Feel Your Reach

Non-invasive decoding of cortical patterns induced by goal directed movement intentions and artificial sensory feedback in humans Feel Your Reach: In Europe estimated 300.000 people are suffering from a spinal cord injury (SCI) with 11.000 new injuries per year. The consequences of spinal cord injury are tremendous for these individuals. The loss of motor functions especially of the arm and grasping function – 40% are tetraplegics – leads to a life-long dependency on care givers and therefore to a dramatic decrease in quality of life in these often young individuals. With the help of neuroprostheses, grasp and elbow function can be substantially improved. However, remaining body movements often do not provide enough degrees of freedom to control the neuroprosthesis.
The ideal solution for voluntary control of an upper extremity neuroprosthesis would be to directly record motor commands from the corresponding cortical areas and convert them into control signals. This would realize a technical bypass around the interrupted nerve fiber tracts in the spinal cord.
A Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) transform mentally induced changes of brain signals into control signals and serve as an alternative human-machine interface. We showed first results in EEG-based control of a neuroprosthesis in several persons with SCI in the last decade, however, the control is still unnatural and cumbersome.
The objective of FEEL YOUR REACH is to develop a novel control framework that incorporates goal directed movement intention, movement decoding, error processing, processing of sensory feedback to allow a more natural control of a neuroprosthesis. To achieve this aim a goal directed movement decoder will be realized, and continuous error potential decoding will be included. Both will be finally joined together with an artificial kinesthetic sensory feedback display attached to the user. We hypothesize that with these mechanisms a user will be able to naturally control an neuroprosthesis with his/her mind only.

The Team

Team Members 2020-2021
Gernot R. Müller-Putz, Andreea I. Sburlea, Valeria Mondini, Joana Pereira, Reinmar Kobler, Catarina Lopes Dias, Lea Hehenberger, Nitikorn Srisrisawang, Hannah Pulferer

Team Members 2015-2020
Gernot R. Müller-Putz, Andreea I. Sburlea, Joana Pereira, Reinmar Kobler, Catarina Lopes Dias, Lea Hehenberger

Internships hosted by FYR
Inês Almeida, Liza Kolesnichenko, Michele Bevilacqua, Valeria Mondini, Nicola Butturini, Victor Martinez-Cagigal, Luka Batistic, Davide Borra

Scientific Dissemination

Journal Papers

2022
Continuous 2D trajectory decoding from attempted movement: across-session performance in able-bodied and feasibility in a spinal cord injured participant. / Pulferer, Hannah; Ásgeirsdóttir, Brynja; Mondini, Valeria; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot. In: Journal of Neural Engineering, 20.04.2022.

Applying Dimensionality Reduction Techniques in Source-Space Electroencephalography via Template and Magnetic Resonance Imaging-Derived Head Models to Continuously Decode Hand Trajectories. / Srisrisawang, Nitikorn; Müller-Putz, Gernot. In: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 24.03.2022.

2021
Online asynchronous detection of error-related potentials in participants with a spinal cord injury using a generic classifier. /Lopes-Dias, C., Sburlea, A. I., Breitegger, K., Wyss, D., Drescher, H., Wildburger, R. & Müller-Putz, G. R., 31 Mar 2021, In : Journal of Neural Engineering. 18, 4, 1 p., 046022.

Pereira, J, Kobler, R, Ofner, P, Schwarz, A & Müller-Putz, GR 2021, 'Online detection of movement during natural and self-initiated reach-and-grasp actions from EEG signals', Journal of Neural Engineering, vol. 18, no. 4, 046095. doi.org/10.1088/1741-2552/ac0b52

Sburlea, AI, Wilding, M & Müller-Putz, G 2021, 'Disentangling human grasping type from the object's intrinsic properties using low-frequency EEG signals', Neuroimage: Reports, vol. 1, no. 2, 100012. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ynirp.2021.100012

Directional Decoding From EEG in a Center-Out Motor Imagery Task With Visual and Vibrotactile Guidance. / Hehenberger, Lea; Batistic, Luka; Sburlea, Andreea I.; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, Vol. 15, 687252, 24.09.2021.

