Principal Investigator

Taylor, Dawn, Ph.D.

"The long term goal of my research is to interface FES systems directly to the brain. Intended movement can be interpreted from the activity in the motor cortex, and we would like to use these signals to control FES systems. This would allow paralyzed individuals to move their limbs the same way everyone else does - just by thinking of doing so. I'm pursuing several parallel lines of research that will get us to that long-term goal:

I am investigating the use of both invasive and non-invasive brain recording techniques such as intracortical microelectrodes, brain surface recordings, and scalp surface recordings. These different types of brain signals are being applied to the control of a virtual arm representations of an arm as well as to the control of assistive robotics, and finally FES systems that restore arm and hand function to people with spinal cord injuries. One aspect of this work is to develop ways to utilize brain signals more effectively by retraining the brain to more accurately convey the desired action of the limb. This requires the development of appropriate training environments and adaptive decoding algorithms that can track changes in brain pattern generation over time. Direct brain control of both real and virtual arm and hand movements are being used to evaluate decoding algorithms and retraining methods. My work includes the use of rodent models of spinal cord injury, healthy non human primate models, and human subjects both with and without movement deficits.

Professional Affiliations

• Principal Investigator, Cleveland FES Center
• Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University
• Associate Investigator, Dept. of Veterans Affairs, Cleveland Louis Stokes Medical Center

Publications (select)

• Taylor DM: Neurocontrol of assistive technology. In: Encyclopedia of Biomedical Engineering: Neural Engineering, Akay M (ed), John Wiley & Sons Inc., Hoboken, NJ, 2006.
• T.M. Cowan, & D.M. Taylor. "Predicting reach goal in a continuous workspace for command of a brain- controlled upper limp neuroprosthesis." Proceedings of the 2nd international IEEE EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, 2005. Arlington VA, March 16-19, 2005: 74-77.
• S.I. Helms Tillery, D.M. Taylor, "Signal Acquisition and Analysis for Cortical Control of Neuroprosthetics." Current Opinions in Neurobiology. 2004 14: 758- 762.
• D.M. Taylor, S.I. HelmsTillery, A.B. Schwartz. "Information Conveyed Through Brain Control: Cursor versus Robot." IEEE Trans. Neural Systems Rehab Eng., June 2003 11(2): 195- 199.
• D.M. Taylor, S.I. Helms Tillery, A.B. Schwartz. "Direct 3D Control of Neuroprosthetic Devices." Science, 7 June 2002. 296:1829-1832.

Research Programs

• Cortical Signals for Assistive Device Control in the Severely Paralyze; Department of Veterans Affairs Research Initiative Program.
• Cortical Signals for Assistive Robots, Ron Shapiro Charitable Trust
• Rehabilitation Research Associate Investigator Award,Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation, Research and Development Service
• Restoration of Hand and Arm Function by Functional Neuromuscular Stimulation, National Institutes of Health
• A Primate Model of an Intra-cortically Controlled FES Prosthesis for Grasp

Contact Information

216-368-2476 - Dawn Taylor

216-778-2895 - MetroHealth Medical Center

216-368-2476 - Case Western Reserve University

Email: dxt42@case.edu