Fitzsimmons N A, Drake W, Hanson T L, Lebedev M A, Nicolelis M A L
Department of Neurobiology, Duke University, Durham, North Carolina 27100, USA.
J Neurosci. 2007 May 23;27(21):5593-602. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.5297-06.2007.
Both humans and animals can discriminate signals delivered to sensory areas of their brains using electrical microstimulation. This opens the possibility of creating an artificial sensory channel that could be implemented in neuroprosthetic devices. Although microstimulation delivered through multiple implanted electrodes could be beneficial for this purpose, appropriate microstimulation protocols have not been developed. Here, we report a series of experiments in which owl monkeys performed reaching movements guided by spatiotemporal patterns of cortical microstimulation delivered to primary somatosensory cortex through chronically implanted multielectrode arrays. The monkeys learned to discriminate microstimulation patterns, and their ability to learn new patterns and new behavioral rules improved during several months of testing. Significantly, information was conveyed to the brain through the interplay of microstimulation patterns delivered to multiple electrodes and the temporal order in which these electrodes were stimulated. This suggests multichannel microstimulation as a viable means of sensorizing neural prostheses.
人类和动物都能够利用电微刺激来区分传递到其大脑感觉区域的信号。这为创建一种可在神经假体装置中实现的人工感觉通道开辟了可能性。尽管通过多个植入电极进行微刺激可能有助于实现这一目的，但尚未开发出合适的微刺激方案。在此，我们报告了一系列实验，在这些实验中，猫头鹰猴通过长期植入的多电极阵列，根据传递到初级体感皮层的皮层微刺激的时空模式来执行伸手动作。猴子学会了区分微刺激模式，并且在数月的测试过程中，它们学习新模式和新行为规则的能力得到了提高。重要的是，信息是通过传递到多个电极的微刺激模式与刺激这些电极的时间顺序之间的相互作用传递到大脑的。这表明多通道微刺激是使神经假体具有传感功能的一种可行方法。
