1
|
Bensmaia SJ, Tyler DJ, Micera S. Restoration of sensory information via bionic hands. Nat Biomed Eng 2023; 7:443-455. [PMID: 33230305 PMCID: PMC10233657 DOI: 10.1038/s41551-020-00630-8] [Citation(s) in RCA: 85] [Impact Index Per Article: 85.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [MESH Headings] [Grants] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 12/27/2019] [Accepted: 09/13/2020] [Indexed: 12/19/2022]
Abstract
Individuals who have lost the use of their hands because of amputation or spinal cord injury can use prosthetic hands to restore their independence. A dexterous prosthesis requires the acquisition of control signals that drive the movements of the robotic hand, and the transmission of sensory signals to convey information to the user about the consequences of these movements. In this Review, we describe non-invasive and invasive technologies for conveying artificial sensory feedback through bionic hands, and evaluate the technologies' long-term prospects.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Sliman J Bensmaia
- Department of Organismal Biology and Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
- Committee on Computational Neuroscience, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
- Grossman Institute for Neuroscience, Quantitative Biology, and Human Behavior, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL, USA.
| | - Dustin J Tyler
- Department of Biomedical Engineering, Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, OH, USA
- Louis Stokes Cleveland Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Cleveland, OH, USA
| | - Silvestro Micera
- The BioRobotics Institute, Scuola Superiore Sant'Anna, Pisa, Italy.
- Translational Neural Engineering Laboratory, Center for Neuroprosthetics and Institute of Bioengineering, School of Engineering, École Polytechnique Federale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland.
| |
Collapse
|
2
|
Intracortical Microelectrode Array Unit Yield under Chronic Conditions: A Comparative Evaluation. MICROMACHINES 2021; 12:mi12080972. [PMID: 34442594 PMCID: PMC8400387 DOI: 10.3390/mi12080972] [Citation(s) in RCA: 15] [Impact Index Per Article: 5.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 05/21/2021] [Revised: 08/10/2021] [Accepted: 08/12/2021] [Indexed: 01/01/2023]
Abstract
While microelectrode arrays (MEAs) offer the promise of elucidating functional neural circuitry and serve as the basis for a cortical neuroprosthesis, the challenge of designing and demonstrating chronically reliable technology remains. Numerous studies report “chronic” data but the actual time spans and performance measures corresponding to the experimental work vary. In this study, we reviewed the experimental durations that constitute chronic studies across a range of MEA types and animal species to gain an understanding of the widespread variability in reported study duration. For rodents, which are the most commonly used animal model in chronic studies, we examined active electrode yield (AEY) for different array types as a means to contextualize the study duration variance, as well as investigate and interpret the performance of custom devices in comparison to conventional MEAs. We observed wide-spread variance within species for the chronic implantation period and an AEY that decayed linearly in rodent models that implanted commercially-available devices. These observations provide a benchmark for comparing the performance of new technologies and highlight the need for consistency in chronic MEA studies. Additionally, to fully derive performance under chronic conditions, the duration of abiotic failure modes, biological processes induced by indwelling probes, and intended application of the device are key determinants.
