OxBCI
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Electrocorticographic Brain Computer Interfacing
IRAS ID
226494
Contact name
James FitzGerald
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of Oxford / Clinical Trials and Research Governance
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 3 months, 1 days
Research summary
This project combines two distinct objectives, brought together because they require the identical patient group and equipment. Participants will be patients undergoing awake surgery to remove tumours from a particular part of the brain, adjacent to an area called the motor cortex. The motor cortex directly controls body movements. Surgery in this area is routinely done with the patient awake (possible because the brain itself cannot feel pain) in order that the function of the motor cortex can be checked at any point by asking the patient to make various movements. For both of the objectives in this project we will be making recordings from the surface of the brain over the motor cortex. This is entirely non-damaging and is done with standard CE marked equipement for making such recordings.
Objective 1 - Brain Computer Interfacing: We wish to examine signals recorded from motor cortex while the patient makes known movements, to establish whether we can understand what the intended movement is from the recorded signals. The eventual aim is to develop a system for people with injuries to their spinal cord in the neck who are totally paralysed, in order to restore a degree of independence by taking signals directly from the brain and using them to control assistive devices, such as an electric wheelchair or computer mouse. We will have a practice session of approximately 2 hours before the operation and approximately 15 minutes of testing during surgery.
Objective 2 - Understanding the Effects of Surgery: We wish to understand what happens to the normal electrical activity in the motor cortex as surgery proceeds nearby. This is important basic information that is presently completely unknown and will be vital to the future development of more accurate motor cortex monitoring during surgery. For this purpose we simply continue recording as surgery proceeds.
REC name
South Central - Oxford B Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
19/SC/0108
Date of REC Opinion
19 Mar 2019
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion