RESEARCH & DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS OVERVIEW
Whisker Tracking Data Processing Acceleration
The rodent whisker system is a prominent experimental subject for the study of sensorimotor integration and active sensing. As a result of improved video-recording technology and progressively better neurophysiological methods, there is now the prospect of precisely analyzing the intact vibrissal sensori motor system. The vibrissae and snout analyzer (ViSA), also noted as BWTT, a widely used algorithm based on computer vision and image processing, has been proven successful for tracking and quantifying rodent sensorimotor behaviour, but at a significant cost in processing time…
OptiFlex: Multi-Frame Animal Pose Estimation Combining Deep Learning With Optical Flow
Animal pose estimation tools based on deep learning have significantly improved the quantification of animal behaviour. These tools analyze individual video frames to determine the pose of animals, but they do not consider the variations in animal body shapes when making predictions and evaluations. We have developed a new framework called OptiFlex that addresses this limitation. OptiFlex combines a flexible base model called FlexibleBaseline, which accounts for variations in animal body shape, with an OpticalFlow model that considers the temporal context from nearby video frames…
Power Flex Wireless Implants
Our goal with Powerflex is to provide a user-friendly platform that can be easily customized for neuroscience research. It uses wireless power transfer to activate small implants placed under the skin of mammals. These implants can be adjusted to fit different shapes and sizes, and we even developed special optogenetic probes that can be added for optional stimulation. With Powerflex, we can track the movements, positions, and interactions of multiple animals at the same time…
Anatomy Dept. Management System
We are currently developing a system for managing the storage of bodies and donor registration for the anatomy department of ErasmusMC. The system includes smart advanced search, smart analytics and it’s cloud-ready. The Database Management System (DMS) is a comprehensive software solution that handles the registration and management of donors, as well as the storage of bodies. This system comprises two distinct applications seamlessly linked through a shared database…
BrainFrame: Brain Simulation Library on HPC Platforms
The general goal of the project is to apply high-performance, innovative solutions to enable large-scale, accurate or real-time brain simulations and enhance experimental setups or data analysis of the experimental data concerning brain research. Thus, our activities employ a multitude of HPC and other technologies such as FPGAs, Dataflow Computing, GPUs and Many-core processors. The long-term goal and main focus of the effort within this theme is the development of a generic tooling framework for accelerated brain simulations, the BrainFrame Framework…
Smart Implantable NeuroStimulators (SINS)
The SINs (Smart Implantable Neurostimulators) project is focused on the development of soft- and hardware for the next-generation neurostimulators. It is a collaboration between the Dutch Neuroscience Department of the Erasmus Medical Center, Neurasmus B.V., the Delft University of Technology and the Belgian BRAI²N group (Brain Research center Antwerp for Innovative & Interdisciplinary Neuromodulation). Neurostimulation is the electrical stimulation of the nervous system, which may be used for the treatment of many medical conditions. The advantage of electrical stimulation over pharmaceutical means is that the stimulation can be applied at specific locations, limiting the side effects experienced by the…