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. 2020 May 14;181(4):763-773.e12.
doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2020.03.054. Epub 2020 Apr 23.

Restoring the Sense of Touch Using a Sensorimotor Demultiplexing Neural Interface

Patrick D Ganzer  1 , Samuel C Colachis 4th  2 , Michael A Schwemmer  3 , David A Friedenberg  3 , Collin F Dunlap  4 , Carly E Swiftney  2 , Adam F Jacobowitz  2 , Doug J Weber  5 , Marcia A Bockbrader  6 , Gaurav Sharma  2
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Restoring the Sense of Touch Using a Sensorimotor Demultiplexing Neural Interface

Patrick D Ganzer et al. Cell. .
Free article

Abstract

Paralyzed muscles can be reanimated following spinal cord injury (SCI) using a brain-computer interface (BCI) to enhance motor function alone. Importantly, the sense of touch is a key component of motor function. Here, we demonstrate that a human participant with a clinically complete SCI can use a BCI to simultaneously reanimate both motor function and the sense of touch, leveraging residual touch signaling from his own hand. In the primary motor cortex (M1), residual subperceptual hand touch signals are simultaneously demultiplexed from ongoing efferent motor intention, enabling intracortically controlled closed-loop sensory feedback. Using the closed-loop demultiplexing BCI almost fully restored the ability to detect object touch and significantly improved several sensorimotor functions. Afferent grip-intensity levels are also decoded from M1, enabling grip reanimation regulated by touch signaling. These results demonstrate that subperceptual neural signals can be decoded from the cortex and transformed into conscious perception, significantly augmenting function.

Trial registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT01997125.

Keywords: brain-computer interface; cortex; decoding; demultiplex; machine learning; sensory feedback; spinal cord injury; touch; upper limb.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of Interests The authors declare competing interests, as they are employed by institutions that provided the funding for this work and/or have filed associated patents. P.D.G., S.C.C., M.A.S., D.A.F., C.F.D., C.E.S., A.F.J., and G.S. were all employed by Battelle Memorial Institute at the time of this study. D.J.W. was a consultant for Battelle Memorial Institute at the time of this study. M.A.B. is employed by the Ohio State University. D.A.F. and G.S. are listed as inventors on the United States patent application US 2018/0178008 (related WO 2016/196797), and G.S. is listed as an inventor on the United States patent application US 2015/0306373. These are related to the neural bridging BCI technology and stimulation interface used in the paper.

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