2020
Distinct cortical networks for hand movement initiation and directional processing : An EEG study. / Kobler, Reinmar J; Kolesnichenko, Elizaveta; Sburlea, Andreea I; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: NeuroImage, Vol. 220, 117076, 15.10.2020.

Assessing the impact of vibrotactile kinaesthetic feedback on electroencephalographic signals in a center-out task. / Hehenberger, Lea; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot. In: Journal of Neural Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 5, 056032, 13.10.2020.

Distance- and speed-informed kinematics decoding improves M/EEG based upper-limb movement decoder accuracy. / Kobler, Reinmar; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Mondini, Valeria; Hirata, Masayuki; Müller-Putz, Gernot. In: Journal of Neural Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 5, 056027, 10.2020.

Corneo-retinal-dipole and eyelid-related eye artifacts can be corrected offline and online in electroencephalographic and magnetoencephalographic signals. / Kobler, Reinmar J; Sburlea, Andreea I; Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Schwarz, Andreas; Hirata, Masayuki; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: NeuroImage, Vol. 218, 117000, 09.2020.

Continuous low-frequency EEG decoding of arm movement for closed-loop, natural control of a robotic arm. / Mondini, Valeria; Kobler, Reinmar Josef; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: Journal of Neural Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 4, 046031, 11.08.2020.

Decoding hand movements from human EEG to control a robotic arm in a simulation environment. / Schwarz, Andreas; Höller, Maria Katharina; Pereira, Joana; Ofner, Patrick; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: Journal of Neural Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 3, 036010, 06.2020.

Using machine learning to reveal the population vector from EEG signals. / Kobler, Reinmar Josef; Almeida, Inês; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot R.
In: Journal of Neural Engineering, Vol. 17, No. 2, 026002, 10.03.2020.

Online asynchronous detection of error-related potentials in participants with a spinal cord injury by adapting a pre-trained generic classifier. / Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Breitegger, Katharina; Wyss, Daniela; Drescher, Harald; Wildburger, Renate; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: Journal of Neural Engineering, 2020.

2019
Online asynchronous decoding of error-related potentials during the continuous control of a robot. / Lopes Dias, Catarina; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
In: Scientific Reports, Vol. 9, 17596 , 11.2019.

2018
Tuning characteristics of low-frequency EEG to positions and velocities in visuomotor and oculomotor tracking tasks. / Kobler, Reinmar; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot. In: Scientific Reports, 07.12.2018.

Exploring representations of human grasping in neural, muscle and kinematic signals. / Sburlea, Andreea I; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: Scientific reports, Vol. 8, No. 1, 16669, 12.11.2018.

Artifacts in EEG of simultaneous EEG-fMRI: Pulse artifact remainders in the gradient artifact template are a source of artifact residuals after average artifact subtraction. / Steyrl, David; Müller-Putz, Gernot. In: Journal of neural engineering, 29.10.2018.

EEG patterns of self-paced movement imaginations towards externally-cued and internally-selected targets. / Pereira, Joana; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
In: Scientific reports, Vol. 8, 13394 , 06.09.2018.

Factors that affect error potentials during a grasping task : toward a hybrid natural movement decoding BCI. / Omedes, Jason; Schwarz, Andreas; Müller-Putz, Gernot R; Montesano, Luis. In: Journal of neural engineering, Vol. 15, No. 4, 046023, 01.05.2018.

Decoding natural reach-and-grasp actions from human EEG. / Schwarz, Andreas; Ofner, Patrick; Pereira, Joana; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
In: Journal of neural engineering, Vol. 15, No. 1, 016005, 15.02.2018.

Masked and unmasked error-related potentials during continuous control and feedback. / Lopes Dias, Maria Catarina; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
In: Journal of neural engineering, Vol. 15, No. 3, 2018.

2017
Online Reduction of Artifacts in EEG of Simultaneous EEG-fMRI Using Reference Layer Adaptive Filtering (RLAF). / Steyrl, David; Krausz, Gunther; Koschutnig, Karl; Edlinger, Günter; Müller-Putz, Gernot R. In: Brain topography, 09.11.2017.

