Neuronal based prosthetic control of volitional movement

摘要 沟通能力的丧失是中枢神经系统损伤最严重的一个方面 神经系统，包括不能执行基本的任务，如屈曲和 伸展肢体或在屏幕上移动简单的光标。虽然到目前为止大多数研究 以中枢神经系统受损区域的内在修复或再生为目标 例如脑干或近端颈脊髓，重定向的替代方法 功能完好无损的区域之间的信息在很大程度上是未被探索的。我们小组的工作 另一些研究表明，皮质和皮质下区域的神经元活动负责 运动控制可以准确预测意志运动意图，并与交付事件相关 负责运动产生的区域的电刺激可以重复地改变目标肢体 有动静。在目前的研究中，我们的目标是通过系统地匹配和 灵长类动物在执行运动定向任务时，随着运动产生而改变运动意图。至 为此，我们将从相同的皮质下区域获得单神经元记录，以预测 运动意图并使用类似的系统设计将电刺激传递到腹侧脊髓 以接近和改变运动生产。神经元活动的变化将是 通过多个试验进行检查，以观察到由神经元活动预测的运动 由脊髓刺激产生的相应或不匹配的运动。这些发现将 为运动神经元可塑性和脊髓的个体角色提供了独特的视角 传出活动在自适应运动控制中的作用，并可能提供有价值的新见解 旨在恢复意志力运动的假肢设计的发展。

Abstract The inability to communicate underlies one of the most disabling aspects of injury to the central nervous system, and includes the inability to perform rudimentary tasks such as flexing and extending ones' limb or moving a simple cursor on a screen. While the majority of studies thus far have targeted the intrinsic repair or regeneration of damaged areas of the central nervous system such as brainstem or proximal cervical spinal cord, alternative approaches for redirecting information between areas that remain functionally intact is largely unexplored. Work by our group and others has demonstrated that neuronal activity in cortical and subcortical areas responsible for motor control can accurately predict volitional movement intention, and that delivery of event-related electrical stimuli in areas responsible for motor production can reproducibly alter targeted limb movement. In the current study, we aim to extend these findings by systematically matching and altering motor intent with movement production in primates performing a motor directional task. To this end, we will obtain single-neuronal recording from the same subcortical areas shown to predict motor intention and use a similar system design to deliver electrical stimuli to the ventral spinal cord in order to approximate and alter movement production. Changes in neuronal activity will be examined over multiple trials as observed movements predicted by neuronal activity are made to either correspond or mismatch movements produced by spinal cord stimulation. These findings will provide a unique perspective into the individual roles that motor neuronal plasticity and spinal efferent activity play in adaptive motor control, and may offer valuable new insight into the development of prosthetic designs aimed at restoring volitional movement.