Collapse
|
3
|
Loutit AJ, Potas JR. Dorsal Column Nuclei Neural Signal Features Permit Robust Machine-Learning of Natural Tactile- and Proprioception-Dominated Stimuli. Front Syst Neurosci 2020; 14:46. [PMID: 32848640 PMCID: PMC7399364 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2020.00046] [Citation(s) in RCA: 1] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.3] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/25/2020] [Accepted: 06/22/2020] [Indexed: 02/03/2023] Open
Abstract
Neural prostheses enable users to effect movement through a variety of actuators by translating brain signals into movement control signals. However, to achieve more natural limb movements from these devices, the restoration of somatosensory feedback is required. We used feature-learnability, a machine-learning approach, to assess signal features for their capacity to enhance decoding performance of neural signals evoked by natural tactile and proprioceptive somatosensory stimuli, recorded from the surface of the dorsal column nuclei (DCN) in urethane-anesthetized rats. The highest performing individual feature, spike amplitude, classified somatosensory DCN signals with 70% accuracy. The highest accuracy achieved was 87% using 13 features that were extracted from both high and low-frequency (LF) bands of DCN signals. In general, high-frequency (HF) features contained the most information about peripheral somatosensory events, but when features were acquired from short time-windows, classification accuracy was significantly improved by adding LF features to the feature set. We found that proprioception-dominated stimuli generalize across animals better than tactile-dominated stimuli, and we demonstrate how information that signal features contribute to neural decoding changes over the time-course of dynamic somatosensory events. These findings may inform the biomimetic design of artificial stimuli that can activate the DCN to substitute somatosensory feedback. Although, we investigated somatosensory structures, the feature set we investigated may also prove useful for decoding other (e.g., motor) neural signals.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alastair J. Loutit
- School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, Kensington, NSW, Australia
- The Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Jason R. Potas
- School of Medical Sciences, University of New South Wales Sydney, Kensington, NSW, Australia
- The Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
4
|
Vickery RM, Ng KKW, Potas JR, Shivdasani MN, McIntyre S, Nagi SS, Birznieks I. Tapping Into the Language of Touch: Using Non-invasive Stimulation to Specify Tactile Afferent Firing Patterns. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:500. [PMID: 32508581 PMCID: PMC7248323 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00500] [Citation(s) in RCA: 6] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.5] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/30/2019] [Accepted: 04/21/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
The temporal pattern of action potentials can convey rich information in a variety of sensory systems. We describe a new non-invasive technique that enables precise, reliable generation of action potential patterns in tactile peripheral afferent neurons by brief taps on the skin. Using this technique, we demonstrate sophisticated coding of temporal information in the somatosensory system, that shows that perceived vibration frequency is not encoded in peripheral afferents as was expected by either their firing rate or the underlying periodicity of the stimulus. Instead, a burst gap or silent gap between trains of action potentials conveys frequency information. This opens the possibility of new encoding strategies that could be deployed to convey sensory information using mechanical or electrical stimulation in neural prostheses and brain-machine interfaces, and may extend to senses beyond artificial encoding of aspects of touch. We argue that a focus on appropriate use of effective temporal coding offers more prospects for rapid improvement in the function of these interfaces than attempts to scale-up existing devices.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Richard M. Vickery
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Kevin K. W. Ng
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Jason R. Potas
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Mohit N. Shivdasani
- Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Sarah McIntyre
- Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Saad S. Nagi
- Center for Social and Affective Neuroscience, Department of Biomedical and Clinical Sciences, Linköping University, Linköping, Sweden
| | - Ingvars Birznieks
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
- Neuroscience Research Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
5
|
Loutit AJ, Potas JR. Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex. Front Neurosci 2020; 14:156. [PMID: 32184706 PMCID: PMC7058659 DOI: 10.3389/fnins.2020.00156] [Citation(s) in RCA: 11] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 11/22/2019] [Accepted: 02/10/2020] [Indexed: 12/12/2022] Open
Abstract
Current neural prostheses can restore limb movement to tetraplegic patients by translating brain signals coding movements to control a variety of actuators. Fast and accurate somatosensory feedback is essential for normal movement, particularly dexterous tasks, but is currently lacking in motor neural prostheses. Attempts to restore somatosensory feedback have largely focused on cortical stimulation which, thus far, have succeeded in eliciting minimal naturalistic sensations. Yet, a question that deserves more attention is whether the cortex is the best place to activate the central nervous system to restore somatosensation. Here, we propose that the brainstem dorsal column nuclei are an ideal alternative target to restore somatosensation. We review some of the recent literature investigating the dorsal column nuclei functional organization and neurophysiology and highlight some of the advantages and limitations of the dorsal column nuclei as a future neural prosthetic target. Recent evidence supports the dorsal column nuclei as a potential neural prosthetic target, but also identifies several gaps in our knowledge as well as potential limitations which need to be addressed before such a goal can become reality.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
