MRI-compatible pneumatic stimulator for sensorimotor mapping

Development of a new fMRI compatible pneumatic vibrotactile stimulator

Novel MRI-compatible tactile stimulator for cortical mapping of foot sole pressure stimuli with fMRI.

Foot sole somatosensory feedback is critical to motor control and declines with aging and disease. To enable study of cortical networks underlying foot sole somatosensation, we developed a pneumatic tactile stimulator capable of producing one degree-of-freedom (DOF) oscillations with preset waveform, frequency (≤10 Hz), force magnitude (5-500 N), duty cycle (20-100%), and contacted surface area...

A Mri Compatible Concentric Tube Continuum Robot with Pneumatic Actuation

The aim of this study is to develop a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) compatible robot to enable image guided interventions to enhance accuracy and reduce invasiveness. MRI provides exquisite soft tissue images, and fluid power is an enabler of its use in surgery. Its advantages are not completely explored yet because traditional electromagnetic actuators fail or cause artifacts in intense mag...

MEG-compatible pneumatic stimulator to elicit passive finger and toe movements

Magnetoencephalographic (MEG) signals recorded from the primary sensorimotor (SM1) cortex are coherent with kinematics of both active and passive finger movements. The coherence mainly reflects movement-related proprioceptive afference to the cortex. Here we describe a novel MEG-compatible stimulator to generate computer-controlled passive finger and toe movements that can be used as stimuli in...

High-field MRI-Compatible Needle Placement Robots for Prostate Interventions: Pneumatic and Piezoelectric Approaches

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) can be a very effective imaging modality for live guidance during surgical procedures. The rationale of MRI-guided surgery with robot-assistance is to perform surgical interventions utilizing “realtime” image feedback while minimize operation time and improves the surgical outcomes. However, challenges arise from electromagnetic compatibility within the high-fie...