioning improves walking in rats with spinal cord injuries. With Dr. Aiko Thompson, they found that reflex conditioning improves walking in people with spinal cord injury. This work has led to a new paradigm for how skilled behaviors are acquired and maintained in what is now understood to be a ubiquitously plastic CNS. This new paradigm leads to new therapeutic strategies that are proving successful in clinical studies. Dr. Wolpaw has also been deeply involved in brain-computer interface (BCI) research. He and Dr. Dennis McFarland first showed the value of EEG sensorimotor rhythms for BCI-based communication and control, including multidimensional control. Their group oversaw the first multicenter trial of a BCI for independent home use by people with severe disabilities. They developed and disseminated the general-purpose software platform BCI2000, which has supported nearly 3,000 peer-reviewed studies world-wide. They organized the first four international BCI conferences, contributed greatly to the first BCI textbook (Wolpaw & Wolpaw 2012), and are now involved in editing the second edition. Dr. Wolpaw’s research has been supported for over 40 years by NIH, the VA, DARPA, and private foundations. He is Director of the NIBIB/NIH-funded National Center for Adaptive Neurotechnologies (NCAN) and Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the State University of New York. His group’s work has been described in many papers, invited presentations, and lectureships, and recognized by national and international awards. Many students and postdocs have participated and received appropriate recognition. He has contributed to the national and international scientific communities by serving on many advisory committees and review panels and was the first president of the BCI Society.
