Research in Action

Applications of NI research to improve our quality of life:

• Driving innovation in brain machine interface components in robotic prosthetics for patients suffering strokes, ALS and spinal cord injuries
• Creating new implantable devices that can stimulate brain activity, lead to new treatments for Parkinson’s disease and stroke
• Developing next-generation hearing aid devices that filter out sounds that a listener is trying to ignore and amplify only what the listener is focused on
• Creating system and cognitive models that characterize information in the brain to better understand memory formation, language processing and problem solving
• Understanding what happens to neurons in the earliest progression of Alzheimer’s disease
• Determining how changes and breakdowns in brain circuits result in movement disorders including Parkinson’s disease
• Learning how neurons respond when there are changes in the visual system while learning a new visual task and recovery of vision
• Exploring how the architecture of the brain regulates action planning, learning and executive control
• Identifying brain function that makes people resilient under stress and how various stress management strategies alter coping and stress resilience
• Understanding the social, emotional and genetic aspects of addictive behaviors and developing better methods of identifying individuals who are at risk to develop an addiction