Engaging new cognitive and motor signals to improve communication prostheses

项目总结 虽然当前的增强和替代通信(AAC)设备提供了各种接入 为了使有复杂通信需求的人受益的消息生成方法，仍然存在一种 一组有严重言语和运动障碍(SSMI)的识字成年人，他们不能识别功能性 打字手段，这是以计算机为基础的交流的重要工具。在以前的NIDCD中- 在研究的支持下，我们的研究团队开发了一台高性能的皮质内脑计算机 直接从大脑活动中解码运动意图的接口(IBCI)。这项技术使得 人们控制计算机屏幕上的光标进行交流，只需想象 他们自己的手臂。拟议的R01临床研究将扩展这一先前的工作，以改善 IBCI系统的性能，作为多站点BrainGate联合体的一部分，并利用一个新的完全- 可植入的无线系统正在NIH大脑倡议资助的单独项目下开发。这个 该项目的目标是利用人类运动中新的运动和认知信号的发现 实施和评估IBCI打字和通用计算机使用的三种新方法： (1)使用来自运动皮质的错误相关信号的自动错误检测和撤销(EDU)系统， (2)从运动皮质产生连续高自由度控制信号的解码技术 与2D相比，提高3D和4D的点击式IBCI打字率，以及(3)解码 对来自运动皮质的多种不同的“咔嗒”信号进行分类的技术。严谨的制服 在所有三个具体目标中，将使用具有明确评估指标的实验程序 三名研究参与者，在每个临床站点使用一套标准化的IBCI任务，确保 会议和参与者之间的一致性。建成后，这项工程将同时推进 IBCI的交流能力和我们对人类运动皮质功能的理解。

PROJECT SUMMARY While current augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) devices present a variety of access methods for message generation to benefit people with complex communication needs, there still exists a group of literate adults with severe speech and motor impairments (SSMI) who cannot identify a functional means for typing, which is an important tool for computer-based communication. In prior NIDCD- supported research, our research team developed a high performance intracortical brain-computer interface (iBCI) that decodes movement intentions directly from brain activity. This technology has allowed people to control a cursor on a computer screen for communication simply by imagining movements of their own arm. The proposed R01 clinical research will extend this prior work on improving the performance of iBCI systems, as part of the multi-site BrainGate consortium, and utilizing a new fully- implantable, wireless system being developed under separate NIH BRAIN Initiative funded project. The goals of the project are to leverage the discovery of new motor and cognitive signals in human motor cortex to implement and evaluate three new methods for iBCI typing and general purpose computer use: (1) an automatic Error Detect and Undo (EDU) system that uses error-related signals from motor cortex, (2) decoding techniques that create continuous high degree-of-freedom control signals from motor cortex to increase rates of point-and-click iBCI typing in 3D and 4D as compared with 2D, and (3) decoding techniques that classify multiple different “click” signals from motor cortex. A rigorous uniform experimental procedure with clear evaluation metrics will be utilized across all three Specific Aims, in all three research participants, and at each clinical site using a standardized suite of iBCI tasks, assuring consistency across sessions and participants. Upon completion, this project will advance both the capabilities of iBCIs for communication and our understanding of the function of human motor cortex.