Functional Remapping of Hand Control

描述(由申请人提供)：本项目的目的是加深对运动功能重组的机制的理解，并确定利用这些适应机制来促进新手动作训练的方法。在正常的日常活动中，例如当一个人学习操作一辆新车时，运动重组也是必要的，以弥补残疾。这些研究将使用并扩展一种新的、非侵入性的范例来研究重新映射运动功能的行为、神经和计算机制。这一范式是由PI和两名合作调查员在一系列初步研究中开发的。受试者戴着仪表化的数据手套，记录手指的角运动。手套产生的信号操作一个远程控制的终端--比如电脑屏幕上的光标。受试者被指示通过受控的手指运动来执行该终点的运动。通过这一新范式解决的首要问题涉及运动空间的表示--受控行动发生的空间。这种表示有多灵活，或者说是“塑料”，它与电机控制信号的空间有什么关系？这些研究有三个具体目标：目标1：研究控制低维设备的新的协调手部运动的形成；目标2：测试伸展和抓取的适应性神经表征。目的3：为了促进学习新的手部运动运动地图，预期的结果将可能导致更成功的人机交互和残疾人的康复技术，通过确定有选择地增强与任务相关的视觉反馈的方法，以便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。公共卫生相关性这项建议旨在通过结合行为观察、功能神经成像和计算技术来了解运动功能重组和运动协调的潜在机制。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，以促进训练新的手部动作，并恢复因中风和其他神经运动障碍而失去的技能

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