•New
Share
On 15 June, the noted Mexican neurophysiologist Pablo Rudomín delivered a lecture on the North Campus of the UPC
Artificial intelligence created to mimic neural interconnections in people with spinal injuries
Frontier research focuses on developing new computational techniques that improve our understanding of how neural circuits are modified following a spinal cord injury. This paves the way for the design and fabrication of prostheses that facilitate the medical rehabilitation of people affected by spinal cord injuries or neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis.
10/06/2011
On 15 June, the Mexican neurophysiologist and biologist Pablo Rudomín (emeritus researcher with the Research and Advanced Studies Centre of the National Polytechnic Institute of Mexico – CINVESTAV) was at the Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya. BarcelonaTech (UPC) to deliver a lecture entitled “Education, Information and Knowledge: A Neurophysiological Perspective”. The lecture was given on the North Campus (Building C1, Room 002 – Carrer Jordi Girona, 1-3, Barcelona).
The UPC’s Department of Software and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS) are working with Mexican researcher Pablo Rudomín and his team at the CINVESTAV to construct and validate a computer model that mimics and calculates the connections of spinal interneurons in cases of spinal cord injury. The model provides an insight into this phenomenon by analogy to the way information is transmitted in a computer. The computer model and calculations made using the MareNostrum supercomputer will be used to analyse the conditions in which spinal cord and neuronal lesions occur and seek pathways for medical rehabilitation. Researcher Ulises Cortés is leading the UPC's collaboration on this project.
The development of these computational and artificial intelligence techniques opens the door to the possibility of designing and making prostheses that restore mobility to people who have sustained spinal cord injuries or suffer from neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis. It could also offer a means of restoring hearing and vision to people who have lost these faculties.
Rudomín, who won the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research in 1987 for his contributions in the field of neurophysiology, is an internationally recognised researcher in this field. “Brain-computer interactions are very likely to become an everyday reality,” he says.
Rudomín is a pioneer in his field of research and is working at the forefront of neurological studies. He has also been a driving force behind some of Mexico’s most important academic institutions. He says that “rather than formulating laws, what neurophysiologists do is analyse specific behaviours in order to try and generate rough models that explain how the nervous system works.”
Rudomín says that in recent years the information generated in all fields – including input from scientific and technological research – has grown exponentially, but that this is not the case when it comes to knowledge. The accumulation of information without knowledge has often led to confusion, and this has prevented different social groups from pursuing joint efforts to tackle and solve the multiple problems they need to address.
In his talk, Rudomín reviewed neurophysiological studies which show that information from the environment and the body itself is used to generate the knowledge necessary to plan movements before they are executed.
This planning involves various regions of the cerebral cortex where cognitive and motor maps (models) related to movement are generated. The transition between the planning stage of a movement and its execution requires that decisions be made. The movements planned and those executed must be coherent for successful execution, and this coherence depends largely on sensory information.
He also offered an overview of information that has recently emerged regarding the role the mirror neuron system plays in imitating and learning movements, and in the integration of anticipated actions.
Rudomín’s work has advanced our understanding of how the central nervous system is able to modulate the information transmitted through afferent fibres before connections with other neurons are formed. His findings explain the function of presynaptic inhibition in the spinal cord, i.e. chemical communication between two or more neurons through axons, and the control exercised by the central nervous system on muscle receptors.
The Mexican scientist has demonstrated that this chemical interaction between neurons plays a key role in the flow of information from somatic receptors, including those in the skin and muscles, but not in the receptors that monitor variables like blood pressure and blood glucose and oxygen levels, given that these variables are crucial to an organism’s survival.
Pablo Rudomín stresses that the basic function of the nervous system is its ability to learn, which allows organisms to anticipate how they will react to changes in the environment, and therefore increases their chances of survival.
Recent findings show that it is not necessary to execute a voluntary movement for motor and sensory areas in the cerebral cortex to be activated. Just thinking about a movement without executing it is enough to produce a cortical map similar to the one generated during the motor action.
“During the planning phase of a voluntary movement, that is to say, in the thousandths of a second before its execution, the activity of neurons in the motor cortex is organised in such a way as to generate a temporal and spatial representation of the planned movement, equivalent in many ways to what we understand as knowledge,” said the researcher.
Therefore, Rudomín explained, at the neural level just thinking about an action of some kind is enough to activate the motor system. Building on our emerging knowledge of these processes, some experiments are focusing on the fabrication of prostheses and robots driven by the cortical activity associated with thinking. The aim of this line of research is to improve the quality of life of people who have lost the ability to move due to spinal injuries or multiple sclerosis.
