Neuronal based prosthetic control of volitional movement

摘要 无法交流是中枢神经系统损伤最严重的一个方面 神经系统，包括不能执行基本任务，如弯曲和 伸展肢体或在屏幕上移动简单的光标。虽然迄今为止的大多数研究 靶向中枢神经系统受损区域的内在修复或再生 例如脑干或近端颈脊髓， 在功能上保持完整的区域之间的信息在很大程度上未被探索。我们团队的工作 和其他人已经证明，在皮层和皮层下区域的神经元活动，负责 运动控制能准确预测意志性运动意图，并能传递事件相关信息 负责运动产生的区域中的电刺激可以可再现地改变目标肢体 运动在目前的研究中，我们的目标是通过系统地匹配和 在灵长类动物执行运动定向任务时，通过运动产生改变运动意图。到 最后，我们将从相同的皮层下区域获得单神经元记录，以预测 并使用类似的系统设计来向腹侧脊髓传递电刺激 以近似和改变机芯的生产。神经元活动的变化 在多个试验中进行检查，因为观察到的由神经元活动预测的运动， 对应或不匹配脊髓刺激产生的运动。这些发现将 提供了一个独特的视角到个别的作用，运动神经元的可塑性和脊髓 传出活动在适应性运动控制中的作用，并可能为研究 开发旨在恢复自主运动的假肢设计。

Abstract 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.