Movement Restoration
For people with cervical spinal cord injury or brainstem stroke, signals from the motor cortex have been “disconnected” from the limb. We are seeking to reunite these signals via brain-computer interface (BCI)-driven muscle activation. Intra-cortical implants pick up electrical neural activity in the brain and send that information to a computer, where the signals associated with intended movements are decoded. The computer then sends electrical impulses to muscles via implanted stimulating electrodes, which induce limb movement.
One of the goals of implanted neural interfaces is to provide natural, intuitive, real-time control of assistive devices that would be helpful to people with paralysis or limb loss. Recent work has markedly advanced the field of prosthetics for people who have had one or both arms amputated due to trauma or vascular disease. Additionally, there are safe and useful robotic limbs that can be attached to a wheelchair and used much in the same way the arm and hand was used prior to injury to the nervous system. We are working to evaluate the feasibility of using the brain signals directly related to intended movement of the hand to enable easier and more complex control over these advanced prosthetic limbs and assistive robotic devices.
Related Publications
Rastogi A, Willett FR, Abreu J, Crowder DC, Murphy BA, Memberg WD, Vargas-Irwin CE, Miller JP, Sweet J, Walter BL, Rezaii PG, Stavisky SD, Hochberg LR, Shenoy KV, Henderson JM, Kirsch RF, Ajiboye AB.
The Neural Representation of Force across Grasp Types in Motor Cortex of Humans with Tetraplegia.
eNeuro. 2021 Feb 19;8(1):ENEURO.0231-20.2020. doi: 10.1523/ENEURO.0231-20.2020.
Ajiboye AB, Willett FR, Young DR, Memberg WD, Murphy BA, Miller JP, Walter BL, Sweet JA, Hoyen HA, Keith MW, Peckham PH, Simeral JD, Donoghue JP, Hochberg LR, Kirsch RF.
Restoration of reaching and grasping movements through brain-controlled muscle stimulation in a person with tetraplegia: a proof-of-concept demonstration
The Lancet. 2017 Mar 28.
Masse NY, Jarosiewicz B, Simeral JD, Bacher D, Stavisky SD, Cash SS, Oakley EM, Berhanu E, Eskandar E, Friehs G, Hochberg LR, Donoghue JP.
Non-causal spike filtering improves decoding of movement intention for intracortical BCIs.
J Neurosci Methods. 2014 Oct 30;236:58-67. Epub 2014 Aug 13.