He has made scientific contributions on a variety of topics, including cardiac physiology, the circulatory and pulmonary systems, and the physiology of the cerebral cortex. Since 1964 his studies have focused on analysis of mechanisms for central control of information transmitted by sensory fibres in the spinal cord, and on how these mechanisms are modified by central and peripheral lesions and in acute inflammatory processes.
Pablo Rudomín, who is a member of the Mexican National College, has published 132 scientific papers in high-impact international journals, four papers in national journals, 23 chapters in books and scientific reviews, and 17 articles for a wider audience in national publications. He has also been the editor of 23 books. He has participated in 45 international symposia and given 99 lectures around the world. He has served on the editorial boards of seven international scientific journals and two national publications, and has given 132 public lectures. His papers are widely cited in the international literature.
The internationally renowned neurophysiologist has been a visiting professor at a number of universities and research institutes, including Rockefeller University in New York, USA (1959-60), the Institute of Medical Pathology in Siena, Italy (1960-61), the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts (1960), the Laboratory of Neurophysiology – National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (1974 and 1977), the University of Gothenburg, Sweden (1977 and 1980), the Marine Biomedical Institute of the University of Texas, Galveston (1976-78), and John Curtin Medical School, Canberra, Australia (1983). In 2005, he began a collaborative project with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He is a member of numerous committees, councils, and organisations. His scientific contributions have earned him many awards, including the Natural Science Award, given by the Mexican Academy of Scientific Research (1972), the National Science Award (1979), the Prince of Asturias Award (1987), the Luis Elizondo Prize (1989), and the Lazaro Cardenas Prize, given by the National Polytechnic Institute (1996).
He was named an Emeritus National Researcher of Excellence of the National System of Researchers in 1996, and in 1986 he won the Medal of the Mexican Academy of Scientific Research for the best paper in the biomedical sciences. In 2002, he received the Krieg Achievement Award from the Ramón y Cajal International Association.
From 1996 to 2003, he was general coordinator of the Science Advisory Council of the Presidency of the Republic of Mexico.
The UPC’s Department of Software and the Barcelona Supercomputing Centre (BSC-CNS) are working with Mexican researcher Pablo Rudomín and his team at the CINVESTAV to construct and validate a computer model that mimics and calculates the connections of spinal interneurons in cases of spinal cord injury. The model provides an insight into this phenomenon by analogy to the way information is transmitted in a computer. The computer model and calculations made using the MareNostrum supercomputer will be used to analyse the conditions in which spinal cord and neuronal lesions occur and seek pathways for medical rehabilitation. Researcher Ulises Cortés is leading the UPC's collaboration on this project.
The development of these computational and artificial intelligence techniques opens the door to the possibility of designing and making prostheses that restore mobility to people who have sustained spinal cord injuries or suffer from neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis. It could also offer a means of restoring hearing and vision to people who have lost these faculties.
Rudomín, who won the Prince of Asturias Award for Technical and Scientific Research in 1987 for his contributions in the field of neurophysiology, is an internationally recognised researcher in this field. “Brain-computer interactions are very likely to become an everyday reality,” he says.
Rudomín is a pioneer in his field of research and is working at the forefront of neurological studies. He has also been a driving force behind some of Mexico’s most important academic institutions. He says that “rather than formulating laws, what neurophysiologists do is analyse specific behaviours in order to try and generate rough models that explain how the nervous system works.”
Pablo Rudomín’s lecture at the UPC
On 15 June, the Mexican scientist was at the UPC to deliver a lecture entitled “Education, Information and Knowledge: A Neurophysiological Perspective”. The lecture focused on the need to make effective use of scientific and technological knowledge about brain processes, under both normal and pathological conditions, so that it can be applied in education. “Knowledge-based education could play a crucial role in preventing and perhaps reducing anti-social attitudes and behaviours like drug addiction, organised crime, and ideological or religious fundamentalism, as well as improving social and economic welfare,” said the researcher.Rudomín says that in recent years the information generated in all fields – including input from scientific and technological research – has grown exponentially, but that this is not the case when it comes to knowledge. The accumulation of information without knowledge has often led to confusion, and this has prevented different social groups from pursuing joint efforts to tackle and solve the multiple problems they need to address.
In his talk, Rudomín reviewed neurophysiological studies which show that information from the environment and the body itself is used to generate the knowledge necessary to plan movements before they are executed.
This planning involves various regions of the cerebral cortex where cognitive and motor maps (models) related to movement are generated. The transition between the planning stage of a movement and its execution requires that decisions be made. The movements planned and those executed must be coherent for successful execution, and this coherence depends largely on sensory information.
