Interdisciplinary

[Neuroscience] NCCU Receives NSC's Support to Get Equipped with fMRI to Conduct Cross-Institutes Service (Chinese Version)　

NCCU Campus News (2010/07/26) The neuro-science research alliance formed between National Chengchi University (NCCU) and National Yang Ming University (NYMU) received the financial support (seventy million NT dollars for two years) from the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Science Council, to conduct the install and maintain program for a human brain functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) equipment. The NSC program indicated that the effort on integrating neuroscience with humanities and social sciences fields by NCCU, which is widely recognized for its accomplishment in humanities and social sciences, has been recognized as well, and by this program, a new cross-fields as well as cross-institutes research atmosphere in neuroscience studies is expected to be created.

The recent development of neuroscience gradually goes along with social phenomena, involved with issues such as human social behaviors and liberal arts. More and more emerging study domains in which MRI technology is widely utilized to study the neuro-physical substrata of cognitive and behavioral functions, appear, including, for examples, educational neuroscience, social neuroscience, neuroeconomics, neuroethics, neurolaw, computational neuroscience, etc.

In the humanities field in Taiwan, the number of the researchers dedicated to the interdisciplinary neuroscientific fields is still moderate, because, on the one hand, the methodological basis is not firmly grounded yet, and, on the other hand, the expensive equipment is difficult to access for the researchers. To fix the situation, the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, NSC, has kept spending effort on the promotion of neurosciences and the encouragement of the establishment of the methods. Relevant workshops for elementary and high school teachers are provided, while the talent cultivation program for the interdisciplinary researchers in cognitive sciences and neurosciences is conducted.

Besides, NSC decided to enhance the hardware implement side as well, purchasing relevant equipment for the neuro-studies of humanities and social sciences. Previously, NCCU has merely been equipped with a brainwave detector and an eye tracker. Equipment such as fMRI is too expensive to purchase and maintain for a university, and most of the MRI's in Taiwan are equipped in hospitals, which therefore the neuroscience researchers cannot easily access. With the program proposed by the NCCU-NYMU alliance, the researchers can have a dedicated fMRI for their research need hereafter.

The alliance between NCCU and NYMU help with the integration between the humanities and social sciences talents and the neuroscientific talents from both sides, which is a good example for interdisciplinary cooperation. The alliance will further establish an MRI center for Taiwan mind science research and invite other domestic universities in the alliance. It is expected that with the program, the research capacity in these fields in Taiwan can be largely enhanced.


Further Information:
NCCU Campus News 2010/07/26 (Chinese)

[Medicine] NCKU Brain Mind Welfare Group Presents Seizure Detection and Suppression System (Chinese Version)

NCKU News Center (2010/07/14) The interdisciplinary research team “Brain Mind Welfare” (BMW) at National Cheng Kung University, consisting of experts from fields such as information engineering, medical information, social science, etc., has succeeded in developing a seizure detection and suppression system after its three-year effort, and the system has passed tests on mice. The result has been accepted by IEEE Instrumentation and Measurement.

NCKU-BMW's seizure detection and suppression system combines modules of brain-wave sensor, electro-stimulator, computing unit and wireless transmitter; it can detect and suppress absence and drug-induced epilepsy, with the detection rate of 92 to 99 % both in patient's conscious state or sleep, and it can give electro-stimulus within 0.6 second after the detection of seizure.

According to the team, seizure is one of the most common neurological disorders, but only 25% of the patents can be treated with present drug or surgery treatments. Closed-loop deep brain stimulation is an innovating and efficient alternative treatment, which suppresses epilepsy by realtime monitoring and giving instant electro-stimuli. However, breakthroughs regarding its stability under the interference from mental state variations, its detection efficiency and the computing ability on a mobile device, have been waited for for a long time.

The team BMW began to develop the system since 2007. The design concept is based on closed-loop deep brain stimulation, while the system puts together multiple functions including brain wave detection and analysis, brain wave amplifying and digitalization, realtime wireless signal transmission, brain stimulation control, testing platform for epilepsy patients, etc. The accomplishment of the system is the result of the cross-field cooperation among information technology, micro-electronic engineering, wireless transmission technology, signal analysis, bio-modelling and psychological behavior analysis of epilepsy patients.

The system's wired prototype has passed detection and suppression test on mice. In the future, the team will try to shrink the system into a single SoC. Besides, the system is going to receive clinical experiments in Hualien Buddhist Tzu Chi General Hospital.


Further Information:
NCKU News Center 2010/07/14 (Chinese)