[tt] NIH Grant Makes Implantable Neural Interface Possible

[Hughes, James J.]

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/78699.php  

Medical News Today

NIH Grant Makes Implantable Neural Interface Possible

07 Aug 2007   

State-of-the-art brain implants that record or stimulate neural activity
to help people with nervous system damage will be made possible under a
major new National Institutes of Health grant awarded to Brown
University, Cyberkinetics Neurotechnology Systems Inc. and the Cleveland
Functional Electrical Stimulation (FES) Center at Case Western Reserve
University.

The National Institute of Biomedical Imaging and Bioengineering and the
National Institute of Child Health and Human Development awarded the
five-year, $6.5-million grant to Brown, which will coordinate research
with partners from Cyberkinetics and the Cleveland FES Center.

The innovative university-industry team will develop a
'microsystem-on-a-chip' -- a neural interface that is thin, flexible and
about as big as an adhesive bandage. Unlike any other neural interface,
the new system will be fully implantable and will communicate
wirelessly. Information from the brain will be transmitted through the
skin in a digital data streaming technique similar to high-speed optical
telecommunications. That digitized data can be used to control assistive
devices, such as computers or wheelchairs, which bring independence to
people with paralysis.

"This grant will take neural interfaces to the next level," said John
Donoghue, a Brown neuroscientist and the chief scientific officer at
Cyberkinetics. "The devices that come out of this project will bring us
much closer to our goal of helping people who can't move or who struggle
to communicate because of central nervous system injuries or disorders."

Arto Nurmikko, a Brown professor of engineering and physics, will lead
the team developing the new silicon-encapsulated system, which will
consist of a sensor and signal processor at one end and a high-speed
signal transmitter and power source at the other. In one version, the
system will send a stream of digital data down a hair-thin fiber optic
cable under the skin that leads to a pacemaker-sized power and
processing unit in the chest. This unit will provide a strong, stable
optical signal that can be used as a command source to control
wheelchairs, prosthetic limbs, or other devices.

This new technology will also provide a wireless sensor for BrainGate,
the system that turns the brain's electrical signals into movement
commands. BrainGate has allowed people with paralysis to operate a
computer in order to read e-mail, control a wheelchair and operate a
robotic hand in FDA-approved pilot trials overseen by Cyberkinetics.
Brown faculty and students created the Foxborough, Mass., company based
on research and technology developed in the Donoghue laboratory.

Right now, BrainGate involves a sensor implanted in the brain, a
connector that protrudes through the scalp and a cable that extends from
the connector, carrying the brain's signals out of the body to a set of
paperback-sized computer processors that translate those signals into
movement commands. The new system will be much smaller and sit under the
skin. "We are extremely pleased to receive this -- our second major
award -- from the NIH to fund development of BrainGate technology," said
Timothy R. Surgenor, Cyberkinetics' president and CEO. "This award
underscores the leadership position that Cyberkinetics, Brown and Case
Western Reserve have attained in moving this groundbreaking science
toward a product that may someday provide practical benefits and
independence for paralyzed people."

The new technology could have applications beyond the control of
assistive devices. Brain signals recorded and decoded by the device
could be used to detect and predict epileptic seizures. Or the system
might be used to treat disorders ranging from depression to Parkinson's
disease.

The research funding will allow the scientists to test the new wireless
system -- already a prototype in the Nurmikko lab -- in a human patient
with paralysis of all four limbs.

The grant will also allow scientists to develop a similar microsystem
that stimulates, rather than records, brain activity. This technology
would eventually allow for feedback that restores touch perception to
people with paralysis or other nervous system damage. This ability to
feel heat, pressure and pain is important for normal interaction with
the world.

The group is also planning to couple its wireless neural interface to a
functional electrical stimulation (FES) system, which uses electrical
impulses to trigger muscle and limb movement. Such a system would
recreate the normal path from brain to muscles using physical
components, allowing people with paralysis to make simple movements
under direct brain control that could potentially be used to perform
tasks such as eating or drinking.

P. Hunter Peckham, professor of biomedical engineering and orthopaedics
at Case Western Reserve and executive director of the Cleveland FES
Center, is a world leader in creating and testing FES systems, which can
produce and control the movement of otherwise paralyzed limbs, stop pain
or muscle spasms, and activate bodily functions such as bladder control.

"This grant provides the opportunity to interface the proposed brain
stimulation and recording system with our networked neuroprosthesis, or
NNP, system being developed through a separate project," Peckham said.
"The NNP system is our next-generation neuroprosthesis platform that
will be used for a wide variety of applications and represents the
logical way to move cortical control of various body functions into
human applications as quickly as possible."

The NIH grant will continue the innovative research collaboration
between Brown and Cyberkinetics, as well as the strong scientific
partnership between Brown and Case Western Reserve, both leaders in
neuroprosthetics. This fast-growing field brings together engineers,
biologists, and computer scientists to create devices to repair the
nervous system.