Neuroprosthetic Control of an Anthropomorphic Exoskeleton in Tetraplegics

 描述(申请人提供)：四肢瘫痪或四肢瘫痪的患者是严重残疾的。调查发现，恢复上肢功能是这类患者的当务之急。通过将大脑的计算能力与人工假肢系统无缝融合，脑机接口(BMI)最终可以恢复上肢的伸展和抓取功能。一大挑战是BMI技术的健壮转换 对病人的护理。当前方法的两个公认的局限性是记录的不稳定性和缺乏本体感觉反馈信号。这项研究计划旨在进行一项先导性临床研究，以测试有残留本体感觉的四肢瘫痪患者基于皮层脑电(ECoG)对拟人化外骨骼的控制。我们特别寻求将BMI技术转化为感觉完整的四肢瘫痪患者的重要亚群(例如，肌萎缩侧索硬化症或不完全脊髓损伤)。我们的方法将利用公认的ECoG记录的稳定性和外骨骼被动移动受试者手臂产生的自然感觉反馈。这项拟议的研究应该通过在最大化神经学习机制和提供自然感觉反馈的条件下优化控制来极大地促进翻译工作。

 DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Patients with tetraplegia, or paralysis of all four limbs, are severely disabled. Surveys have found that restoration of upper-limb function is a high-priority for such patients. Brain-Machine Interfaces (BMIs) can eventually restore upper-limb reaching and grasping function by seamlessly merging the computational power of the brain with artificial prosthetic systems. A major challenge is robust translation of BMI technology to patient care. Two well-recognized limitations of current approaches are instability of recordings and the lack of proprioceptive feedback signals. This research proposal aims to conduct a pilot clinical study to test electrocorticography (ECoG) based control of an anthropomorphic exoskeleton in tetraplegic patients with residual proprioception. We specifically seek to translate BMI technology to the significant subset of tetraplegic patients with intact sensation (e.g. amyotrophic lateral sclerosis or incomplete spinal cord injury). Our approach would capitalize on both the well-recognized stability of ECoG recordings and the natural sensory feedback generated by passive movements of the subject's arm by the exoskeleton. The proposed research should greatly advance translational efforts by optimizing control under conditions that maximize neural learning mechanisms and provide natural sensory feedback.