Robust learning from corrupted EEG with dynamic spatial filtering.

Building machine learning models using EEG recorded outside of the laboratory setting requires methods robust to noisy data and randomly missing channels. This need is particularly great when working with sparse EEG montages (1-6 channels), often encountered in consumer-grade or mobile EEG devices. Neither classical machine learning models nor deep neural networks trained end-to-end on EEG are typically designed or tested for robustness to corruption, and especially to randomly missing channels.

Methods for characterization of mechanical and electrical prosthetic vacuum pumps.

Despite increasingly widespread adoption of vacuum-assisted suspension systems in prosthetic clinical practices, there remain gaps in the body of scientific knowledge guiding clinicians' choices of existing products. In this study, we identified important pump-performance metrics and developed techniques to objectively characterize the evacuation performance of prosthetic vacuum pumps. The sensitivity of the proposed techniques was assessed by characterizing the evacuation performance of two electrical (Harmony e-Pulse [Ottobock; Duderstadt, Germany] and LimbLogic VS [Ohio Willow Wood; Mt.

Vocal accuracy and neural plasticity following micromelody-discrimination training.

Background: Recent behavioral studies report correlational evidence to suggest that non-musicians with good pitch discrimination sing more accurately than those with poorer auditory skills. However, other studies have reported a dissociation between perceptual and vocal production skills. In order to elucidate the relationship between auditory discrimination skills and vocal accuracy, we administered an auditory-discrimination training paradigm to a group of non-musicians to determine whether training-enhanced auditory discrimination would specifically result in improved vocal accuracy.

Neural networks involved in voluntary and involuntary vocal pitch regulation in experienced singers.

In an fMRI experiment, we tested experienced singers with singing tasks to investigate neural correlates of voluntary and involuntary vocal pitch regulation. We shifted the pitch of auditory feedback (+/-25 or 200 cents), and singers either: (1) ignored the shift and maintained their vocal pitch or (2) changed their vocal pitch to compensate for the shift. In our previous study, singers successfully ignored and compensated for 200-cent shifts; in the present experiment, we hypothesized that singers would be less able to ignore 25-cent shifts, due to a prepotent, corrective pitch-shift response.