Horst Complex

R.E. Ornelas Kobayashi MSc (Rafael)

Researcher
ET-BE-NR
Horst Complex W119
r.e.ornelaskobayashi@utwente.nl
+31534894348
Business card

Motivated by my fascination for neural interfacing technologies and motor-restoring technologies, I joined the University of Twente's Neuromechanical Modelling and Engineering lab in 2020.

My research combines neuronal modelling, electrophysiological recordings (i.e., high-density electromyography) and signal processing with three main research objectives:

1) Creating model-enhanced neural interfaces 

2) Studying neuro-muscular interactions in healthy and motor-impaired human individuals

3) Assessing neuro-muscular adaptations in response to electrical stimulation and robotic actuation

During my PhD, I developed a person-specific modelling framework for estimating the activity and underlying properties of human alpha-motoneuron pools during isometric contractions. This work was part of the ERC project INTERACT, led by prof. Massimo Sartori.

Priorly, I did my master thesis at the centre for neuroprosthetics, in the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, where I focus on the study of epidural electrical stimulation for restoring locomotion after spinal cord injury. 

Expertise

  • Neuroscience

    • In Vivo
    • Neurorehabilitation
    • Electromyography
    • Motor Control
    • Motor Unit
    • Excitability

  • Medicine and Dentistry

    • Motoneuron
    • Person

Organisations

Publications

2024

Person-specific modelling of α-motoneurons: Towards customized neurorehabilitation (2024)[Thesis › PhD Thesis - Research UT, graduation UT]. University of Twente. Ornelas Kobayashi, R. E.https://doi.org/10.3990/1.9789036562911Towards Personalized Motor-Restoring Technologies: Characterizing Neural Data-Driven Alpha-Motoneuron Model Parameters (2024)In 2024 10th IEEE RAS/EMBS International Conference for Biomedical Robotics and Biomechatronics (BioRob) (pp. 1581-1586). Ornelas-Kobayashi, R., Mooiweer, R. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/BioRob60516.2024.10719875Personalized Alpha-Motoneuron Pool Models Driven by Neural Data Encode the Mechanisms Controlling Rate of Force Development (2024)IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 32, 3699-3709. Ornelas-Kobayashi, R., Gomez-Orozco, I., Gogeascoechea, A., Asseldonk, E. V. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2024.3467692Neuromuscular Modeling for Locomotion with Wearable Assistive Robots -- A primer (2024)[Working paper › Preprint]. ArXiv.org. Refai, M. I., Wang, H., Gogeascoechea, A., Ornelas Kobayashi, R., Avanci Gaudio, L., Damonte, F., Durandau, G. V., van der Kooij, H., Yavuz, U. S. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2407.14289

2023

Person-Specific Biophysical Modeling of Alpha-Motoneuron Pools Driven by in vivo Decoded Neural Synaptic Input (2023)IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 31, 1532-1541. Ornelas-Kobayashi, R., Gogeascoechea, A. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2023.3247873Characterization of Motor Unit Firing and Twitch Properties for Decoding Musculoskeletal Force in the Human Ankle Joint In Vivo (2023)IEEE transactions on neural systems and rehabilitation engineering, 31, 4040-4050. Gogeascoechea, A., Ornelas-Kobayashi, R., Yavuz, U. S. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/TNSRE.2023.3319959

2022

Neural data-driven model of spinal excitability changes induced by transcutaneous electrical stimulation in spinal cord injury subjects (2022)In 2022 International Conference on Rehabilitation Robotics (ICORR). IEEE. Ornelas Kobayashi, R., Gogeascoechea Hernandez, A. D. J., Tomy, L. J., van Asseldonk, E. H. F. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/ICORR55369.2022.9896517

2021

Identification of Motor Unit Twitch Properties in the Intact Human In Vivo (2021)In 2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) (pp. 6310-6313). Hernandez, A. G., Kobayashi, R. O., Yavuz, U. S. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9630328Optimization framework for the model-based estimation of in vivo α-motoneuron properties in the intact human (2021)In 2021 43rd Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine & Biology Society (EMBC) (pp. 6126-6129). IEEE. Kobayashi, R. O., Gogeascoechea, A., Buitenweg, J., Yavuz, U. & Sartori, M.https://doi.org/10.1109/EMBC46164.2021.9630260

Research profiles

Address

University of Twente

Horst Complex (building no. 20), room W119
De Horst 2
7522 LW Enschede
Netherlands

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