BRAIN ROBOT AUGMENTED INTERACTION
Our Brain Robot Augmented InteractioN (BRAIN) Lab is connecting robot to brain and creating innovations that help humans to lead their better life. To this end, our research aims at breakthroughs going well beyond the state of the art in Brain Robot Interaction.

Aug 8, 2020
SANG HYEON JIN, SEUNG HYUN LEE, SEUNG TAE YANG, JINUNG AN*
HEMISPHERIC ASYMMETRY IN HAND PREFERENCE OF RIGHT-HANDERS FOR PASSIVE VIBROTACTILE PERCEPTION: AN FNIRS STUDY
Hemispheric asymmetry in hand preference for passive cutaneous perception compared to active haptic perception is not well known. A functional near-infrared spectroscopy was used to evaluate the laterality of cortical facilitation when 31 normal right-handed participants were involved in 205 Hz passive vibrotactile cutaneous stimuli on their index fingers of preferred and less-preferred hand. Passive cutaneous perception resulted that preferred (right) hand stimulation was strongly leftward lateralized, whereas less-preferred (left) hand stimulation was less lateralized. This confirms that other manual haptic exploration studies described a higher hemispheric asymmetry in right-handers. Stronger cortical facilitation was found in the right primary somatosensory cortex (S1) and right somatosensory association area (SA) during left-hand stimulation but not right-hand stimulation. This finding suggests that the asymmetric activation in the S1 and SA for less-preferred (left) hand stimulation might contribute to considerably reinforce sensorimotor network just with passive vibrotactile cutaneous stimulation.
Jin, S.H., Lee, S.H., Yang, S.T. et al. Hemispheric asymmetry in hand preference of right-handers for passive vibrotactile perception: an fNIRS study. Sci Rep 10, 13423 (2020).
Oct 01, 2019
SANG HYEON JIN, SEUNG HYUN LEE, JINUNG AN*
THE DIFFERENCE IN CORTICAL ACTIVATION PATTERN FOR COMPLEX MOTOR SKILLS: A FUNCTIONAL NEAR- INFRARED SPECTROSCOPY STUDY
The human brain is lateralized to dominant or non-dominant hemispheres, and controlled through large-scale neural networks between correlated cortical regions. Recently, many neuroimaging studies have been conducted to examine the origin of brain lateralization, but this is still unclear. In this study, we examined the differences in brain activation in subjects according to dominant and non-dominant hands while using chopsticks. Fifteen healthy right-handed subjects were recruited to perform tasks which included transferring almonds using stainless steel chopsticks. Functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) was used to acquire the hemodynamic response over the primary sensory-motor cortex (SM1), premotor area (PMC), supplementary motor area (SMA), and frontal cortex. We measured the concentrations of oxy-hemoglobin and deoxy-hemoglobin induced during the use of chopsticks with dominant and non-dominant hands. While using the dominant hand, brain activation was observed on the contralateral side. While using the non-dominant hand, brain activation was observed on the ipsilateral side as well as the contralateral side. These results demonstrate dominance and functional asymmetry of the cerebral hemisphere.
Jun 1, 2018
SEUNG HYUN LEE, SANG HYEON JIN, AND JINUNG AN*
DISTINCTION OF DIRECTIONAL COUPLING IN SENSORIMOTOR NETWORKS BETWEEN ACTIVE AND PASSIVE FINGER MOVEMENTS USING FNIRS
The purpose of this study is to investigate cerebral cortex activation during active movement and passive movement by using a functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS). Tasks were the flexion/extension of the right hand finger by active movement and passive movement. Oxy-hemoglobin concentration changes calculated from fNIRS and analyzed the activation and connectivity so as to understand dynamical brain relationship. The results demonstrated that the brain activation in passive movements is similar to motor execution. During active movement, the estimated causality patterns showed significant causality value from the supplementary motor area (SMA) to the primary motor cortex (M1). During the passive movement, the causality from the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) to the primary motor cortex (M1) was stronger than active movement. These results demonstrated that active and passive movements had a direct effect on the cerebral cortex but the stimulus pathway of active and passive movement is different. This study may contribute to better understanding how active and passive movements can be expressed into cortical activation by means of fNIRS.
Lee SH, Jin SH, An J. Distinction of directional coupling in sensorimotor networks between active and passive finger movements using fNIRS. Biomed Opt Express. 2018;9(6):2859-2870. Published 2018 May 31. doi:10.1364/BOE.9.002859
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