Toward High-Performance Neural Control of Prosthetic Devices

A program of basic and applied research in neuroscience is dedicated to (1) advancing fundamental understanding of how the human brain plans and executes arm movements and (2) designing and building high-performance neural prostheses for controlling arm prostheses. The basic-research part of the program involves experiments on non-human primates by use of techniques of chronic-electrode-array electrophysiology, computational neuroscience, theoretical neuroscience, and observations of reaching behavior. The appliedresearch part of the program includes, as part of the effort to develop neural prostheses, an effort to decode (that is, to extract scientifically and prosthetically useful signals from) neural activity in real time, use the signals generated in the decoding process to move computer cursors, and utilize the knowledge thus gained to design and validate high-performance neural-prosthetic algorithms.