AFOSR, NIH, CNR, DTRA Human Performance and Biosystems August 2014 - - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

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Integrity  Service  Excellence

Human Performance and Biosystems

August 2014 Italian CNR Patrick O. Bradshaw Program Officer AFOSR/RTE Air Force Office of Scientific Research

Distribution A: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited

AFOSR, NIH, CNR, DTRA

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2014 Italian CNR Presentation

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF PORTFOLIO:

• Auditory modeling for acoustic analysis
• Biological polarization optics & vision
• Sensori-motor control of bio- flight & navigation
• Nanoelectronic innervated cells and networks
• Biomarkers
• Low volt stimulation of Neural systems

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Human Performance and Biosystems Program

• Investigates how the auditory brain parses acoustic

landscapes, binds sensory inputs, adapts its filters, and hears through noise and distortion

• Studies how animal photoreceptors detect and how their

brains interpret polarization information

• Discover principles of multisensory fusion, distributed

sensors and actuators. Develop control laws for emulation in MAVs.

• Develops a mechanistic understanding of microbes,

nanowires, nanoelectronics and their energy delivery capabilities

• Studies mechanisms following low volt electrical stimulation
• f neural systems and resulting biomarkers

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A Speech Analysis Breakthrough

Speech intelligibility improves markedly for normal-hearing (NH) listeners and for hearing- impaired (HI) listeners

FIRST TECHNIQUE TO APPLY COMPUTATIONAL AUDITORY SCENE ANALYSIS TO IMPROVE MONAURAL INTELLIGIBILITY

Unpublished data. Status Report 1, STTR Phase II Project: "An Auditory Scene Analysis Approach to Speech Segregation” Dr. DeLiang Wang, Ohio State University

Individual Speech Hearing Performance against Multitalker Babble

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Discovered: Mechanism of Biological Non-Polarizing Reflectors

• T. M. Jordan, J. C. Partridge & N.W. Roberts. Univ. of Bristol.
• Nature Photonics 2012.

Unique optical reflectors: Suppress polarization at all angles

• Layers of guanine cytoplasm crystals

are broadband birefringent.

• No refractive index mismatch between

crystal layers and the external medium.

• Each crystal optical axis aligns with its

long axis or orthogonal to its plane.

• Optical design could be exploited in

synthetic devices. Silvery fish avoid the Fresnel effect (loss of reflectivity, gain of polarization at Brewster’s angle): They maintain polarization camouflage in all directions

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Wings are Sensorimotor Surfaces

• Discovering their Role in Flight

Control BATS HAWKMOTHS

Measure joint muscle activity during flight. What is controlled? Force or position? Discover role of intrinsic (non-joint) muscles. Record from strain receptors during wing motion. Measure dynamics of response to mechanical inputs. Map neural signal from wing to flight motor. Find and study hair sensors on wings. Measure response to air flow. Map wing sensor circuits to cortex.

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BIO-SENSING OF MAGNETIC FIELDS

A NEW INITIATIVE AFOSR SENSORY INFORMATION SYSTEMS PROGRAM SCIENTIFIC CHALLENGE:

Discover the receptor mechanism(s) for biological magnetic sensitivity, especially at field strengths comparable to the geomagnetic background.

PM ADVISORY GROUP: Patrick Bradshaw, Tatjana Curcic, Hugh DeLong, Willard Larkin (retired, v.e.c.)

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Next Phase (2013): Control of Electron Exchange via Bacterial Nanowires at Hybrid Living-Synthetic Interfaces El-Naggar (USC)

Physiological switch: Developed methodology to physiologically induce bacterial nanowires in microfluidic devices as shown here by switching to extracellular respiration conditions. Can we “plug” cells directly to synthetic devices using this same methodology? Objective 2: To direct and monitor the wiring of bacterial cells (Shewanella oneidensis MR-1) to micro/nano scale electrodes in microfluidic devices, while measuring the redox activity of the cells. Can we achieve a genetic switch? Objective 1: Profile the underlying gene expression with time-dependent transcriptomic analyses (RNA-seq) during bacterial nanowire

• production. The knowledge gained may enable

the future development of genetic switches for turning on/off/amplifying electron transfer.

Long-term goal: Synthetic biology approaches for transferring the extracellular electron transport function naturally existing in microbes like Shewanella to other cell types. Long-term goal: Powering and interfacing to a synthetic device directly using cellular metabolic activity

Next-generation sequencing

RNA-seq work in collaboration with Golbeck (Penn State)

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Nanoelectronic Structures for Single Cell to Cell- Network Interfaces

Charles M. Lieber, Harvard University

Goal: Create and incorporate nanodevice elements that enable powerful two-way communication with cells.

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Our Integrative Approach 3D Macroporous Nanoelectronic Scaffolds

• 3D nanoelctronic scaffolds matrix prepared from 2D structures

that are fully released from substrate.

• 3D scaffolds can exceed thickness >>1mm and maintain all key

feature on micron-to-nanometer scale similar to natural biological scaffolds

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Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation tDCS

Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation (tDCS)

• Non-invasive, portable, well-tolerated neuromodulation.
• Low-intensity (mA) current passed between scalp electrodes.
• Investigated for cognitive neuroscience and neuropsychiatric

treatment. Depression, pain, migraine, epilepsy, PTSD, schizophrenia,tinnitus, rehabiliation, TBI, attention, accelerated learning (reading, motor skills, threat detection), memory… ➢➢ Can a “simple” intervention modulate brain function? ➢➢ How is specificity of action achieved? DoD BAA-AFOSR-2012-001 “Cellular Mechanisms of Transcranial Direct Current Stimulation”

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Hypothesis

The biological pathways modulated by tDCS are responsible for its beneficial effects on cognitive performance. Purpose of study: Identify those pathways

• Objective 1: Identify pathways recruited by single bout
• f tDCS.
• Objective 2: Determine effects of repeated tDCS when

coupled with training.

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Early Success of tDCS

– Intervention/Treatment for neurological Disorders: Parkinson’s,

Psychiatric Disease & Stroke

– Cognitive improvements reported in both Disease and Control Populations – Improved detection of Collision Paths – Increased Cerebral Oxygen Saturation – Improved Target Detection

Andy McKinley, PhD - AFRL

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Summary

• Auditory modeling for acoustic analysis
• Biological polarization optics & vision
• Sensori-motor control of bio- flight &

navigation

• Nanoelectronic innervated cells and

networks

• Biomarkers
• Low volt stimulation of Neural systems

Distribution A: Approved for public release; distribution is unlimited