Neuronal based prosthetic control of volitional movement

描述(申请人提供)：缺乏沟通能力是中枢神经系统损伤最具致残性的方面之一，包括无法执行基本任务，如伸展肢体或在屏幕上移动简单的光标。虽然到目前为止，大多数研究的目标是中枢神经系统受损区域的内在修复或再生，如脑干或近端颈脊髓，但在功能保持完整的区域之间重新定向信息的替代方法大多未被探索。我们团队和其他人的工作表明，负责运动控制的皮质和皮质下区域的神经元活动可以准确地预测意志性运动意图，并且在负责运动产生的区域传递事件相关电刺激可以重复地改变目标肢体运动。在目前的研究中，我们的目标是通过系统地匹配和改变执行运动定向任务的灵长类动物的运动意图和运动产生来扩展这些发现。为此，我们将从相同的皮质下区域获得单神经元记录，以预测运动意图，并使用类似的系统设计将电刺激传递到腹侧脊髓，以近似和改变运动产生。神经元活动的变化将在多个试验中进行检查，因为由神经元活动预测的观察到的运动要么与脊髓刺激产生的运动相对应，要么不匹配。这些发现将为运动神经元可塑性和脊髓传出活动在适应性运动控制中所扮演的个体角色提供一个独特的视角，并可能为旨在恢复意志运动的假肢设计的发展提供有价值的新见解。与公共卫生相关：运动缺陷是中枢神经系统受损的受试者最虚弱的方面之一。尽管不断努力开发这种损伤患者的治疗方法，但重建意志运动控制的选择仍然很少，而且往往没有选择。这项拟议的项目旨在探索一种恢复运动通讯的新方法，该方法基于我们团队开发的用于清醒行为灵长类动物的系统设计。这种装置的重大社会影响已经随着人工耳蜗、脑干和视网膜假体的出现而得到证明，同样可能为脑干和近端脊髓损伤导致的运动障碍患者提供显著的好处。

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The inability to communicate underlies one of the most disabling aspects of injury to the central nervous system, and includes the inability to perform rudimentary tasks such as flexing and extending ones' limb or moving a simple cursor on a screen. While the majority of studies thus far have targeted the intrinsic repair or regeneration of damaged areas of the central nervous system such as brainstem or proximal cervical spinal cord, alternative approaches for redirecting information between areas that remain functionally intact is largely unexplored. Work by our group and others has demonstrated that neuronal activity in cortical and subcortical areas responsible for motor control can accurately predict volitional movement intention, and that delivery of event-related electrical stimuli in areas responsible for motor production can reproducibly alter targeted limb movement. In the current study, we aim to extend these findings by systematically matching and altering motor intent with movement production in primates performing a motor directional task. To this end, we will obtain single-neuronal recording from the same subcortical areas shown to predict motor intention and use a similar system design to deliver electrical stimuli to the ventral spinal cord in order to approximate and alter movement production. Changes in neuronal activity will be examined over multiple trials as observed movements predicted by neuronal activity are made to either correspond or mismatch movements produced by spinal cord stimulation. These findings will provide a unique perspective into the individual roles that motor neuronal plasticity and spinal efferent activity play in adaptive motor control, and may offer valuable new insight into the development of prosthetic designs aimed at restoring volitional movement. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE: Motor deficit is among the most debilitating aspects of subjects suffering injury to the central nervous system. Despite continued efforts to develop treatments for patients with such injury, there remain few and often no options available for reconstituting volitional motor control. The proposed project aims to explore a novel approach for restoring motor communication that is based on a system design developed by our group for use in awake-behaving primates. The significant social impact of such devices has already been demonstrated with the emergence of cochlear, brainstem and retinal prosthetic implants, and may similarly provide significant benefit for patients with motor disability resulting from brainstem and proximal spinal cord injury.