Engineering Development of a Multielectrode Array and Its Application to control of Foot and Ankle During Walking.

多微电极阵列作为工程工具正在被开发，用于同时对大脑或神经中大量神经细胞的生理活动进行采样。这种阵列提出了技术挑战，包括制造、电气连接接口、电子多路复用和计算数据捕获。他们承诺对神经系统中整个细胞群如何协调它们的活动以进行适当的感觉处理或运动行为的理解达到新的水平。例如，四足脊椎动物行走的神经机制非常复杂，包括感觉输入和对几个不同肌肉群的运动输出的控制，这些肌肉群旋转着脚、脚踝、膝盖和臀部。行走控制提供了一个很好的系统，可以同时测试该电极系统的工程能力，并发现如何将感官输入用于多关节协调的原理。本项目采用一种新型的陶瓷100电极阵列长期植入腿部坐骨神经，研究在不同步行速度和负荷下，感觉信息如何用于步行步态的运动调节。这项工作的结果不仅对理解感觉运动整合很重要，而且对进一步开发一种设备也很重要，这种设备将在分析一般的大脑活动方面非常有用，而且对辅助行走恢复的假肢工程设备也有很大的潜力，例如，脊髓损伤后。该项目还将对神经生物学家和工程师之间的跨学科培训产生影响。

Multiple-microelectrode arrays are being developed as engineering tools for sampling the physiological activity of large numbers of nerve cells at once, in the brain or in nerves. Such arrays present technological challenges involving fabrication, interfaces to electrical connections, multiplexing by electronics, and computational data capture. They promise new levels of understanding of how whole groups of cells in the nervous system coordinate their activity for appropriate sensory processing or motor behavior. For example, the neural mechanisms underlying walking in tetrapod vertebrates are highly complex, involving sensory input and control of motor output for several different muscle groups rotating foot, ankle, knee and hip. Control of walking provides an excellent system to simultaneously test the engineering capability of this electrode system, and to discover principles of how sensory input is used for multi-joint coordination. This project uses a novel ceramic 100-electrode array chronically implanted in the sciatic nerve of the leg to study how sensory information is used for motor regulation of the walking gait under different walking speeds and loads. Results from this work will be important not only for understanding sensorimotor integration, but for further development of a device that will be extremely useful in analyzing brain activity in general, as well as having great potential for prosthetic engineering devices to assist walking recovery, for example, after spinal cord injury. The project also will have an impact on cross-disciplinary training between neurobiologists and engineers.