Functional Remapping of Hand Control

描述（由申请人提供）：该项目的目的是深入了解运动功能重组的机制，并确定利用这些自适应机制促进新手部运动训练的方法。在正常的日常活动中，例如当一个人学习操作一辆新车时，也需要运动重组来补偿残疾。这些研究将使用并扩展一种新的、非侵入性的范式来研究运动功能重新映射的行为、神经和计算机制。这个范例是由PI和两位共同研究者在一系列初步研究中开发出来的。受试者戴上记录手指角度运动的数据手套。手套产生的信号操作一个远程控制的端点——比如电脑屏幕上的光标。受试者被指示通过控制手指的运动来执行这个端点的运动。通过这种新范式解决的首要问题涉及运动空间的表征-控制动作发生的空间。这种表征有多灵活，或“可塑性”，它与运动控制信号的空间有什么关系？本研究有三个具体目的：目的1：研究控制低维设备的新的协调手部运动的形成；目的2：测试伸手和抓握的自适应神经表征。目标3：促进手部运动新运动地图的学习预期结果可能会导致更成功的人机交互和残疾人康复技术，通过确定有选择地增强任务相关的视觉反馈的方法，以更好地促进所需的运动特征，包括更高度个性化的手指运动。该建议旨在通过行为观察、功能性神经成像和计算技术的结合，了解运动功能和运动协调重组的机制。预计这项研究将确定利用神经系统自我重组能力的新方法，从而促进训练新的手部运动，并恢复因中风和其他神经运动障碍而丧失的技能

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The purpose of this project is to develop a deeper understanding of the mechanisms that allow reorganization of motor functions, and to identify means of exploiting these adaptive mechanisms to facilitate training of novel hand movements. Movement reorganization is needed to compensate for disability as well in normal daily activities, for example when one learns to operate a new vehicle. These studies will use and expand a novel, non-invasive paradigm to investigate the behavioral, neural and computational mechanisms for remapping of motor functions. This paradigm has been developed by the PI and the two co-investigators in a set of preliminary studies. Subjects wear an instrumented data glove that records the angular motions of the fingers. The signals generated by the glove operate a remotely-controlled endpoint - such as a cursor on a computer screen. Subjects are instructed to execute movements of this endpoint with controlled motions of the fingers. The overarching question addressed through this new paradigm concerns the representation of motor space - the space in which the controlled actions take place. How flexible, or "plastic", is this representation and what is its relation to the space of motor control signals? The studies are organized in three specific aims: Aim 1: To investigate the formation of new coordinated hand movements for the control of a low- dimensional device Aim 2: To test the adaptive neural representations for reaching and grasping. Aim 3: To facilitate the learning of new motor maps for hand movements The expected outcomes will likely lead to more successful human-machine interactions and rehabilitation techniques for the disabled by identifying ways of selectively enhancing task-relevant visual feedback in order to better promote desired movement features, including more highly-individuated finger movements. PUBLIC HEALTH RELEVANCE This proposal is directed at understanding the mechanisms underlying the reorganization of motor functions and motor coordination through a combination of behavioral observations, functional neuroimaging and computational techniques. It is expected that this study will identify new means for exploiting the ability of the nervous system to reorganize itself so as to facilitate training novel hand movements and to recover skills lost to stroke and other neuromotor disorders