THE peripheral nervous system (PNS) consists of neurons, support cells, and structures that enable communication between the central nervous system and ...
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
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Guest Editorial Interfacing With the Peripheral Nervous System to Develop Innovative Neuroprostheses I. INTRODUCTION
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HE peripheral nervous system (PNS) consists of neurons, support cells, and structures that enable communication between the central nervous system and end organs in the periphery. Its neurons have somas located in either the spinal cord (and brainstem) or spinal ganglia, but have processes and connections that extend centrally and peripherally. Neuroprostheses are devices, which aim to provide, substitute, or augment motor, sensory, or cognitive modalities that might have been damaged as a result of an injury or a disease. Interfaces with the PNS are particularly interesting to develop into effective neuroprostheses because they represent a compromise between the ability to restore a natural and/or functional link and invasiveness of the intervention. For example, in the case of a artificial prosthesis, the interface should be able to stimulate different populations of afferent nerves to deliver a variety of sensory feedback information originating from sensors in the prosthesis, and to record signals from efferent nerves or from muscles to derive motor commands to the prosthesis. Similarly, kinematic and kinetic information for the closed-loop control of a neuroprosthesis could be detected from signals originating from natural sensors intercepted by the neural interface given sufficient recording selectivity. Starting from these needs, several noninvasive and invasive devices whose target locations reside in the PNS have been developed with different characteristics (Fig. 1) in terms of selectivity and invasiveness [1]. Many research groups have developed very promising neuroprostheses by using these enabling technologies [2]–[5]. II. SPECIAL SECTION ON “PERIPHERAL NEURAL INTERFACES” Here, we present a special section on peripheral neural interfaces of the IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING. The special issue was intended to show novel and promising research activities related to invasive and noninvasive interfaces with the PNS and to their use to develop effective neural prostheses. We are pleased to present seven papers in this special theme covering different noninvasive and invasive applications and important technological developments. We hope that the contents of the special theme will increase interest in this specific field. Lacour et al. showed very interesting and promising results towards the development of a new generation of interfaces based on the natural regeneration properties of the PNS. Digital Object Identifier 10.1109/TNSRE.2009.2033426
Fig. 1. Characterization of the different types of interfaces with PNS according to invasiveness and selectivity.
A novel approach to extract sensory information from the neural signals recorded from afferent nerves has been developed by Djilas et al. Their findings could open up very interesting possibility to develop closed-loop controlled neuroprostheses. Ackermann et al. carried out a very interesting study to provide guidelines to design electrodes usable to implement high frequency neural conduction block. This method can be clinically used to eliminate pathological neural activities. Beamforming algorithms have been used by Wodlinger and Durand to extract important and very useful information from neural signals recorded from cuff electrodes. Novel FES algorithms can be based on these innovative algorithms. Zafira et al. analyzed how much an increased number of contacts in cuff electrodes can increase the ability in discriminating neural signals. These findings can be very useful to reduce the complexity of the electrodes while keeping a good effectiveness. The characterization of the selectivity of cuff electrodes chronically implanted in two human spinal cord injured volunteers was carried out by Polasek et al. The approach can significantly improve the effectiveness of motor neuroprostheses. Sensinger a et al. analyzed how much three amputee subjects who had undergone targeted reinnervation (TR) are able to discriminate changes in graded force. TR is a very promising and interesting technique, which can significantly improve the quality of life of amputees. ACKNOWLEDGMENT The guest editors would like to thank Nitish Thakkor, Editor-in-Chief, for providing this great opportunity to contribute to the journal. The guest editors would like also to express their
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
gratitude to the authors and reviewers for their contribution to this special issue. SILVESTRO MICERA, Guest Editor Advanced Robotics Technology and Systems Laboratory Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna Pisa, 56126 Italy Institute for Automation Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich, 8092 Switzerland XAVIER NAVARRO, Guest Editor Institute of Neurosciences Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona Barcelona, 08193 Spain
REFERENCES [1] X. Navarro, T. Krueger, N. Lago, S. Micera, T. Stieglitz, and P. Dario, “A critical review of interfaces with the peripheral nervous system for the control of neuroprostheses and hybrid bionic systems,” J. Periph. Nervous Syst., vol. 10, no. 3, pp. 229–258, 2005. [2] G. Dhillon, T. Kruger, J. Sandhu, and K. Horch, “Effects of short term training on sensory and motor function in severed nerves of long term human amputees,” J. Neurophysiol., vol. 93, no. 5, pp. 2625–2633, 2005. [3] S. Micera, M. Carrozza, L. Beccai, F. Vecchi, and P. Dario, “Hybrid bionic systems for the replacement of hand function,” Proc. IEEE, vol. 94, no. 9, pp. 1752–1762, Sep. 2006. [4] T. Kuiken, L. Miller, R. Lipschutz, B. Lock, K. Stubbefield, P. Marasco, P. Zhou, and G. Dumanian, “Targeted reinnervation for enhanced prosthetic arm function in a woman with a proximal amputation: A case study,” Lancet, vol. 369, pp. 371–380, 2007. [5] K. Englehart and B. Hudgins, “A robust, real-time control scheme for multifunction myoelectric control,” IEEE Trans. Biomed. Eng., vol. 50, no. 7, pp. 848–854, Jul. 2003.
