主页 > 医药生命 >
【bio-news】与大脑作用的电脑芯片修饰控制行动通
Electronic chip, interacting with the brain, modifies pathways for controlling movement
Mechanism may have potential in stroke and brain injury rehabilitation
Researchers at the University of Washington (UW) are working on an implantable electronic chip that may help establish new nerve connections in the part of the brain that controls movement. Their most recent study, to be published in the Nov. 2, 2006, edition of Nature, showed such a device can induce brain changes in monkeys lasting more than a week. Strengthening of weak connections through this mechanism may have potential in the rehabilitation of patients with brain injuries, stroke, or paralysis.
The authors of study, titled "Long-Term Motor Cortex Plasticity Induced by an Electronic Neural Implant," were Dr. Andrew Jackson, senior research fellow in physiology and biophysics, Dr. Jaideep Mavoori, who recently earned a Ph.D. in electrical engineering from the UW, and Dr. Eberhard Fetz, professor of physiology and biophysics. For many years Fetz and his colleagues have studied how the brains of monkeys control their limb muscles.
When awake, the brain continuously governs the body's voluntary movements. This is largely done through the activity of nerve cells in the part of the brain called the motor cortex. These nerve cells, or neurons, send signals down to the spinal cord to control the contraction of certain muscles, like those in the arms and legs.
The possibility that these neural signals can be recorded directly and used to operate a computer or to control mechanical devices outside of the body has been driving the rapidly expanding field of brain-computer interfaces, often abbreviated BCI. The recent Nature study suggests that the brain's nerve signals can be harnessed to create changes within itself.
The researchers tested a miniature, self-contained device with a tiny computer chip. The devices were placed on top of the heads of monkeys who were free to carry out their usual behaviors, including sleep. Called a Neurochip, the brain-computer interface was developed by Mavoori for his doctoral thesis.
"The Neurochip records the activity of motor cortex cells," Fetz explained, "It can convert this activity into a stimulus that can be sent back to the brain, spinal cord, or muscle, and thereby set up an artificial connection that operates continuously during normal behavior. This recurrent brain-computer interface creates an artificial motor pathway that the brain may learn to use to compensate for impaired pathways."
Jackson found that, when the brain-computer interface continuously connects neighboring sites in the motor cortex, it produces long-lasting changes. Namely, the movements evoked from the recording site changed to resemble those evoked from the stimulation site.
The researchers said that a likely explanation for these changes is the strengthening of pathways within the cortex from the recording to the stimulation site. This strengthening may have been produced by the continuous synchronization of activity at the two sites, generated by the recurrent brain-computer interface.
Timing is critical for creating these connections, the researchers said. The conditioning effect occurs only if the delay between the recorded activity and the stimulation is brief enough. The changes are produced in a day of continuous conditioning with the recurrent brain-computer interface, but last for many days after the circuit is turned off.
"This unusually long-lasting plasticity may be related to the fact that the conditioning is associated with normal behavior," Fetz said.
###
The research was supported by grants from the National Institutes of Health, the Office of Naval Research, and the University of Washington Royalty Fund. 本人已认领该文编译，48小时后若未提交译文，请其他战友自由认领。 电子芯片可以与大脑相互作用来修饰控制运动的脑通路
该装置可能被用于中风和脑损伤的康复
华盛顿大学的研究者们正在研究一种可植入的电子芯片，该芯片可在控制运动的脑区帮助建立新的连接. 将于2006年11月2日出版的《Nature》杂志上将发表他们的最新成果，他们的研究结果表明该装置可以诱发猴子脑内发生某种改变，其持续时间可超过一周. 使用这一装置弱的神经联系会被加强，因此该装置也许在脑损伤、中风或麻痹的康复中有所作为.
该研究被命名为“电子神经芯片诱导的运动皮层长期的可塑性”，其作者有：Andrew Jackson博士是生理学和生物物理学方面的资深研究人员；Jaideep Mavoori博士最近刚刚获得电子工程学的博士学位；以及Eberhard Fetz博士是生理学和生物物理学教授. Fetz和他的同事们多年来一直在研究猴子的大脑是如何来控制四肢肌肉的运动的.
阅读本文的人还阅读：
作者:admin@医学,生命科学 2011-06-29 18:20
医学,生命科学网