Cargando…

Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex

Current neural prostheses can restore limb movement to tetraplegic patients by translating brain signals coding movements to control a variety of actuators. Fast and accurate somatosensory feedback is essential for normal movement, particularly dexterous tasks, but is currently lacking in motor neur...

Descripción completa

Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Loutit, Alastair J., Potas, Jason R.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Frontiers Media S.A. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7058659/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32184706
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00156
_version_ 1783503901943660544
author Loutit, Alastair J.
Potas, Jason R.
author_facet Loutit, Alastair J.
Potas, Jason R.
author_sort Loutit, Alastair J.
collection PubMed
description Current neural prostheses can restore limb movement to tetraplegic patients by translating brain signals coding movements to control a variety of actuators. Fast and accurate somatosensory feedback is essential for normal movement, particularly dexterous tasks, but is currently lacking in motor neural prostheses. Attempts to restore somatosensory feedback have largely focused on cortical stimulation which, thus far, have succeeded in eliciting minimal naturalistic sensations. Yet, a question that deserves more attention is whether the cortex is the best place to activate the central nervous system to restore somatosensation. Here, we propose that the brainstem dorsal column nuclei are an ideal alternative target to restore somatosensation. We review some of the recent literature investigating the dorsal column nuclei functional organization and neurophysiology and highlight some of the advantages and limitations of the dorsal column nuclei as a future neural prosthetic target. Recent evidence supports the dorsal column nuclei as a potential neural prosthetic target, but also identifies several gaps in our knowledge as well as potential limitations which need to be addressed before such a goal can become reality.
format Online
Article
Text
id pubmed-7058659
institution National Center for Biotechnology Information
language English
publishDate 2020
publisher Frontiers Media S.A.
record_format MEDLINE/PubMed
spelling pubmed-70586592020-03-17 Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex Loutit, Alastair J. Potas, Jason R. Front Neurosci Neuroscience Current neural prostheses can restore limb movement to tetraplegic patients by translating brain signals coding movements to control a variety of actuators. Fast and accurate somatosensory feedback is essential for normal movement, particularly dexterous tasks, but is currently lacking in motor neural prostheses. Attempts to restore somatosensory feedback have largely focused on cortical stimulation which, thus far, have succeeded in eliciting minimal naturalistic sensations. Yet, a question that deserves more attention is whether the cortex is the best place to activate the central nervous system to restore somatosensation. Here, we propose that the brainstem dorsal column nuclei are an ideal alternative target to restore somatosensation. We review some of the recent literature investigating the dorsal column nuclei functional organization and neurophysiology and highlight some of the advantages and limitations of the dorsal column nuclei as a future neural prosthetic target. Recent evidence supports the dorsal column nuclei as a potential neural prosthetic target, but also identifies several gaps in our knowledge as well as potential limitations which need to be addressed before such a goal can become reality. Frontiers Media S.A. 2020-02-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7058659/ /pubmed/32184706 http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00156 Text en Copyright © 2020 Loutit and Potas. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
spellingShingle Neuroscience
Loutit, Alastair J.
Potas, Jason R.
Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex
title Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex
title_full Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex
title_fullStr Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex
title_full_unstemmed Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex
title_short Restoring Somatosensation: Advantages and Current Limitations of Targeting the Brainstem Dorsal Column Nuclei Complex
title_sort restoring somatosensation: advantages and current limitations of targeting the brainstem dorsal column nuclei complex
topic Neuroscience
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7058659/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32184706
http://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fnins.2020.00156
work_keys_str_mv AT loutitalastairj restoringsomatosensationadvantagesandcurrentlimitationsoftargetingthebrainstemdorsalcolumnnucleicomplex
AT potasjasonr restoringsomatosensationadvantagesandcurrentlimitationsoftargetingthebrainstemdorsalcolumnnucleicomplex