Advanced Design of Peripheral Nerve Interfaces

扩大我们对神经电极和周围神经系统之间电信号相互作用的了解对于创新神经假体技术的发展至关重要。这需要跨学科的方法，将神经电刺激和神经记录的基本原理应用于表现出高度可变和复杂电特性的生物组织。在过去的几十年里，周围神经袖电极的创新设计取得了显著的功能进步，其中选择性激活和记录特定神经纤维的能力得到了实验证明。最近微电极制造技术的实施进一步提高了神经电极的功能性能，但代价是需要高侵入性的外科手术，这反过来又严重限制了神经假体的长期使用和安全性。这种性能和长期使用之间的权衡是探索与周围神经系统电相互作用的创新和有效手段的关键推动力。本研究计划的主要目标是探索神经电极界面的物理特性，这将指导新型神经假肢系统的设计：(1)使用微创神经刺激方法选择性电激活周围神经（增强经皮神经电刺激，eTENS），(2)设计神经袖记录电极，用于长期测量多种生理信号（选择性神经记录），(3)使用急性和慢性植入研究对电极设计进行体内验证。原型设备将根据我们的计算模型的结果设计和制造；而关键的性能特征（例如，神经激活阈值和选择性指数）将被量化，以指导该技术在人类中的潜在翻译。这项工作的成功完成将对神经工程和康复领域产生重大影响，并延伸到生理学和神经科学领域。因此，我们最先进的技术将有助于当前的文献，包括功能特征和神经接口的生理应用。我们将进一步利用我们的知识产权和电极制造技术商业化的潜在机会。结合我们的跨学科方法（即工程，神经和生物科学），以HQP培训研究生和博士后研究人员，我们希望这个研究计划能够成为吸引国际认可加拿大研究人员正在开发的神经工程技术（基础研究，商业化和临床翻译）进展的重要催化剂。

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.