Download Abstract n Bio - Prof Arto Nurmikko

Building Electronic Interfaces to Brain Circuits Arto V. Nurmikko School of Engineering and Department of Physics Brown University, Providence RI, USA The brain of a mouse is able to perform functional computations at a level presently inaccessible to largest man‐made semiconductors. The question of understanding the principles of operation of the electrical microcircuits in the brain has been a central research topic of modern neuroscience for at least a century. More recently, engineers, physicists, and mathematicians have been bringing their tools of trade to both experimental and theoretical research in brain science. Pursuing the fundamental quest of “how the brain computes” with modern tools has emerged a related question: is it possible to interface external electronic devices with the brain circuits to provide a direct information link between the two? In this presentation, an overview of the embryonic field of brain‐computer interfaces (BCI) is discussed using recent highlights of research where commands recorded as electrical signals directly from the brain can operate rudimentary electronic devices – and vice versa. Among other challenges is to find some commonality between the highly statistical operational principles of neural circuits and the highly deterministic behavior of man‐made electronic circuits. Biography Arto V. Nurmikko, a native of Finland, is a L. Herbert Ballou University Professor of Engineering and Physics at Brown, USA. He received his degrees from University of California, Berkeley, with postdoctoral stays at MIT and Hebrew University. Professor Nurmikko conducts research in neuro‐engineering, brain sciences, nanophotonics and microelectronics, especially for the translation of device research to new technologies in biomedical, life science, and photonics applications. His current interests include development of implantable wireless neural interfaces, nanoscale neural circuit sensors, compact red/green/blue semiconductor lasers, and high resolution acoustic microscopy. Nurmikko has published in several fields (over 350 journal articles), led many multi‐institutional research teams, advised federal funding agencies, and lectured worldwide. Professor Nurmikko is a Fellow of the American Physical Society, Fellow of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, and Fellow of the Optical Society of America. He has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, and elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.