Upper limb movements can be decoded from the time-domain of low-frequency EEG. / Ofner, Patrick; Schwarz, Andreas; Pereira, Joana; Müller-Putz, Gernot R.
In: PLoS ONE, Vol. 12, No. 8, 10.08.2017, p. e0182578.

EEG neural correlates of goal-directed movement intention. / Pereira, Joana; Ofner, Patrick; Schwarz, Andreas; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
In: NeuroImage, Vol. 149, 01.04.2017, p. 129–140.

Conference Contributions

2021
Decoding of continuous movement attempt in 2-dimensions from non-invasive low frequency brain signals. / Müller-Putz, Gernot; Mondini, Valeria; Martínez-Cagigal, Víctor; Kobler, Reinmar; Pereira, Joana; Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Hehenberger, Lea; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana. In 10th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, NER 2021. 2021. p. 322-325 9441346.

On the interpretation of linear Riemannian tangent space model parameters in M/EEG. / Kobler, Reinmar J.; Hirayama, Jun Ichiro; Hehenberger, Lea; Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Muller-Putz, Gernot R.; Kawanabe, Motoaki.
2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC). 2021. p. 5909-5913.

Decoding of continuous movement attempt in 2-dimensions from non-invasive low frequency brain signals. / Müller-Putz, Gernot; Mondini, Valeria; Martínez-Cagigal, Víctor; Kobler, Reinmar; Pereira, Joana; Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Hehenberger, Lea; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana.
2021 10th International IEEE/EMBS Conference on Neural Engineering, NER 2021. 2021. p. 322-325 9441346.

An investigation on dimensionality reduction in the source-space-based hand trajectory decoding. / Srisrisawang, Nitikorn; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings Annual Meeting of the Austrian Society for Biomedical Engineering 2021 : ÖGBMT 2021. Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2021. p. 79-82.

Learning effects in 2D trajectory inference from low-frequency EEG signals over multiple feedback sessions. / Pulferer, Hannah; Ásgeirsdóttir, Brynja; Mondini, Valeria; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings Annual Meeting of the Austrian Society for Biomedical Engineering 2021: ÖGBMT 2021. Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2021. p. 83-86.

Predicting EMG envelopes of grasping movements from EEG recordings using unscented Kalman filtering. / Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Butturini, Nicola; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the Annual Meeting of the Austrian Society for Biomedical Engineering 2021 : ÖGBMT 2021. ed. / Gernot Müller-Putz; Christian Baumgartner. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2021. p. 71-74.

2020
Non-linear online low-frequency EEG decoding of arm movements during a pursuit tracking task. / Martínez-Cagigal, Víctor; Kobler, Reinmar; Mondini, Valeria; Hornero, Roberto; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
42nd Annual International Conferences of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society: Enabling Innovative Technologies for Global Healthcare, EMBC 2020. 2020. p. 2981-2985.

A Generic Error-related Potential Classifier Offers a Comparable Performance to a Personalized Classifier. / Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
42nd Annual International Conferences of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society: Enabling Innovative Technologies for Global Healthcare, EMBC 2020. 2020. p. 2995-2998 9176640 (Proceedings of the Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, EMBS; Vol. 2020-July).

Detecting system errors in virtual reality using EEG through error-related potentials. / Si-Mohammed, Hakim; Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Duarte, Maria; Argelaguet, Ferran; Jeunet, Camille; Casiez, Géry; Müller-Putz, Gernot; Lécuyer, Anatole; Scherer, Reinhold.
Proceedings - 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2020. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, 2020. p. 653-661 9089534 (Proceedings - 2020 IEEE Conference on Virtual Reality and 3D User Interfaces, VR 2020).

2019
How similar are the neural patterns when observing grasping hand postures to the behavioral patterns when executing the grasp? /Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 8th Graz Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2019. ed. / Gernot Müller-Putz; Jonas Christian Ditz; Selina Wriessnegger. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2019. p. 279-284.

Simultaneous decoding of velocity and speed during executed and observed tracking movements: an MEG study. / Kobler, Reinmar; Hirata, Masayuki; Hashimoto, Hiroaki; Dowaki, Ryosuke; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 8th Graz Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2019: Bridging Science and Application. ed. / Gernot Müller-Putz; Jonas Ditz; Selina Wriessnegger. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2019. p. 100-105.

