Abstract
Functional loss of limb control in individuals with spinal cord injury (SCI) or stroke is attributed to interruption of descending pathways to spinal network. Although neural circuits locate below and above the lesion remain most of their function. I will show an artificial neuronal connection (ANC) that bridges supra-spinal system and spinal network beyond the lesion site restores lost function. The ANC was produced by a brain-computer interface that can detect the neural activity and converted in real-time to activity-contingent electrical stimuli delivered to nervous system. A promising application is to bridge impaired biological connections, as demonstrated for cortically-controlled electrical stimulation to muscles. Our results document that monkey utilized the artificial connection instead of residual connections. Recent work has shown that volitionally-controlled walking in individuals with SCI can be restored by musle-controlled magnetic stimulation to lumbar spinal cord. Thus, ANC can compensate for interrupted descending pathways. Furthermore, these paradigms have numerous potential applications, depending on the input signals, the computed transform and the output targets.
