The canonical mind-control task is to operate a thought mediated computer cursor to hit targets on a screen (that’s true for brain-computer interfaces anyway, but maybe not for Jedi). The…
Author: Zach Danziger
Negative Volume: A Red Flag for Cystometry
To assess bladder health we need to know (among other things) how well it can empty. We quantify this via the voiding efficiency (VE), which is the fraction of urine…
How Does the Bladder “Decide” When to Pee?
The lower urinary tract is orchestrated by an intricate web of harmonizing reflexes that act constructively to help you pee effectively (or to not pee effectively). [See Fowler and de…
The Need for Ethical Structure in Biomedical Research
Academic biomedical scientists don’t really need formal ethical guidelines because they’ve already committed themselves to working for the public good. After all, academics would be in a different (more lucrative?)…
How Much Pee is Left Inside? (Techniques for Basic Science Urology)
The most natural way to test how well the bladder and lower urinary tract (LUT) are working is to monitor what it does with urine in a process called cystometry…
We (ok, rats) Lose Urethral Sensitivity as We Age: Hints into Underactive Bladder Etiology
Many people have declining urinary tract function as they age. Is it possible that weakening sensation (peripheral neuropathy) contributes? It is a concept that has been gaining credence for the…
The Entire Human Hand as a Joystick for Robots: What Would it Take?
Suppose you would like to control something with many degrees of freedom (engineering parlance for something complicated that has many parts of it that can move or take actions), how…
NIDDK Grant to Revolutionize Mathematical Systems Physiology
I’m very excited to announce (September 2022 throwback) that NIDDK at NIH is supporting me to lead a big, interdisciplinary team to invent a new mathematical infrastructure to model the…
A New Way to Test Brain-Computer Interface Decoders: the jaBCI
The neuroscience community has been trying to build a brain-to-computer translator, that is, a system that records the electrical chatter of neurons and deciphers the thoughts of the person to…
Age Changes Neural Regulation of the Bladder and Urethra
Many of us accept that our bladders naturally weaken as we age, but is it inevitable? To stop age-related bladder underactivity (UAB) we will need to first understand why it…