A brain-spine interface alleviating gait deficits after spinal cord injury in primates.

ABSTRACT: Spinal cord injury disrupts the communication between the brain and the spinal circuits that orchestrate movement. To bypass the lesion, brain-computer interfaces have directly linked cortical activity to electrical stimulation of muscles, and have thus restored grasping abilities after hand paralysis. Theoretically, this strategy could also restore control over leg muscle activity for walking. However, replicating the complex sequence of individual muscle activation patterns underlying natural and adaptive locomotor movements poses formidable conceptual and technological challenges. Recently, it was shown in rats that epidural electrical stimulation of the lumbar spinal cord can reproduce the natural activation of synergistic muscle groups producing locomotion. Here we interface leg motor

SUBMITTER: Capogrosso M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5108412 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature