Advanced Design of Peripheral Nerve Interfaces

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Expanding our knowledge of how electrical signals interact between nerve electrodes and the peripheral nervous system is critical for the development of innovative neural prosthesis technology. This requires an interdisciplinary approach, where the fundamental principles of electrical nerve stimulation and neural recording are applied to biological tissue that exhibit highly variable and complex electrical properties. Over the past several decades, remarkable functional advances have been achieved by innovative designs of peripheral nerve cuff electrodes, where improvements in the ability to selectively activate and record from specific nerve fibers have been demonstrated experimentally. The more recent implementation of micro-electrode fabrication technology has further improved the functional performance of nerve electrodes, but at the cost of requiring highly-invasive surgical procedures that, in turn, severely limit the long-term use and safety of the neural prosthesis. This trade-off between performance and long-term use serves as a critical impetus for exploring innovative and effective means of electrically interacting with the peripheral nervous system.The primary objectives of this Research Program are to explore the physical properties of nerve-electrode interfaces that will guide the design of novel neural prosthetic systems: (1) selective electrical activation of peripheral nerves using a minimally-invasive nerve stimulation approach (enhanced transcutaneous electrical nerve stimulation, eTENS), (2) design of nerve cuff recording electrodes for long-term measurement of multiple physiological signals (selective neural recording), and (3) in vivo validation of electrode designs using both acute and chronic implant studies. Prototype devices will be designed and fabricated based on results from our computational models; while key performance characteristics (e.g., nerve activation threshold and selectivity index) will be quantified for guiding the potential translation of this technology in humans. The successful completion of this work will have a significant impact on the fields of neural engineering and rehabilitation, and also extend to areas of physiology and neuroscience. As such, our state-of-the-art technology will contribute to the current literature that encompasses the functional characteristics and physiological applications of neural interfaces. We will further capitalize on the potential opportunities for commercializing our intellectual property and electrode fabrication techniques. Combined with our interdisciplinary approach (i.e., engineering, neuro- and biological sciences) to the HQP training of graduate and post-doctoral researchers, we expect this Research Program to serve as an important catalyst for attracting international recognition of the progress in neural engineering technology (fundamental research, commercialization, and clinical translation) that are being developed by Canadian researchers.