NEUROMUSCULAR REORGANIZATION FOR PROSTHESIS CONTROL

描述（改编自申请人的摘要）：候选人是一个董事会- 注册理疗师，对以下领域的临床和研究感兴趣： 截肢者和改进假肢。目前，截肢者只能 使用肌电假肢一次控制一个自由度， 这是非常不够的。通过将残余的神经末梢移植到肌肉中， 或者在截肢的肢体附近，可以产生额外的表面， 用于外部供电假体的EMG控制信号， 同时控制自由度。该技术具有 改善上肢假肢控制的潜力，特别是 在最需要的地方进行高位截肢。为了让这项技术 成功的，多个神经将不得不重新神经支配一个单独的区域。 肌肉和产生独立的控制信号，用于操作人工 四肢 为了发展这项技术，提出了两个阶段的教育和研究计划。 在第一阶段，候选人将学习场论和有限元 (FE)分析技术，成为电磁场有限元建模专家 系统.对于第二阶段，急性动物实验，数学 提出了模型和慢性实验来研究这些因素 影响表面EMG信号的独立性。急性猫实验将是 进行映射猫后肢中的各种肌肉的表面EMG。一 猫后肢的有限元（FE）模型将使用 已发表的肌肉、脂肪、皮肤、骨骼和纤维的介电特性 组织，以及后肢的横截面。模型将被细化 并与实测的表面肌电数据进行了验证。然后，FE模型将 用于研究影响肌电场分布的因素，包括 肌肉的形状，以及重叠的效果， 神经再生区FE模型还将用于确定是否进行手术 软组织的操作可以用来提高独立性， 来自神经肌肉移植的肌电信号 对于最佳的信号独立性，重要的是移植的神经 重新支配肌肉的不同区域。因此，候选人建议， 在慢性猫实验中研究神经再支配之间的竞争。 将多个神经同时移植到猫后肢肌肉上， 然后，神经再支配的地形图可以使用生理学和 糖原消耗技术。在第二组实验中，神经- 肌肉移植物将通过手术分离，看看形成的疤痕是否 移植物之间会形成再生轴突的屏障， 神经再生区域的地形

DESCRIPTION (Adapted from Applicant's Abstract): The candidate is a board- certified physiatrist with clinical and research interests in the care of amputees and improvement of artificial limbs. Currently amputees can only control a single degree-of-freedom at a time with myoelectric prostheses, which is very insufficient. By grafting residual nerve endings to muscles in or near an amputated limb, it may be possible to produce additional surface EMG control signals for an externally powered prosthesis allowing multiple degrees-of-freedom to be controlled simultaneously. The technique has potential for improving the control of upper limb prostheses, especially with high level amputations where the need is greatest. For this technique to be successful, multiple nerves would have to reinnervate separate areas of a muscle and produce independent control signals for operation of the artificial limb. To develop this technique a two-phase education and research plan is proposed. In the first phase, the candidate will learn field theory and finite-element (FE) analysis techniques to become expert in FE modeling of electromagnetic systems. For the second phase, acute animal experimentation, mathematical modeling and chronic experimentation is proposed to study the factors affecting surface EMG signal independence. Acute cat experiments will be performed to map the surface EMG of various muscles in the cat hind limb. A finite-element (FE) model of the cat hind limb will be developed using published dielectric properties for muscle, fat, skin, bone and fibrous tissue, as well as cross sections of the hind limb. The model will be refined and validated with the measured surface EMG data. The FE model will then be used to study the factors affecting EMG field distribution including the size of muscles, the shape of the muscles, and the effect of overlap in reinnervation fields. The FE model will also be used to determine if surgical manipulation of soft tissues could be used to improve the independence of myoelectric signals from nerve-muscle grafts. For optimal signal independence it will be important for the grafted nerves to reinnervate separate regions of muscle. Therefore, the candidate proposes to study the competition between reinnervating nerves in chronic cat experiments. Multiple nerves will be grafted simultaneously onto cat hind limb muscles, and then the topography of reinnervation be characterized using physiological and glycogen depletion techniques. In a second set of experiments, the nerve- muscle grafts will be surgically separated to see if the scar that forms between the grafts will create a barrier to regenerating axons and thus guide the topography of the reinnervation fields.