Researchers Demonstrate Non-Invasive Method Can Help People Re-Learn to Walk

Researchers from the University of Houston have shown for the first time that the use of a brain-computer interface augmented with a virtual walking avatar can control gait, suggesting the protocol may help patients recover the ability to walk after stroke, some spinal cord injuries and certain other gait disabilities.

In an innovative collaboration between scientists and artists, “Your Brain on Art” is a series of studies that seek to understand what happens in the brain as people create and contemplate art.

The Cullen College continues to make headlines with research exploring the intersection of neuroscience, engineering and art conducted by Jose Luis “Pepe” Contreras-Vidal, Hugh Roy and Lillie Cranz Cullen University Professor of electrical and computer engineering.

Three prominent visual artists, Dario Robleto, Jo Ann Fleischhauer and Lily Cox-Richard, were recently appointed Cullen College of Engineering Artists-in-Residence in Neuroaesthetics. 

Intentionality is the core of human cognition and movement, and Jose Luis “Pepe” Contreras-Vidal is intent on understanding, for all intents and purposes, the neural mechanisms of intention in the human brain.

The Institute for Rehabilitation and Research (TIRR) Foundation, a nonprofit organization devoted to improving the lives of patients with central nervous system damage, awarded Jose “Pepe” Contreras-Vidal, professor of electrical and computer engineering at UH

As part of a growing scientific emphasis on understanding the brain, a UH engineering professor is studying what happens as people create and contemplate art and beauty.

Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal has received a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) to track neural activity as people both make and view art.

On any other given day, you would likely find electrical and computer engineering (ECE) professor Jose Luis Contreras-Vidal inside of his UH Laboratory for Noninvasive Brain-Machine Interface Systems.