Tap Into Motor Cortex for Robotarm
Published: Jun 20, 2007

Dr. Andrew Schwartz from the University of Pittsburgh www.pitt.edu presented his work on detailed predictive information of the arm’s trajectory and the extraction of these signals from motor cortex. His research can lead to brain-controlled robotic arms for humans.

On the annual conference of the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society (IFESS)Â in Montréal, Canada, Dr. Schwartz will present research done on monkeys with direct brain-control that performs self-feeding tasks with a prosthetic arm.
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Schwartz says: “Over the years, we have shown that detailed predictive information of the arm’s trajectory can be extracted from populations composed of single unit recordings from motor cortex. By developing techniques to record these populations and process the signal in real-time, we have been successful in demonstrating the efficacy of these recordings as a control signal for intended movements in 3D space. Having shown that closed-loop control of a cortical prosthesis can produce very good brain-controlled movements in virtual reality, we have been extending this work to robot control. By introducing an anthropomorphic robot arm into our closed-loop system, we have shown that a monkey can easily control the robot’s movement with direct brain-control, while watching the movement in virtual-reality.”
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“The devices, called brain-computer interfaces (BCIs), link the brain to the external world by computer processing the recorded neural signal to extract the subject’s command to control an external device,” says Schwartz. “For those who are movement impaired, recording-based neural prostheses may enable communication or movement. Likely beneficiaries of this evolving technology include people paralyzed by head or spinal-cord trauma or those with deficits caused by stroke, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), cerebral palsy, and multiple sclerosis. Their paralyses may range from complete—with no respiratory or eye movements—to quadri- and paraplegia. Whereas some BCI devices are designed for communication only (i.e., electroencephalography (EEG)-based, word-spelling programs), CNPs, by using single-cell activity, aim to restore movement as well. The scope of this review is limited to CNPs, specifically those designed to record signals in a form that can be used by the subject to control arm movement.”
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Source: IFESS and University of Pittsburgh
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