We wish to bring hope for millions of people who suffer from Chronic Pain. .

Our research project focuses on medical implants for chronic pain reduction and investigation of the science of pain.

A combined wireless neural stimulating and recording system for study of pain processing
			Thermpon Ativanichayaphong, Ji Wei He, Christopher E. Hagains, Yuan B. Peng, and J.-C. Chiao Published in the Journal of Neuroscience Methods, No. 170, pp. 25–34, 2008. Clinical studies have shown that spinal or cortical neurostimulation could significantly improve pain relief. The currently available stimulators, however, are used only to generate specific electrical signals without the knowledge of physiologically responses caused from the stimulation. We thus propose a new system that can adaptively generate the optimized stimulating signals base on the correlated neuron activities. This new method could significantly improve the efficiency of neurostimulation for pain relief. We have developed an integrated wireless recording and stimulating system to transmit the neuronal signals and to activate the stimulator over the wireless link. A wearable prototype has been developed consisting of amplifiers, wireless modules, and a microcontroller remotely controlled by a Labview program in a computer to generate desired stimulating pulses. The components were assembled on a board with a size of 2.5×5 cm2 to be carried by a rat. To validate our system, lumbar spinal cord dorsal horn neuron activities of anesthetized rats have been recorded in responses to various types of peripheral graded mechanical stimuli. The stimulation at the periaqueductal gray and anterior cingulate cortex with different combinations of electrical parameters showed a comparable inhibition of spinal cord dorsal horns activities in response to the mechanical stimuli. The Labview program was also used to monitor the neuronal activities and automatically activate the stimulator with designated pulses. Our wireless system has provided an opportunity for further study of pain processing with closed-loop stimulation paradigm in a potential new pain relief method.
Efficiency of an integrative sensor and stimulator system in inhibition of spinal dorsal horn neurons by stimulation of the anterior cingulate cortex
		J.W. He, T. Ativanichayaphong, J.-C. Chiao, C.E. Hagains, L.A. Kachlic, and Y.B. Peng This work was presented at the 37th Annual Meeting, Society for Neuroscience, Neuroscience 2007, San Diego, CA, November 3-7, 2007. Brain stimulation is proved to be a potential effective therapy to alleviate pain through activating some specific brain regions, such as the septum, anterior cingulate cortex, motor cortex, etc. Current study is aimed at delivering proper electrical pulses to the anterior cingulate cortex in anesthetized rats by a wireless integrative sensor and stimulator system (ISSS). Our previous study has shown that electrical stimulation of the anterior cingulate cortex produces inhibition of spinal cord dorsal horn neuron activity induced by mechanical nociceptive stimuli. The current study was to validate the efficiency of ISSS for potential application in freely-moving animals. Various combinations of parameters such as intensity (1v, 2.5v, 4v), duration of single pulse (.05ms, .1ms, 1ms, 2ms), number of pulse (20, 50, 100, 150, 200), pulse intervals (5ms, 250ms), are applied during graded mechanical stimulations, including brush, pressure, and pinch. The comparison of neuronal activities in terms of action potential rate (pulse/second) between the stimulating period and without stimulation period is used to measure the inhibition effect. The results showed consistent inhibition effect when electrical pulses were applied during graded mechanical stimuli (brush, pressure and pinch). The effects are more likely sensitive to intervals, i.e. the greater the interval of electrical stimulation, the less inhibition in dorsal horn neuron activity induced by peripheral mechanical stimulation. The variance of other factors is relatively small. It is concluded that ISSS can be used in freely-moving animals. This project is supported by the NSF, ECS Division, IHCS Program, Grant #ECS-0601229 and Automation & Robotics Research Institute.
Development of integrative wireless sensor and stimulator for modulating neuronal activities
		This work was presented at the 36th Annual Meeting, Society for Neuroscience, Neuroscience 2006, Atlanta, Georgia, Oct. 14-18 2006, and the Conference in Neuroengineering, Dallas, June 26-28, 2006. Neurostimulation has been demonstrated to reduce chronic pain. However, the present stimulators are open-loop systems in which the doctors can only obtain the results of pain management from patients’ verbal description. Therefore, we proposed an integrative sensor and stimulator system (ISSS) consisting of miniature wireless neuronal signal sensor and brain stimulator to investigate the inhibitory effects of the spinal cord dorsal horn neuronal activity with the motor cortex stimulation. We developed a wearable prototype with off-the-shelf circuit components. The sensor consists of an amplifier and a 914-MHz transmitter module, and the stimulator includes a 433-MHz receiver module and a microcontroller remotely controlled by a Labview program in the computer to generate desired stimulating pulses. The wireless modules allow simultaneously recording and stimulating. The recorded data are transmitted, processed and filtered at the hardware level and analyzed in real time in a graphical user interface. The modules are assembled on a PCB circuit board of 2.5×5.0cm, including antennas and batteries. In this study, lumbar spinal cord dorsal horn neurons were recorded in responses to peripheral mechanical stimulation on anesthetized rats, while stimulation at the motor cortex delivered at various combinations of parameters (number of pulses, pulse durations, pulse intervals, and voltage levels). The results showed reduction of neuronal responses when electrical pulses were applied during mechanical stimuli (brush, pressure and pinch). The ISSS has achieved a clear recording of signals and effects of the motor cortex stimulation similar to those of a conventional electrophysiological setup. Moreover this wireless device will allow investigation of behavior in freely-moving rats. This work is funded by National Science Foundation, Integrative, Complex and Hybrid Systems program.
	Our team
	Professor J.C. Chiao			iMEMS, Electrical Engineering, UT-Arlington
	Professor Yuan Bo Pend			Psychology, UT-Arlington, Professor Peng
	Professor Victoria Chen			Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering, UT-Arlington, Professor Chen
	Professor Jay Rosenberger			Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering, UT-Arlington, Professor Rosenberger
	Professor Seoung Bum Kim			Industrial & Manufacturing Systems Engineering, UT-Arlington, Professor Kim