Optimizing microstimulation to restore lost somatosensation

优化微刺激以恢复失去的体感

• 批准号: 9100946
• 负责人: Karim G Oweiss
• 金额: $ 30.32万
• 依托单位: UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-07-01 至 2020-06-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9100946
• 关键词: Address; Amputation; Anatomy; Animals; Area; Behavioral; Beryllium; Brain; Cell Nucleus; Clinical; Cochlear Implants; Code; Collaborations; Computer Analysis; Development; Electric Stimulation; Electrodes; Engineering; Esthesia; Feedback; Foundations; Goals; Health; Human; Indium; Individual; Injury; Lead; Learning; Letters; London; Medial; Modality; Modeling; Motor; Motor Cortex; Movement; Neurons; Neurosciences; Paralysed; Pathway interactions; Pattern; Performance; Population; Process; Prosthesis; Public Health; Qualifying; Quality of life; Rattus; Reading; Records; Recurrence; Research; Research Design; Risk; Rodent; Role; Sensory; Signal Transduction; Site; Solid; Somatosensory Cortex; Stimulus; Structure; System; Target Populations; Thalamic structure; Touch sensation; Training; Vibrissae; Work; Writing; advanced system; brain machine interface; clinical application; computer studies; design; experience; frontier; improved; in vivo; limb movement; microstimulation; motor control; neuroprosthesis; neuroregulation; neurotransmission; novel; patient population; relating to nervous system; research study; response; restoration; sensor; sensorimotor system; sensory mechanism; sensory prosthesis; sensory stimulus; somatosensory; spatiotemporal; transmission process; visual feedback

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Lost sensory and motor function in neurologically impaired subjects leads to a devastating quality of life. The state of the art in Brin Machine Interfaces (BMIs), which restore the ability of motor impaired individuals to make movements using volitionally controlled neural signals, has reached an impressive state of development in the past decade, but virtually all rely exclusively on visual feedback. However, these developments overlook the critical importance of somatosensory feedback in motor control. The restoration of somatosensation in BMIs is likely to be the most important development in this field. The overarching goal of the work proposed here is to design a somatosensory prosthesis to restore tactile sensation to sensory impaired subjects. Our approach is novel and significant in a number of respects. First, we will compare the efficac of stimulation in subcortical to that in cortical structures in the rodent's whisker-­--barel system. We expect that subcortical stimulation will benefit from the combination of simpler local signal encoding and the natural processing provided by upstream circuits, while cortical structures will benefit from the relative ease of access. Second, we will compar the efficacy of stimulus trains optimized to produce activity in the primary somatosensory cortex (S1) that closely mimic that of the corresponding naturally driven activity to nes optimized to maximize information transfer to cortex. We will do so in intact and in de-­afferented animals during aroused, passive and active sensing states. This novel optimization approach should allow the animal to interpret the artificial stimulation with little t no training and to generalize readily to novel contexts. While the proposal addresses what is arguably one of the most important limitations of existing BMIs, namely the lack of somatosensory feedback, it is driven by solid neural engineering principles that may have overarching impact on neurostimulation and neuromodulation in clinical applications. The PI offers a potent combination of expertise in engineering and neuroscience, has established track records in BMI research, and is therefore uniquely qualified to carry out the work.

描述（由申请人提供）：神经受损受试者失去感觉和运动功能会导致生活质量下降。 布林机器接口（BMI）的最先进技术可以恢复运动障碍患者使用意志控制的神经信号进行运动的能力，在过去十年中已经达到了令人印象深刻的发展状态，但实际上所有这些都完全依赖于视觉反馈。 然而，这些发展忽视了体感反馈在运动控制中的至关重要性。 BMI 体感的恢复可能是该领域最重要的进展。 这里提出的工作的总体目标是设计一种体感假体，以恢复感觉受损受试者的触觉。 我们的方法在很多方面都是新颖且重要的。 首先，我们将比较啮齿类动物胡须-裸露系统皮质下和皮质结构的刺激效果。 我们预计皮层下刺激将受益于更简单的局部信号编码和上游电路提供的自然处理的结合，而皮层结构将受益于相对容易的访问。 其次，我们将比较经过优化以在初级体感皮层 (S1) 中产生活动的刺激序列的功效，这些刺激序列密切模仿相应的自然驱动活动，而经过优化以最大化到皮层的信息传输。 我们将在处于唤醒、被动和主动感知状态的完整动物和传入神经缺失的动物中进行此研究。 这种新颖的优化方法应该允许动物在几乎没有训练的情况下解释人工刺激，并很容易地推广到新的环境。 虽然该提案解决了现有 BMI 最重要的局限性之一，即缺乏体感反馈，但它是由可靠的神经工程原理驱动的，这些原理可能对临床应用中的神经刺激和神经调节产生总体影响。 该 PI 提供了工程和神经科学专业知识的有效结合，在 BMI 研究方面建立了良好的记录，因此具有独特的资格来开展这项工作。