Event Abstract Back to Event Challenges and Opportunities for Next-Generation Intracortically Based Neural Prostheses Ilka Diester1* 1 Ernst Struengmann Institute in Cooperation with Max Planck Society, Germany Neural prosthetic systems aim to restore limb control in patients with motor disorders. When natural motor pathways are destroyed, neural prostheses bypass the faulty circuits by translating neural signals directly from the brain into control signals for guiding computer cursors, prosthetic arms, and other assistive devices. Intracortical electrode arrays are the read out device measuring action potentials and local field potentials from individual neurons, or small populations of neurons, in the motor cortices and can provide considerable information for controlling prostheses. Despite several compelling proof-of-concept laboratory animal experiments and an initial human clinical trial, at least three key challenges remain which, if left unaddressed, may hamper the translation of the systems into widespread clinical use: achieving levels of performance across tasks and across environments comparable to a natural motor control, achieving robustness across multiple decades, and restoring a naturalistic proprioception and somatosensation. Recent algorithm, model, and hardware developments might help meeting the read out challenges (high performance with increased longevity). On the write in side, optogenetics which enables light to control neural activity in specific sets of neurons may allow restoring a naturalistic perception of touch. These new developments may achieve true clinical viability of neural prostheses. Keywords: brain-machine interfaces, Motor Decoding Conference: BC11 : Computational Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Bernstein Conference & Neurex Annual Meeting 2011, Freiburg, Germany, 4 Oct - 6 Oct, 2011. Presentation Type: Abstract Topic: other Citation: Diester I (2011). Challenges and Opportunities for Next-Generation Intracortically Based Neural Prostheses. Front. Comput. Neurosci. Conference Abstract: BC11 : Computational Neuroscience & Neurotechnology Bernstein Conference & Neurex Annual Meeting 2011. doi: 10.3389/conf.fncom.2011.53.00002 Copyright: The abstracts in this collection have not been subject to any Frontiers peer review or checks, and are not endorsed by Frontiers. They are made available through the Frontiers publishing platform as a service to conference organizers and presenters. The copyright in the individual abstracts is owned by the author of each abstract or his/her employer unless otherwise stated. Each abstract, as well as the collection of abstracts, are published under a Creative Commons CC-BY 4.0 (attribution) licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) and may thus be reproduced, translated, adapted and be the subject of derivative works provided the authors and Frontiers are attributed. For Frontiers’ terms and conditions please see https://www.frontiersin.org/legal/terms-and-conditions. Received: 29 Sep 2011; Published Online: 04 Oct 2011. * Correspondence: Dr. Ilka Diester, Ernst Struengmann Institute in Cooperation with Max Planck Society, Frankfurt, Germany, ilka.diester@biologie.uni-freiburg.de Login Required This action requires you to be registered with Frontiers and logged in. To register or login click here. Abstract Info Abstract The Authors in Frontiers Ilka Diester Google Ilka Diester Google Scholar Ilka Diester PubMed Ilka Diester Related Article in Frontiers Google Scholar PubMed Abstract Close Back to top Javascript is disabled. Please enable Javascript in your browser settings in order to see all the content on this page.