from Part V - Bionics
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 September 2015
During the course of a normal day, there are numerous physical tasks to beaccomplished that require control of one’s arms and legs. Forindividuals with a neurological disease, motor disorder, or physical injury,the ability to control their arms or legs may be impaired or completelyremoved. One rehabilitative method to restore some function of movementwould be to use a bioelectronic interface to provide a communication pathwaybetween the nervous system and either the control of an external device orimproved control of the existing limb. Successful bioelectronic interfacesrequire efficient and robust communication between external hardware and thenervous system in order to drive human movements. An ultimate solution wouldbe a device that could “speak” the same language as the neuralnetwork it is communicating with to produce biofidelic functionality. In thefollowing chapters (Chapters 24–26), a description will be given ofhow devices such as retinal prostheses perform the task of converting visualscenes into neural stimulation patterns to restore a sense of vision.Subsequent chapters (Chapters 27–34) will cover the differenttechnologies available for using neural recordings for brain–machineinterfaces (BMI). Again, this requires decoding neural signals from thecortex to properly control objects such as a computer mouse. This chapterwill describe how neural recordings can be decoded to provide controlsignals for producing human movements in either the arms or the legs.Depending on the application, this may involve reanimating the existinglimbs through methods of functional electrical stimulation (FES) orproviding control signals derived from neural recordings to activateprosthetic limbs [1–12]. This chapter will begin with a briefdiscussion of the general flow process involved in designing an effectivebioelectronic interface for artificial movements. The next two sections willdiscuss examples of bioelectronic interfaces for upper arm movements (reachand grasp) and lower leg movements (locomotion).
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