KEN YOSHIDA, Guest Editor Purdue School of Engineering and Technology Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, IN 46202 USA
Silvestro Micera (S’94–M’99–SM’06) received the university degree (Laurea) in electrical engineering from the University of Pisa, in 1996, and the Ph.D. degree in biomedical engineering from the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna, in 2000. During 1999, he was a Visiting Student at the Aalborg University. From 2000 to 2008, he was an Assistant Professor of BioRobotics at the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna where is still responsible of international and national projects. In 2007, he was a Visiting Scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, with a Fulbright Scholarship. Since 2008 he is the Head of the Neuroprosthesis Control Group at the Institute for Automation, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, CH. His research interests include the development of hybrid neuroprosthetic systems (interfacing the central and peripheral nervous systems with artificial systems) and of mechatronic and robotic systems for function and assessment restoration in disabled and elderly persons. He is an author of several scientific papers and international patents. He is a member of the Editorial Board of the Journal of Neuroengineering and Rehabilitation. He served as Guest Editor of several biomedical engineering journals. Dr. Micera was the recipient of the “Early Career Achievement Award” of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, in 2009. He is currently Associate Editor of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON BIOMEDICAL ENGINEERING and of IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING. He was Deputy Editor in Chief of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Magazine.
Xavier Navarro received the M.D. degree in 1978 and the Ph.D. degree in medicine in 1985 from the Autonomous University of Barcelona. He completed his speciality training in Neurology at the University of Barcelona, and in Neurophysiology at the University of Minnesota while holding a Fulbright fellowship (1986–1988). Since 1999 he has been a full Professor of Physiology at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. Since 1989 he has been leading the research group on Neuroplasticity and Regeneration of the Institute of Neurosciences. He serves also as scientific advisor of the Institute Guttmann for Neurorehabilitation. His research interests are focused on axonal regeneration, functional restitution after neural injuries, neuroprostheses, spinal cord injury, and peripheral neuropathies. He has published more than 180 articles in these areas of the neurosciences.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON NEURAL SYSTEMS AND REHABILITATION ENGINEERING, VOL. 17, NO. 5, OCTOBER 2009
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Ken Yoshida received the B.S.E. degree in bioengineering from the University of California at Los Angeles, in 1989, and the Ph.D. degree in bioengineering from the University of Utah, Salt Lake City, in 1994. From 1995 to 1998, he was an AHFMR (Alberta Heritage Foundation for Medical Research) and Canadian NeuroScience NCE Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Alberta at the Division of Neuroscience. From 1998 to 2006, he was with the faculty at the Department of Health Science and Technology and the Center for Sensory-Motor Interaction at Aalborg University, where he was an Associate Professor until his departure to IUPUI in October 2006. His research focus is the development of selective neural interfaces, and the application of these devices to study natural neuromuscular control and to investigate natural sensor-based FNS systems. Dr. Yoshida is a member of the Society for Neuroscience, the International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society, the Biomedical Engineering Society, and Tau Beta Pi.
