Dr. Robert F. Kirsch, Ph.D. is the Allen H. and Constance T. Ford Professor and Chair of Biomedical Engineering at Case Western Reserve University and the Executive Director of the Department of Veterans Affairs Rehabilitation Research and Development Service “Center for Functional Electrical Stimulation”. He is the Principal Investigator of the Case-Coulter Translational Research partnership, a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE), the Chair of the national BME Council of Chairs (2017), the Director of a NIBIB T32 training grant, and a member of advisory boards for a number of biomedical engineering departments, research centers, and training grants across the US and internationally. His research focuses on the restoration of arm movements to individuals with complete paralysis of arm muscles due to spinal cord injury or other neurological disorders using functional electrical stimulation (FES), as well as high performance user command interfaces such as brain computer interfaces and advanced prosthetic user interfaces. He received a BS in electrical engineering (University of Cincinnati) and the MS and Ph.D. in biomedical engineering (Northwestern University), and completed post-doctoral research (McGill University).
Research Information
Research Interests
My research focuses on the mechanics and control of human movement with the goal of restoring functional movement to people with disabilities.
In this work, I study the properties of the intact body to determine basic mechanical properties and to understand how the nervous system normally controls movement. I also study individuals with neurological disorders such as spinal cord injury to determine how we can restore movements using electrical stimulation of paralyzed muscles (FES), or surgical procedures such as muscle tendon transfers. Recent applications also include work with providing commands to advanced prosthetic arms and hands.
Current projects to achieve these goals include:
Studying new ways for users to provide commands to a rehabilitation technology, including recording from retained muscles and recording from the brain using brain-computer interfaces.
Developing advanced feedback control algorithms
Designing and building new implantable medical devices to record nerve activity from the periphery, position, and orientation
Recording patterns of muscle activations in people who have amputations to seamlessly provide commands to advanced prostheses
Our group uses several scientific and engineering techniques to study these issues, including computer-based modeling of the human arm, artificial neural networks, fuzzy logic controllers, robotics and haptic feedback devices, virtual reality simulations, advanced feedforward and feedback control theory, system identification, and dimension reduction.
My research is supported by the National Institutes of Health, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the Wallace A. Coulter Foundation, and the Army Telemedicine and Technology Research Center.
Publications
- Rastogi, A., Vargas-Irwin, C., Willett, F., Abreu, J., Crowder, D., Murphy, B., Memberg, W., Miller, J., Sweet, J., Walter, B., Cash, S., Rezaii, P., Franco, B., Saab, J., Stavisky, S., Shenoy, K., Henderson, J., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Ajiboye, B. B. (2020). Neural Representation of Observed, Imagined, and Attempted Grasping Force in Motor Cortex of Individuals with Chronic Tetraplegia.. Scientific reports, 10 (1), 1429.
- Stavisky, S., Willett, F., Wilson, C., Murphy, B., Rezaii, P., Avansino, D., Memberg, W., Miller, J., Kirsch, B. F., Hochberg, L. F., Ajiboye, B. B., Druckmann, S. B., Shenoy, K. B., & Henderson, J. B. (2019). Neural ensemble dynamics in dorsal motor cortex during speech in people with paralysis.. eLife, 8
- Willett, F., Young, D., Murphy, B., Memberg, W., Blabe, C., Pandarinath, C., Stavisky, S., Rezaii, P., Saab, J., Walter, B., Sweet, J., Miller, J., Henderson, J., Shenoy, K., Simeral, J., Jarosiewicz, B., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Bolu Ajiboye, A. F. (2019). Principled BCI Decoder Design and Parameter Selection Using a Feedback Control Model. Scientific Reports, 9 (1).
- Kirsch, B. F., Ajiboye, B. B., & Miller, J. B. (2019). The Reconnecting the Hand and Arm with Brain (ReHAB) Commentary on "An Integrated Brain-Machine Interface Platform With Thousands of Channels".. Journal of medical Internet research, 21 (10), e16339.
- Young, D., Willett, F., Memberg, W., Murphy, B., Rezaii, P., Walter, B., Sweet, J., Miller, J., Shenoy, K., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Ajiboye, B. B. (2019). Closed-loop cortical control of virtual reach and posture using cartesian and joint velocity commands. Journal of Neural Engineering, 16 (2).
- Young, D., Willett, F., Memberg, W., Murphy, B., Rezaii, P., Walter, B., Sweet, J., Miller, J., Shenoy, K., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Ajiboye, B. B. (2019). Closed-loop cortical control of virtual reach and posture using cartesian and joint velocity commands. Journal of Neural Engineering, 16 (2).
- Willett, F., Murphy, B., Young, D., Memberg, W., Blabe, C., Pandarinath, C., Franco, B., Saab, J., Walter, B., Sweet, J., Miller, J., Henderson, J., Shenoy, K., Simeral, J., Jarosiewicz, B., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Ajiboye, B. B. (2018). A Comparison of Intention Estimation Methods for Decoder Calibration in Intracortical Brain�Computer Interfaces. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 65 (9), 2066-2078.
- Young, D., Willett, F., Memberg, W., Murphy, B., Walter, B., Sweet, J., Miller, J., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Ajiboye, B. B. (2018). Signal processing methods for reducing artifacts in microelectrode brain recordings caused by functional electrical stimulation. Journal of Neural Engineering, 15 (2).
