Clark Gregory A, Ledbetter Noah M, Warren David J, Harrison Reid R
Department of Bioengineering, School of Computing, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT 84112-9458, USA.
Annu Int Conf IEEE Eng Med Biol Soc. 2011;2011:4641-4. doi: 10.1109/IEMBS.2011.6091149.
Recording and stimulation via high-count penetrating microelectrode arrays implanted in peripheral nerves may help restore precise motor and sensory function after nervous system damage or disease. Although previous work has demonstrated safety and relatively successful stimulation for long-term implants of 100-electrode Utah Slanted Electrode Arrays (USEAs) in feline sciatic nerve [1], two major remaining challenges were 1) to maintain viable recordings of nerve action potentials long-term, and 2) to overcome contamination of unit recordings by myoelectric (EMG) activity in awake, moving animals. In conjunction with improvements to USEAs themselves, we have redesigned several aspects of our USEA containment and connector systems. Although further increases in unit yield and long-term stability remain desirable, here we report considerable progress toward meeting both of these goals: We have successfully recorded unit activity from USEAs implanted intrafascicularly in sciatic nerve for periods up to 4 months (the terminal experimental time point), and we have developed a containment system that effectively eliminates or substantially reduces EMG contamination of unit recordings in the moving animal. In addition, we used a 100-channel wireless recording integrated circuit attached to implanted USEAs to transmit broadband or spike-threshold data from nerve. Neural data thusly obtained during imposed limb movements were decoded blindly to drive a virtual prosthetic limb in real time. These results support the possibility of using USEAs in peripheral nerves to provide motor control and cutaneous or proprioceptive sensory feedback in individuals after limb loss or spinal cord injury.
通过植入外周神经的高计数穿透式微电极阵列进行记录和刺激，可能有助于在神经系统损伤或疾病后恢复精确的运动和感觉功能。尽管先前的研究已经证明，将100电极的犹他倾斜电极阵列（USEAs）长期植入猫的坐骨神经是安全的，并且刺激相对成功[1]，但仍存在两个主要挑战：1）长期维持神经动作电位的有效记录；2）在清醒、活动的动物中克服肌电（EMG）活动对单位记录的干扰。在对USEAs本身进行改进的同时，我们重新设计了USEA容纳和连接系统的几个方面。尽管仍希望进一步提高单位产量和长期稳定性，但在此我们报告在实现这两个目标方面取得了相当大的进展：我们已经成功地从坐骨神经束内植入的USEAs记录单位活动长达4个月（最终实验时间点），并且我们开发了一种容纳系统，该系统有效地消除或大幅减少了活动动物中单位记录的EMG干扰。此外，我们使用连接到植入式USEAs的100通道无线记录集成电路从神经传输宽带或峰值阈值数据。在施加肢体运动期间如此获得的神经数据被盲目解码，以实时驱动虚拟假肢。这些结果支持了在外周神经中使用USEAs为肢体缺失或脊髓损伤后的个体提供运动控制以及皮肤或本体感觉反馈的可能性。