Tuning of parameters for a vibrotactile kinaesthetic feedback system utilizing tactile illusions. / Hehenberger, Lea; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 8th Graz Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2019: Bridging Science and Application. ed. / Gernot Müller-Putz; Jonas Ditz; Selina Wriessnegger. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2019. p. 244-248 45.

Expectation mismatch during a tracking task: an EEG analysis. / Bevilacqua, Michele; Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 8th Graz Brain Computer Interface Conference 2019: Bridging Science and Application. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2019. p. 65-70.

HEAR to remove pops and drifts: the high-variance electrode artifact removal (HEAR) algorithm. / Kobler, Reinmar; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Mondini, Valeria; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 41th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (EMBC). IEEE Xplore, 2019.

Asynchronous detection of error-related potentials using a generic classifier. / Lopes-Dias, Catarina; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 8th Graz Brain Computer Interface Conference 2019: Bridging Science and Application. ed. / Gernot R. Müller-Putz; Jonas C. Ditz; Selina Wriessnegger. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2019. p. 54-58.

2018
Towards non-invasive Brain-Computer Interfaces for hand/arm control in users with spinal cord injury. / Müller-Putz, Gernot; Pereira, Joana; Ofner, Patrick; Schwarz, Andreas; Lopes Dias, Maria Catarina; Kobler, Reinmar; Hehenberger, Lea; Pinegger, Andreas; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana.
The 6th International Winter Conference on Brain-Computer Interface. 2018. p. 65-68.

2017
A comparison of ocular artifact removal methods for block design based electroencephalography experiments. / Kobler, Reinmar; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 7th Graz Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2017: From Vision to Reality. ed. / Gernot Müller-Putz; David Steyrl; Selina Wrissnegger; Reinhold Scherer. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2017. p. 236-241 44.

Movement Decoding from EEG: Target or Direction? / Müller-Putz, Gernot; Peicha, Lukas; Ofner, Patrick.
Proceedings of the 7th Graz Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2017. Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2017. p. 344-348.

Error-related potentials with masked and unmasked onset during continuous control and feedback. / Lopes Dias, Maria Catarina; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
7th Graz Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2017. 2017.

Event-Related Potentials in Externally and Internally-Driven Target Selection: a preliminary study. / Pereira, Joana; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 7th Graz Brain-Computer Interface Conference 2017 From Vision to Reality. Graz : Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2017. p. 400-405.

Towards non-invasive EEG-based arm/handcontrol in users with spinal cord injury. / Müller-Putz, Gernot; Ofner, Patrick; Schwarz, Andreas; Pereira, Joana; Pinegger, Andreas; Lopes Dias, Maria Catarina; Hehenberger, Lea; Kobler, Reinmar; Sburlea, Andreea Ioana.
5th International Winter Conference on Brain-Computer Interfaces. 2017.

2016
Discriminating goal-directed from non-goal-directed movements for BCI control. / Pereira, Joana; Ofner, Patrick; Schwarz, Andreas; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the 6th International Brain-Computer Interface Meeting. ed. / Gernot R. Müller-Putz ; Jane E. Huggins; David Steyrl. Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2016. p. 67.

Movements of the same upper limb can be classified from low-frequency time-domain EEG signals. / Ofner, Patrick; Schwarz, Andreas; Pereira, Joana; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
Proceedings of the Sixth International Brain-Computer Interface Meeting: BCI Past, Present, and Future. Verlag der Technischen Universität Graz, 2016. p. 69.

Goal-Directed or Aimless? EEG Differences during the Preparation of a Reach-and-Touch Task. / Pereira, Joana; Ofner, Patrick; Müller-Putz, Gernot.
37th Annual International Conference of the IEEE. ., 2015. p. 1488-1491.

Project Overview

The project was granted by the European Research Council (ERC), ERC Consolidator Grant to Prof.Dr. Gernot Müller-Putz.

FYR Video

Decoding of movement trajecktories from non-invasive EEG with a high spinal cord injured participant.

TEDx Talk

Project runtime

2016-2021