- Brandman, D., Hosman, T., Saab, J., Burkhart, M., Shanahan, B., Ciancibello, J., Sarma, A., Milstein, D., Vargas-Irwin, C., Franco, B., Kelemen, J., Blabe, C., Murphy, B., Young, D., Willett, F., Pandarinath, C., Stavisky, S., Kirsch, B. F., Walter, B. F., Bolu Ajiboye, A. F., Cash, S. F., Eskandar, E. F., Miller, J. F., Sweet, J. F., Shenoy, K. F., Henderson, J. F., Jarosiewicz, B. F., Harrison, M. F., Simeral, J. F., & Hochberg, L. F. (2018). Rapid calibration of an intracortical brain�computer interface for people with tetraplegia. Journal of Neural Engineering, 15 (2).
- Willett, F., Murphy, B., Memberg, W., Blabe, C., Pandarinath, C., Walter, B., Sweet, J., Miller, J., Henderson, J., Shenoy, K., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Ajiboye, B. B. (2017). Signal-independent noise in intracortical brain-computer interfaces causes movement time properties inconsistent with Fitts' law.. Journal of neural engineering, 14 (2), 026010.
- Ajiboye, B. B., Willett, F. B., Young, D. B., Memberg, W. B., Murphy, B. B., Miller, J. B., Walter, B. B., Sweet, J. B., Hoyen, H. B., Keith, M. B., Peckham, H. H., Simeral, J. H., Donoghue, J. H., Hochberg, L. H., & Kirsch, B. F. (2017). Restoration of reaching and grasping movements through brain-controlled muscle stimulation in a person with tetraplegia: a proof-of-concept demonstration.. Lancet (London, England).
- Willett, F., Pandarinath, C., Jarosiewicz, B., Murphy, B., Memberg, W., Blabe, C., Saab, J., Walter, B., Sweet, J., Miller, J., Henderson, J., Shenoy, K., Simeral, J., Hochberg, L., Kirsch, B. F., & Ajiboye, B. B. (2017). Feedback control policies employed by people using intracortical brain-computer interfaces.. Journal of neural engineering, 14 (1), 016001.
- Jagodnik, K., Thomas, P., Van den Bogert, A., Branicky, M., & Kirsch, B. F. (2017). Training an Actor-Critic Reinforcement Learning Controller for Arm Movement Using Human-Generated Rewards. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering.
- Williams, M., & Kirsch, B. F. (2016). Case study: Head orientation and neck electromyography for cursor control in persons with high cervical tetraplegia. The Journal of Rehabilitation Research and Development [07487711], 53 (4), 519-530.
- Jagodnik, K., Thomas, P., Van den Bogert, A., Branicky, M., & Kirsch, B. F. (2016). Human-Like Rewards to Train a Reinforcement Learning Controller for Planar Arm Movement. IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems [21682291], 46 (5), 723-733.
- Schearer, E., Liao, Y., Perreault, E., Tresch, M., Memberg, W., Kirsch, B. F., & Lynch, K. F. (2016). Semiparametric Identification of Human Arm Dynamics for Flexible Control of a Functional Electrical Stimulation Neuroprosthesis. IEEE Transactions on Neural Systems and Rehabilitation Engineering [15344320], 24 (12), 1405-1415.
- Kirsch, B. F. (2015). Evaluation of head orientation and neck muscle EMG signals as three-dimensional command sources.. Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation, 12 , 25.
- Williams, M., & Kirsch, B. F. (2015). Evaluation of head orientation and neck muscle EMG signals as three-dimensional command sources. JOURNAL OF NEUROENGINEERING AND REHABILITATION, 12 , -.
- Liao, J., & Kirsch, B. F. (2015). Velocity neurons improve performance more than goal or position neurons do in a simulated closed-loop BCI arm-reaching task. FRONTIERS IN COMPUTATIONAL NEUROSCIENCE, 9 , -.
- Nataraj, R., Audu, M. L., Kirsch, B. F., & Triolo, R. F. (2012). Trunk acceleration for neuroprosthetic control of standing: a pilot study. J Appl Biomech, 28 (1), 85-92.
- Ajiboye, B. B., Simeral, J. B., Donoghue, J. B., Hochberg, L. B., & Kirsch, B. F. (2012). Prediction of Imagined Single-Joint Movements in a Person with High Level Tetraplegia. IEEE.
- Nataraj, R., Audu, M. L., Kirsch, B. F., & Triolo, R. F. (2012). Center of mass acceleration feedback control for standing by functional neuromuscular stimulation: a simulation study. J Rehabil Res Dev, 49 (2), 279-96.
- Polasek, K., Hoyen, H., Keith, M., Kirsch, B. F., & Tyler, D. J. (2009). Stimulation stability and selectivity of chronically implanted multicontact nerve cuff electrodes in the human upper extremity. IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 17 (5), 428--437.
- Kirsch, B. F. (2008). Evaluation of head orientation and neck muscle EMG signals as command inputs to a human-computer interface for individuals with high tetraplegia.. IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering : a publication of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, 16 (5), 485-96.