Control of spinal motoneurons by feedback from a non-invasive real-time interface
File(s)TBME-00682-2020_R1.pdf (559.11 KB)
Accepted version
Author(s)
Barsakcioglu, Deren Y
Bracklein, Mario
Holobar, Ales
Farina, Dario
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Interfacing with human neural cells during natural tasks provides the means for investigating the working principles of the central nervous system and for developing human-machine interaction technologies. Here we present a computationally efficient non-invasive, real-time interface based on the decoding of the activity of spinal motoneurons from wearable high-density electromyogram (EMG) sensors. We validate this interface by comparing its decoding results with those obtained with invasive EMG sensors and offline decoding, as reference. Moreover, we test the interface in a series of studies involving real-time feedback on the behavior of a relatively large number of decoded motoneurons. The results on accuracy, intuitiveness, and stability of control demonstrate the possibility of establishing a direct non-invasive interface with the human spinal cord without the need for extensive training. Moreover, in a control task, we show that the accuracy in control of the proposed neural interface may approach that of the natural control of force. These results are the first that demonstrate the feasibility and validity of a non-invasive direct neural interface with the spinal cord, with wearable systems and matching the neural information flow of natural movements.
Date Issued
2020-06-12
Date Acceptance
2020-06-08
Citation
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, 2020, 68 (3), pp.926-935
ISSN
0018-9294
Publisher
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
Start Page
926
End Page
935
Journal / Book Title
IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering
Volume
68
Issue
3
Copyright Statement
© 2020 IEEE. Personal use of this material is permitted. Permission from IEEE must be obtained for all other uses, in any current or future media, including reprinting/republishing this material for advertising or promotional purposes, creating new collective works, for resale or redistribution to servers or lists, or reuse of any copyrighted component of this work in other works.
Sponsor
Commission of the European Communities
Identifier
https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/9115883
Grant Number
810346
Subjects
Biomedical Engineering
0801 Artificial Intelligence and Image Processing
0903 Biomedical Engineering
0906 Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Publication Status
Published
Date Publish Online
2020-06-12