Host: Xinying Cai
Abstract:
Prostheses for the restoration of hand function are hampered by the lack of a mechanism for providing tactile feedback. Many state-of-the-art prosthetic hands offer tactile sensors, but mechanisms for interfacing those to the nervous system are an area with substantial research effort. We have been collaborating to create a peripheral nerve interface that allows separate addressing of motor and sensory fascicles in the ulnar server. Our novel interface includes both intrafascicular and cuff electrodes in a thin-film design. We have tested this interface first in nonhuman primates. After implantation of the array into branches of the brachial nerve, we have recorded the responses elicited in somatosensory cortex by stimulation on that array, and have compared those responses to those elicited by mechanical stimulation of the fingertip. I will describe the results of stimulation using a variety of stimulation patterns, including constant frequency, varying frequency, stochastic tuning, and biomimetic patterns including both onset and offset bursts. We have also been testing these stimulation patterns in amputees, and I will present preliminary results of those stimulations.
Biography:
Steve Helms Tillery received his B.S. in Psychology from Arizona State University in 1987 and his PhD. in Neuroscience from the University of Minnesota in 1994. During that time he worked in the laboratories of James Bloedel and John Soechting. In 1997 he moved to the VA Medical Center and SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse where he worked on working memory in deep cerebellar nuclei with Peter Strick. In 2000, he came to ASU to work with Andy Schwartz on the cortical control of neuroprosthetic systems. He stayed on at ASU and founded the SensoriMotor Research Group where we work on the interaction of motor and sensory systems in understanding how the CNS interacts with the world and applying that knowledge to neuroprosthetic systems. He is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Biological & Health Systems Engineering and the Lincoln Professor of Neural Engineering, Research and Ethics.
Sponsored by the NYU-ECNU Institute of Brain and Cognitive Science at NYU Shanghai