Towards neural co-processors for the brain: combining decoding and encoding

Rajesh PN Rao,
Professor, University of Washington
Current Opinion in Neurobiology 2019, 55: 142-151

这是一篇双向脑机接口系统的综述性文章。文章作者认为脑机接口作为神经中心处理器 (neural co-processors) 可以开始朝着（消耗）能量优化方向发展，使其康复效果、功能恢复更好，而不仅仅只是作为一个工具去测试神经计算模型和理解脑功能等。A major limitation of current BBCIs is that they treat decoding and encoding as separate processes, and they do not co-adapt and jointly optimize a cost function with the nervous system.

本文对双向脑机接口的突破性实验成果进行的详尽的总结，特别总结了以下几篇文章：

一、双向脑机接口

[1] O’Doherty et al., Active tactile exploration using a brain-machine-brain interface. Nature 2011, 479:228-231.

This article presents results from two monkeys who were able to perform tactile exploration of virtual objects with different artificial tactile proper- ties using a virtual arm controlled by motor cortex activity, while receiving feedback via intracortical microstimulation in the somatosensory cortex.

[2] Flesher S et al., Intracortical microstimulation as a feedback source for brain–computer interface users. Brain–Computer Interface Research. 2017:43-54.

The article presents first results from patients who are able to use artificial sensory feedback provided through intracortical microstimulation in S1 cortex to solve a force-feedback task involving a prosthetic hand con- trolled by M1 cortex activity.

[3] Ethier C, Oby ER, Bauman MJ, Miller LE: Restoration of grasp following paralysis through brain-controlled stimulation of muscles. Nature 2012, 485:368-371.

to grasping and moving objects using a linear decoder with a static nonlinearity applied to about 100 neural signals from M1.

[4] Bouton CE, et al., Restoring cortical control of functional movement

in a human with quadriplegia. Nature 2016, 533:247-250.**
This work extends prior work done in monkeys on cortical control of paralyzed muscles to a human with quadriplegia. Multiunit activity from hand area of M1 cortex was classified into six wrist/hand motions using functional electrical stimulation of paralyzed forearm muscles.

[5] Ajiboye AB, et al., Restoration of reaching and grasping movements through brain-controlled muscle stimulation in a person with tetraplegia: a proof-of-concept demonstration. Lancet 2017, 389:1821-1830.

Neural activity from the hand area of human M1 cortex was mapped to percent activation of functional electrical stimulation patterns applied to paralyzed arm muscles to elicit hand, wrist or elbow movements and achieve point-to-point target acquisitions in a tetraplegic human.

二 利用同样的原理，可以实现Brain-Brain Interface

即概念转换成sender和receiver

[6] Rao RP, et al., A direct brain-to-brain interface in humans. PLoS One, 2014, 9:e111332.

The article presents the first noninvasive brain-to-brain interface in humans. Motor imagery was decoded from EEG signals recorded from the motor cortex of one subject and used to deliver information to the hand area of the motor cortex of another subject through transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), allowing the two subjects to collaborate and solve a visual-motor task.

[7] Pais-Vieira M, Chiuffa G, Lebedev M, Yadav A, Nicolelis MA. Building an organic computing device with multiple interconnected brains. Sci Rep 2015, 5:11869.

The article presents the first demonstration of a ‘Brainet’ of four inter- connected rat brains with electrode arrays implanted bilaterally in S1 cortex for recording and stimulation. The Brainet functioned as an organic computing device that could be used to solve problems involving discrete classification, sequential and parallel computations, and memory sto- rage/retrieval.

三 诱导神经可塑和神经重连

依据的是Hebb原则

[8] Jackson A, Mavoori J, Fetz EE: Long-term motor cortex plasticity induced by an electronic neural implant. Nature 2006, 444:56-60.

The authors present the first demonstration of cortical plasticity induction in M1 cortex based on activity-dependent electrical stimu- lation in freely behaving monkeys using a bidirectional brain–computer interface.