| | - Jason R. Potas
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
6
|
Loutit AJ, Shivdasani MN, Maddess T, Redmond SJ, Morley JW, Stuart GJ, Birznieks I, Vickery RM, Potas JR. Peripheral Nerve Activation Evokes Machine-Learnable Signals in the Dorsal Column Nuclei. Front Syst Neurosci 2019; 13:11. [PMID: 30983977 PMCID: PMC6448039 DOI: 10.3389/fnsys.2019.00011] [Citation(s) in RCA: 5] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.0] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 01/03/2019] [Accepted: 02/26/2019] [Indexed: 02/04/2023] Open
Abstract
The brainstem dorsal column nuclei (DCN) are essential to inform the brain of tactile and proprioceptive events experienced by the body. However, little is known about how ascending somatosensory information is represented in the DCN. Our objective was to investigate the usefulness of high-frequency (HF) and low-frequency (LF) DCN signal features (SFs) in predicting the nerve from which signals were evoked. We also aimed to explore the robustness of DCN SFs and map their relative information content across the brainstem surface. DCN surface potentials were recorded from urethane-anesthetized Wistar rats during sural and peroneal nerve electrical stimulation. Five salient SFs were extracted from each recording electrode of a seven-electrode array. We used a machine learning approach to quantify and rank information content contained within DCN surface-potential signals following peripheral nerve activation. Machine-learning of SF and electrode position combinations was quantified to determine a hierarchy of information importance for resolving the peripheral origin of nerve activation. A supervised back-propagation artificial neural network (ANN) could predict the nerve from which a response was evoked with up to 96.8 ± 0.8% accuracy. Guided by feature-learnability, we maintained high prediction accuracy after reducing ANN algorithm inputs from 35 (5 SFs from 7 electrodes) to 6 (4 SFs from one electrode and 2 SFs from a second electrode). When the number of input features were reduced, the best performing input combinations included HF and LF features. Feature-learnability also revealed that signals recorded from the same midline electrode can be accurately classified when evoked from bilateral nerve pairs, suggesting DCN surface activity asymmetry. Here we demonstrate a novel method for mapping the information content of signal patterns across the DCN surface and show that DCN SFs are robust across a population. Finally, we also show that the DCN is functionally asymmetrically organized, which challenges our current understanding of somatotopic symmetry across the midline at sub-cortical levels.
Collapse
Affiliation(s)
- Alastair J Loutit
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Mohit N Shivdasani
- Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,Bionics Institute, East Melbourne, VIC, Australia
| | - Ted Maddess
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | - Stephen J Redmond
- Graduate School of Biomedical Engineering, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,UCD School of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland.,UCD Centre for Biomedical Engineering, University College Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
| | - John W Morley
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,School of Medicine, Western Sydney University, Sydney, NSW, Australia
| | - Greg J Stuart
- Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| | | | | | - Jason R Potas
- School of Medical Sciences, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia.,Eccles Institute of Neuroscience, The John Curtin School of Medical Research, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia
| |
Collapse
|
7
|
Lucas TH, Liu X, Zhang M, Sritharan S, Planell-Mendez I, Ghenbot Y, Torres-Maldonado S, Brandon C, Van der Spiegel J, Richardson AG. Strategies for Autonomous Sensor-Brain Interfaces for Closed-Loop Sensory Reanimation of Paralyzed Limbs. Neurosurgery 2017; 64:11-20. [PMID: 28899065 DOI: 10.1093/neuros/nyx367] [Citation(s) in RCA: 3] [Impact Index Per Article: 0.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 02/20/2017] [Accepted: 07/28/2017] [Indexed: 11/13/2022] Open
Affiliation(s)
- Timothy H Lucas
- Translational Neuromodulation Labora-tory, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, Department of Neuro-surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Xilin Liu
- School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Milin Zhang
- Department of Electronic Engineering, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China
| | - Sri Sritharan
- Translational Neuromodulation Labora-tory, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, Department of Neuro-surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Ivette Planell-Mendez
- Translational Neuromodulation Labora-tory, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, Department of Neuro-surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Yohannes Ghenbot
- Translational Neuromodulation Labora-tory, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, Department of Neuro-surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Solymar Torres-Maldonado
- Translational Neuromodulation Labora-tory, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, Department of Neuro-surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Cameron Brandon
- Translational Neuromodulation Labora-tory, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, Department of Neuro-surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Jan Van der Spiegel
- School of Engineering and Applied Science, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| | - Andrew G Richardson
- Translational Neuromodulation Labora-tory, Center for Neuroengineering and Therapeutics, Department of Neuro-surgery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
| |
Collapse
|