人造神经运动装置

Nature, July 13, 2006
封面故事：人造神经运动装置

本期封面所示为BrainGate飞行员临床试验的第一位参与者Matt Nagle。在颈部脊索损伤后，他的胳膊和腿不能动了。布朗大学神经科学系的研究人员与生物技术公司Cyberkinetics及其他三个机构的人员合作，发现与运动有关的信号可通过一个植入的BrainGate芯片从大脑向外传递，使患者能够驱动一个电脑屏幕光标，启动简单的自动装置。这种人造神经运动装置有可能为研制可以代替或恢复瘫痪患者丧失的运动功能的系统铺平道路。（Article p. 164; News and Views; News Feature; www.nature.com/podcast）在这项进展之前，这种类型的工作主要是在猴子身上进行的。在最近的一例这种研究中，研究人员使这类装置的运动速度与当前的装置相比有了很大提高，从而使得研制可在临床上使用的脑机器接口的前景更加乐观。

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Large numbered ellipses draw attention to the increase in neural activity related to the peripheral reach target. a, Standard instructed-delay reach trial. Data from selected neural units are shown (grey shaded region); each row corresponds to one unit and black tick marks indicate spike times. Units are ordered by angular tuning direction (preferred direction) during the delay period. For hand (H) and eye (E) traces, blue and red lines show the horizontal and vertical coordinates, respectively. The full range of scale for these data is 15 cm from the centre touch cue. b, Chain of three prosthetic cursor trials followed by a standard instructed-delay reach trial. T_skip is denoted by the orange parts of the time line. Neural activity was integrated (T_int) during the purple shaded interval and used to predict the reach target location. After a short processing time (T_dec+rend 40 ms), a prosthetic cursor was briefly rendered and a new target was displayed. The dotted circles represent the reach target and prosthetic cursor from the previous trial, both of which were rapidly extinguished before the start of the trial indicated. Trials shown here are from experiment H20041106.1 with monkey H.
(Copy right@Nature, 2006)