Amol Yadav, assistant professor in the Joint Department of Biomedical Engineering at UNC-Chapel Hill and NC State, was honored with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Director’s New Innovator Award for his research in sensory augmentation. According to the NIH, the award recognizes outstanding early-career investigators of exceptional creativity pursuing bold, highly innovative research projects. This award is considered part of their High-Risk, High-Reward Research Program and will provide $2.33 million over five years.
Amol’s award-funded research focuses on developing technologies to enhance sensory perception to support rehabilitation efforts in individuals with neurological disorders. In rehabilitation engineering, brain-machine interfaces have been successfully used to extract brain signals to control the movement of external prosthetic devices. However, there is a need for more research on developing and expanding the real-time feedback between the neuroprosthetic device and the user. Amol’s research proposes using a unique device interface to increase, restore, amplify and alter sensory perception signals to improve motor control and improve rehabilitation efforts while using the device.
Specifically, Amol’s work will explore new ways to regulate signals between the nervous system and a neuroprosthetic device. Amol has proposed a feasibility study in patients who receive spinal cord stimulator implantation for chronic pain, which is a device that uses an electrical current to stimulate nerves in the spinal cord to block pain signals to the brain. The project will use existing spinal cord stimulators, an FDA-approved technology, to detect and interpret signal inputs and improve sensory perception without changing the patient’s standard of care.
“Our work will not only allow us to restore sensory perceptions in individuals who have lost sensorimotor function but also enable us to ask profound questions such as, What are the limits of human sensory perception? Does the human brain have an infinite capacity to learn novel perceptions?” stated Amol.
Exploring the neurological feedback loop between a rehabilitation device and the user’s nervous system ultimately improves the quality of life for those affected by sensory loss from stroke, amputations, spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. To learn more about Amol’s innovative research in sensory augmentation, please visit his lab website here.
Details for Amol’s awarded project “Sensory Augmentation, Restoration, and Modulation Using a Spinal Neuroprosthesis” can be found on the NIH website here.
This article was written by Kathleen Clardy for Joint BME Communications