Strategic development of sensorimotor prosthetic technology

Reanimation of paralyzed limbs to restore functional movement requires a lot more than electrical activation of muscles. It is a true test of the validity and completeness of our theories of sensorimotor control. These theories can be used to inform the specifications of the neuromuscular interfaces that must be built that include sensors of voluntary command signals and multimodal feedback from the limb as well as neuromuscular stimulators. The theories can also be used to design and test control systems both before and after the interfaces are deployed in the patient. We are working on marrying a family of modular hardware interfaces with a computer modeling environment where clinical conditions and proposed therapeutic interventions can be developed and tested.