CORTICAL CONTROL OF NEURAL PROSTHESES

美国国家神经疾病和中风研究所的神经假体项目致力于功能性神经肌肉刺激(FNS)的研究和开发，以尽可能高的功能水平恢复四肢瘫痪患者的手和手臂功能。这些金融网络系统在个人的自愿控制下运作。为假体生成控制信号是任何潜在的FNS系统的关键部分，这些控制信号与个体未受伤的、自愿的皮质运动系统集成在一起。目前，控制信号是由未瘫痪的肌肉(如对侧肩)的随意运动产生的。这项研究的目的是确定通过直接自愿控制中枢神经系统(CNS)中的神经元来产生控制信号的可行性。为了证明皮质神经活动可以用来控制假体，我们需要证明在中枢神经系统中选定的细胞群的神经活动可以被可靠地记录很长一段时间。然后必须证明，在自愿控制下，来自这群神经元的信号可以可靠地控制机电设备。在目前的合同期间，已经证明大鼠可以调节其运动皮质的神经活动，以控制机械臂来取回食物奖励。目前正在努力将这些结果复制到有脑回的动物身上，但到目前为止，在更大的大脑动物身上很难实现长期记录。这项研究的重点将是发展具有脑回回的灵长类动物的慢性微电极记录技术。还将研究从记录的神经活动中提取控制信号。

The Neural Prosthesis Program of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke is committed to research and development on functional neuromuscular stimulation (FNS) to restore hand and arm function in quadriplegic individuals at the highest functional level possible. These FNS systems operate under the voluntary control of the individual. Generating control signals for a prosthesis that are integrated with the individuals uninjured, voluntary, cortical motor system is a critical part of any potential FNS system. Presently, control signals are generated by voluntary movements of unparalyzed muscles such as the contralateral shoulder. The goal of this research is to establish the feasibility of generating control signals by direct voluntary control of neurons in the central nervous system (CNS). To demonstrate that cortical neural activity can be used to control a prosthesis, we need to demonstrate that the neural activity of selected cell populations in the CNS can be reliably recorded for extended periods of time. Then it must be shown that the signals from this population of neurons can, under voluntary control, reliably control an electromechanical device. During the current contract period, it has been demonstrated that a rat can modulate neural activity in its motor cortex to control a mechanical arm to retrieve a food reward. Efforts are underway to duplicate these results in animals with a gyrencephalic brain, but thus far, chronic recording has been difficult to achieve in larger brained animals. The focus of this research will be on the development of chronic microelectrode recording techniques in a primate with a gyrencephalic brain. There will also be research on extracting control signals from the recorded neural activity.