He also offered an overview of information that has recently emerged regarding the role the mirror neuron system plays in imitating and learning movements, and in the integration of anticipated actions.
Thought-controlled prostheses
Rudomín and his group have developed a technique based on computational methods to determine the connections of individual spinal interneurons with afferent fibres and motoneurons – what physiologists call synaptic activity. Afferent fibres run from the body's periphery – receptors in muscles, joints and skin – to the central nervous system. Motoneurons are the neurons we use to control our muscles.Rudomín’s work has advanced our understanding of how the central nervous system is able to modulate the information transmitted through afferent fibres before connections with other neurons are formed. His findings explain the function of presynaptic inhibition in the spinal cord, i.e. chemical communication between two or more neurons through axons, and the control exercised by the central nervous system on muscle receptors.
The Mexican scientist has demonstrated that this chemical interaction between neurons plays a key role in the flow of information from somatic receptors, including those in the skin and muscles, but not in the receptors that monitor variables like blood pressure and blood glucose and oxygen levels, given that these variables are crucial to an organism’s survival.
Pablo Rudomín stresses that the basic function of the nervous system is its ability to learn, which allows organisms to anticipate how they will react to changes in the environment, and therefore increases their chances of survival.
Recent findings show that it is not necessary to execute a voluntary movement for motor and sensory areas in the cerebral cortex to be activated. Just thinking about a movement without executing it is enough to produce a cortical map similar to the one generated during the motor action.
“During the planning phase of a voluntary movement, that is to say, in the thousandths of a second before its execution, the activity of neurons in the motor cortex is organised in such a way as to generate a temporal and spatial representation of the planned movement, equivalent in many ways to what we understand as knowledge,” said the researcher.
Therefore, Rudomín explained, at the neural level just thinking about an action of some kind is enough to activate the motor system. Building on our emerging knowledge of these processes, some experiments are focusing on the fabrication of prostheses and robots driven by the cortical activity associated with thinking. The aim of this line of research is to improve the quality of life of people who have lost the ability to move due to spinal injuries or multiple sclerosis.
Long scientific career
Pablo Rudomín (1934) is a graduate in biology and holds doctoral degrees in sciences and physiology. He has been teaching since 1961 and is an emeritus researcher in the Department of Physiology, Biophysics and Neurosciences of the Research and Advanced Studies Centre (CINVESTAV), which he directed from 1992 to 2000. It was at the CINVESTAV that he started conducting research on the electrical activity of spinal cord neurons, which involved experimental work on cats. He has made scientific contributions on a variety of topics, including cardiac physiology, the circulatory and pulmonary systems, and the physiology of the cerebral cortex. Since 1964 his studies have focused on analysis of mechanisms for central control of information transmitted by sensory fibres in the spinal cord, and on how these mechanisms are modified by central and peripheral lesions and in acute inflammatory processes.
Pablo Rudomín, who is a member of the Mexican National College, has published 132 scientific papers in high-impact international journals, four papers in national journals, 23 chapters in books and scientific reviews, and 17 articles for a wider audience in national publications. He has also been the editor of 23 books. He has participated in 45 international symposia and given 99 lectures around the world. He has served on the editorial boards of seven international scientific journals and two national publications, and has given 132 public lectures. His papers are widely cited in the international literature.
The internationally renowned neurophysiologist has been a visiting professor at a number of universities and research institutes, including Rockefeller University in New York, USA (1959-60), the Institute of Medical Pathology in Siena, Italy (1960-61), the Woods Hole Marine Biological Laboratory in Massachusetts (1960), the Laboratory of Neurophysiology – National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Maryland, USA, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel (1974 and 1977), the University of Gothenburg, Sweden (1977 and 1980), the Marine Biomedical Institute of the University of Texas, Galveston (1976-78), and John Curtin Medical School, Canberra, Australia (1983). In 2005, he began a collaborative project with researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.
He is a member of numerous committees, councils, and organisations. His scientific contributions have earned him many awards, including the Natural Science Award, given by the Mexican Academy of Scientific Research (1972), the National Science Award (1979), the Prince of Asturias Award (1987), the Luis Elizondo Prize (1989), and the Lazaro Cardenas Prize, given by the National Polytechnic Institute (1996).
He was named an Emeritus National Researcher of Excellence of the National System of Researchers in 1996, and in 1986 he won the Medal of the Mexican Academy of Scientific Research for the best paper in the biomedical sciences. In 2002, he received the Krieg Achievement Award from the Ramón y Cajal International Association.
From 1996 to 2003, he was general coordinator of the Science Advisory Council of the Presidency of the Republic of Mexico.
Follow us on Twitter
