Investigation of Embodiment for Upper Limb Amputees

项目摘要 如今，假手已经麻木了。它们不提供触觉或本体感觉 信息反馈给用户。缺乏感官反馈已被证明会降低效用 一个假肢的一半。假肢被视为一种工具，而不是身体的一个组成部分 schema.直到现在才有长期植入的技术， 对上肢截肢者进行生理上适当的感觉反馈， 本体感觉这些感觉是构建块，使体现 设备.此外，新制定的成果衡量标准现已可用， 详细描述了这种神经接口可以创建的改进的实施例。我的使命是 使用外周神经刺激并由此闭合差距的人工装置的实施例 我们完整的生理系统和那些使用假肢治疗的人之间的差异。 对上肢截肢者的实施方式的调查分为三个主要领域， 工作包括1）规范性数据收集，2）器械开发，3）表征 在一个实施例中，使用外周神经刺激。规范性数据收集将量化 传统美容、身体动力和肌电假手的实施例 使用修改后的橡胶手错觉方案（具体目标1）的选项。这一推力将要求 实施例的数量在传统的假手之间是如何变化的 探讨代理与体现的关系。设备开发项目 需要多模态传感器的设计，以研究全手的体现（具体目的 2）。能够测量并随后引出手的被动表面（手掌， 尺侧缘和背侧表面）从未被探索过。在此，多模态传感器 可以检测接近，接触，和力量将被集成到一个商业上可用的 假肢手，以提供手掌，尺骨边界， 背表面，以便更深入地研究具体化。最后， 使用外周神经刺激的实施例将在多个受试者阶乘上发生 实验量化的数量和空间参数的影响，周边 对假手实施神经刺激（具体目标3）。这项研究问 从手的体感感知是最关键的体现，通过改变 周围神经刺激的参数（数量和空间性），并测量 每种情况下的实施水平。本次调查将是第一次彻底的（多个主题 周围神经接口）、系统（配对析因设计）和穷举（使用所有 神经界面中的电极）进行研究。 最后，这项建议的科学使命的另一个目标是创造神经网络。 洛矶山地区退伍军人管理局医学接口和感觉恢复实验室 中心我将指导这个实验室成为泰勒博士功能的补充实体 神经接口实验室研究上肢截肢者的周围神经接口， VA RR & D部门。现在，可以探索更先进的方法， 科学上的突破可以开始为退伍军人提供截肢手术， 假肢，而不仅仅是一个假肢工具。

Project Summary Today, prosthetic hands are numb. They provide no tactile or proprioceptive sensory information back to the user. The lack of sensory feedback has been shown to reduce the utility of a prosthesis by half. The prosthesis is seen as a tool, not as an incorporated part of the body schema. Only now are there chronically-implantable technologies which can provide physiologically appropriate sensory feedback to upper limb amputees to recreate tactile and proprioceptive percepts. These sensations are the building blocks to enable the embodiment of the device. Furthermore, newly developed outcome measures are now available which can detail the improved embodiment such neural interfaces can create. My mission is to enable the embodiment of artificial devices using peripheral nerve stimulation and thereby close the gap between the experience of our intact physiological systems and those using prosthetic remedies. This investigation of embodiment for upper limb amputees is organized into three main areas of work including 1) normative data collection, 2) device development, and 3) characterization of embodiment using peripheral nerve stimulation. The normative data collection will quantify the embodiment of conventional cosmetic, body-powered, and myoelectric prosthetic hand options using a modified Rubber Hand Illusion protocol (Specific Aim 1). This thrust will ask how does the amount of embodiment vary among conventional prosthetic hands as well as probe the relationship between agency and embodiment. The device development project entails the design of multi-modal sensors in order to study full-hand embodiment (Specific Aim 2). The ability to measure and then elicit sensation on the passive surfaces of the hand (palm, ulnar border, and dorsal surface) has never been explored. Here, a multi-modal sensor which can detect proximity, contact, and force will be integrated into a commercially available prosthetic hand in order to provide detailed measurements across the palm, ulnar border, and dorsal surfaces in order to study embodiment in more depth. Finally, the characterization of embodiment using peripheral nerve stimulation will take place over a multiple subject factorial experiment which quantifies the effects of quantity and spatial parameters of the peripheral nerve stimulation on the embodiment of prosthetic hands (Specific Aim 3). This study asks what somatosensory percepts from the hand are most critical for embodiment by varying the parameters of the peripheral nerve stimulation (quantity and spatiality) and measuring the level of embodiment in each case. This investigation will be the first thorough (multiple subjects with peripheral nerve interfaces), systematic (paired factorial design), and exhaustive (using all electrodes in the neural interface) study to be performed. Finally, an additional goal to the scientific mission of this proposal is the creation of the Neural Interface and Sensory Restoration Laboratory in the Rocky Mountain Regional VA Medical Center. I will direct this laboratory to be a complementary entity to Dr. Tyler’s Functional Neural Interface Laboratory to study peripheral nerve interfaces with upper limb amputees in the VA RR&D division. Now, more advanced methodologies can be explored and more scientific breakthroughs can be initiated with the goal of providing Veterans with amputation an artificial limb, as opposed to just a prosthetic tool.