Department of Electrical Engineering, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA.
Prog Brain Res. 2011;192:33-58. doi: 10.1016/B978-0-444-53355-5.00003-8.
Neural prosthetic systems aim to help disabled patients suffering from a range of neurological injuries and disease by using neural activity from the brain to directly control assistive devices. This approach in effect bypasses the dysfunctional neural circuitry, such as an injured spinal cord. To do so, neural prostheses depend critically on a scientific understanding of the neural activity that drives them. We review here several recent studies aimed at understanding the neural processes in premotor cortex that precede arm movements and lead to the initiation of movement. These studies were motivated by hypotheses and predictions conceived of within a dynamical systems perspective. This perspective concentrates on describing the neural state using as few degrees of freedom as possible and on inferring the rules that govern the motion of that neural state. Although quite general, this perspective has led to a number of specific predictions that have been addressed experimentally. It is hoped that the resulting picture of the dynamical role of preparatory and movement-related neural activity will be particularly helpful to the development of neural prostheses, which can themselves be viewed as dynamical systems under the control of the larger dynamical system to which they are attached.
神经假体系统旨在通过利用大脑的神经活动直接控制辅助设备，帮助患有一系列神经损伤和疾病的残疾患者。这种方法实际上绕过了功能失调的神经回路，例如受伤的脊髓。为此，神经假体严重依赖于对驱动它们的神经活动的科学理解。我们在这里回顾了几项旨在理解运动前皮层中神经过程的最新研究，这些过程先于手臂运动并导致运动的开始。这些研究的动机是基于动态系统观点中提出的假设和预测。该观点专注于使用尽可能少的自由度来描述神经状态，并推断控制该神经状态运动的规则。尽管非常通用，但这一观点已经产生了许多已通过实验解决的具体预测。希望与预备和与运动相关的神经活动的动态作用相关的结果图片将对神经假体的发展特别有帮助，神经假体本身可以被视为更大的动态系统控制下的动态系统，它们与之相连。
