Term paper critique

Term Paper Guideline

Draft Due: October 24, 2020

Term paper critique due; November 7, 2020

Final Report Due: November 20, 2020

Short literature review-maximum 3 pages

Please read the article by Nuyujukian et al. (2018) (uploaded in D2L) and write a paper review. Please follow the guideline and the rubric below. https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0204566#sec011 Cortical control of a tablet computer by people with paralysis. Nuyujukian P, Albites Sanabria J, Saab J, Pandarinath C, Jarosiewicz B, Blabe CH, Franco B, Mernoff ST, Eskandar EN, Simeral JD, Hochberg LR, Shenoy KV, Henderson JM. PLoS One. 2018 Nov 21;13(11):e0204566. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0204566. This is an introduction of the paper in the Journal of American Medical Association. In a recent study in PLOS One, a 63-year-old man with tetraplegia caused by a spinal cord injury sent his first text messages with an off-the-shelf consumer tablet paired to an intracortical brain-computer interface (iBCI). He and 2 other participants with limited arm and hand mobility due to ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) also used the iBCI to browse the internet, send emails, chat with researchers, stream music, watch videos, check the weather, and read the news—all by simply thinking about the tasks. The research team, co-led by scientists at Stanford University and Brown University, implanted 1 or more small microelectrode arrays in the participants’ brains, specifically in areas of the dominant motor cortex that control hand and arm movements. A computer with a specialized operating system processed and decoded signals from the arrays, sending the output to a virtual Bluetooth mouse paired with the tablet. The participants were able to perform all of their assigned tasks on the tablet on each of 3 research days, which occurred at time points ranging from 4 months to 9 months to 2.75 years after the electrode arrays were implanted. According to the researchers, the study marks the first time a person has used a brain- computer interface to control an unmodified, commercially available, general-purpose computing device.

“The performance of this system demonstrates that iBCIs have the potential to restore meaningful communication and interaction for people with paralysis,” lead author Paul Nuyujukian, MD, PhD, of Stanford, told JAMA. Please include answers to the following questions in your review. 1. What is the device placed in the patient which enables recording of the brain wave?

Where in the brain was it placed and why? 2. Among three participants, two suffered from ALS and one had tetraplegia. Describe

briefly typical course of brain damages in ALS patient and the specific injuries of the tetraplegia patient.

3. The initialization of decoder was carried out by what activities?

4. What were the approximate days after the implant when the three participants carried

out the intended tasks?

5. What would be the improvement you would like to see in the brain-computer interface

technology?

Maximum 3 pages- 1" margin on all side, typed • Title page-not included in the 3-page limit • Abstract: Brief (<250 words) summary of the paper.

The rest of the content could be freestyle, but make sure to include the following content. Follow the guidelines provided.

• Begin with a summary of relevant background information and statement of the major tasks achieve

• A discussion of the experimental approaches- methodology, results, and interpretation of the data (1 page),

• a summary of the overall conclusions, including a discussion of whether taskes were achieved or not. (1/2 page)

• A bibliography, not part of the 3-page limit, should be included. For the term paper, following the correct bibliography format is important. You can use any bibliography format typically found in a scientific journal. This includes "in-text" citation and detailed information in the "reference" section. Grading Rubric

Criteria Points

Abstract A concise summary of the paper: This is not an introduction. Do not put more than 30% of the background material in this section.

10

Background 25

Experimental Approaches Include the answers for questions asked above in red (1, 2, 3, 4)

30

Conclusion Include the answers for questions asked above in red (5) 15

Overall Organizations/Writing, Reference format 20