The Central Nervous System (CNS) provides information about how individuals collect information from their surroundings, how they process that information to make decisions, and finally, how they behave and act in their environment. CNS information can be gathered from three main sources: (1) electrical currents (e.g., electroencephalography – EEG) or electrocorticography (ECoG)), (2) magnetic fields (e.g., magnetoencephalography – MEG), and (3) level of blood oxygen or blood flow (e.g., functional near infrared spectroscopy – NIRS or functional magnetic resonance imaging – fMRI). This neuroinformation is being decoded to develop neural interfaces that aim to establish, re-establish and/or improve the neural interconnectivity of CNS in order to optimize the human-environment interaction. Not only decoding of neuroinformation has been pursued so far, but also finding the best way to recode neuroinformation by brain stimulation has been of interest in the scientific community.
Over the past few years, the decoding of neuroinfomation has been used to develop different neurotechnologies including, neurorehabilitation devices, brain-machine interfaces, neuroergonomic systems, brain stimulation, and neural interfaces for diagnosis, assessment and management of neuropathologies. All these rapid scientific advances have confronted us with at least four important issues to address along the way:
1. To publish neuroinformation collected in natural environments, and everyday settings. To give a neural insight into human behaviors and physical functioning in ecological environments can help us to propose new interpretive models to understand the cognitive function of CNS.
2. To develop computational algorithms that allow coupling humans with neurotechnologies by analysing neuroinformation bidirectionally, and thus achieving the balance between the human learning and the system adaptability.
3. To promote standardization and openness of methods by including do’s and don’ts in followed experimental procedures. In this regard, several scientific editorials have opted for publishing protocols, methodologies, software development, and databases to allow an in-depth monitoring of investigations.
4. To be aware that the access of neuroinformation give us responsibility to maintain the cognitive liberty, the mental integrity, and the psychological continuity of all of our volunteers.
Therefore, this research topic aims to motivate researchers in the field for proposing creative neuroengineering solutions for current human-environment interactive difficulties in different contexts (including, clinical, social, cognitive, environmental, applicative and psychological) by providing:
• Well-documented neuroinformation resources;
• Computational algorithms based on new hypothesis about the CNS functioning;
• New computational, descriptive (based on experimental data), physical (based on anatomy and physiology of the CNS), and interpretative (based on behavior and cognitive functioning of CNS) models for understanding and/or improving human-environment interactions;
• New analytic, numerical, and empirical approaches to evaluate models;
• Hits for experimental procedures, in particular for everyday settings; and
• In-depth ethical discussions concerning the access to human consciousness.
The Central Nervous System (CNS) provides information about how individuals collect information from their surroundings, how they process that information to make decisions, and finally, how they behave and act in their environment. CNS information can be gathered from three main sources: (1) electrical currents (e.g., electroencephalography – EEG) or electrocorticography (ECoG)), (2) magnetic fields (e.g., magnetoencephalography – MEG), and (3) level of blood oxygen or blood flow (e.g., functional near infrared spectroscopy – NIRS or functional magnetic resonance imaging – fMRI). This neuroinformation is being decoded to develop neural interfaces that aim to establish, re-establish and/or improve the neural interconnectivity of CNS in order to optimize the human-environment interaction. Not only decoding of neuroinformation has been pursued so far, but also finding the best way to recode neuroinformation by brain stimulation has been of interest in the scientific community.
Over the past few years, the decoding of neuroinfomation has been used to develop different neurotechnologies including, neurorehabilitation devices, brain-machine interfaces, neuroergonomic systems, brain stimulation, and neural interfaces for diagnosis, assessment and management of neuropathologies. All these rapid scientific advances have confronted us with at least four important issues to address along the way:
1. To publish neuroinformation collected in natural environments, and everyday settings. To give a neural insight into human behaviors and physical functioning in ecological environments can help us to propose new interpretive models to understand the cognitive function of CNS.
2. To develop computational algorithms that allow coupling humans with neurotechnologies by analysing neuroinformation bidirectionally, and thus achieving the balance between the human learning and the system adaptability.
3. To promote standardization and openness of methods by including do’s and don’ts in followed experimental procedures. In this regard, several scientific editorials have opted for publishing protocols, methodologies, software development, and databases to allow an in-depth monitoring of investigations.
4. To be aware that the access of neuroinformation give us responsibility to maintain the cognitive liberty, the mental integrity, and the psychological continuity of all of our volunteers.
Therefore, this research topic aims to motivate researchers in the field for proposing creative neuroengineering solutions for current human-environment interactive difficulties in different contexts (including, clinical, social, cognitive, environmental, applicative and psychological) by providing:
• Well-documented neuroinformation resources;
• Computational algorithms based on new hypothesis about the CNS functioning;
• New computational, descriptive (based on experimental data), physical (based on anatomy and physiology of the CNS), and interpretative (based on behavior and cognitive functioning of CNS) models for understanding and/or improving human-environment interactions;
• New analytic, numerical, and empirical approaches to evaluate models;
• Hits for experimental procedures, in particular for everyday settings; and
• In-depth ethical discussions concerning the access to human consciousness.
