美国加州理工学院Whitney S. Griggs和Sumner L. Norman共同合作，近期取得重要工作进展。他们研究使用闭环超声脑机接口来解码运动计划。相关研究成果2023年11月30日在线发表于《自然—神经科学》杂志上。

据介绍，脑机接口（BMI）使患有慢性瘫痪的人仅凭思想就能够控制计算机、机器人等。现有的BMI在入侵性、性能、空间覆盖率和时空分辨率方面进行了权衡。功能性超声（fUS）神经成像是一种新兴技术，可以平衡这些属性，并可能补充现有的BMI记录技术。

研究人员使用fUS来证明闭环超声BMI的成功实施。研究人员从两只恒河猴的后顶叶皮层流式传输fUS数据，同时它们进行眼睛和手的运动。训练后，猴子使用BMI控制多达八个运动方向。研究人员还开发了一种利用以前的数据对BMI进行预训练的方法，这样就能在随后的日子里立即进行控制，即使是相隔数月的日子，也无需进行大量的重新校准。

总之，这些发现确立了超声BMI的可行性，为一种新的微创（硬膜外）接开辟了道路，这种接口可以在较长的时间内推广，并有望恢复神经损伤患者的功能。

附：英文原文

Title: Decoding motor plans using a closed-loop ultrasonic brain–machine interface

Author: Griggs, Whitney S., Norman, Sumner L., Deffieux, Thomas, Segura, Florian, Osmanski, Bruno-Flix, Chau, Geeling, Christopoulos, Vasileios, Liu, Charles, Tanter, Mickael, Shapiro, Mikhail G., Andersen, Richard A.

Issue&Volume: 2023-11-30

Abstract: Brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) enable people living with chronic paralysis to control computers, robots and more with nothing but thought. Existing BMIs have trade-offs across invasiveness, performance, spatial coverage and spatiotemporal resolution. Functional ultrasound (fUS) neuroimaging is an emerging technology that balances these attributes and may complement existing BMI recording technologies. In this study, we use fUS to demonstrate a successful implementation of a closed-loop ultrasonic BMI. We streamed fUS data from the posterior parietal cortex of two rhesus macaque monkeys while they performed eye and hand movements. After training, the monkeys controlled up to eight movement directions using the BMI. We also developed a method for pretraining the BMI using data from previous sessions. This enabled immediate control on subsequent days, even those that occurred months apart, without requiring extensive recalibration. These findings establish the feasibility of ultrasonic BMIs, paving the way for a new class of less-invasive (epidural) interfaces that generalize across extended time periods and promise to restore function to people with neurological impairments.

DOI: 10.1038/s41593-023-01500-7

Source: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41593-023-01500-7