Chronic recordings from rat motor cortex for developing neural prostheses

Extracellular signals obtained from multiple cells via microelectrodes implanted into the primary motor cortex (M1) provide significant information in revealing the coded information concerning this region of the brain. When adequately deciphered, these signals can be used to control a robot or a computer in a meaningful way. Some studies have already been done and/or under development in this regard. In terms of performance, these works however, are still in their early stages. In particular, the deciphering algorithms are incomplete and inadequate. Therefore developments of successful, fast and efficient deciphering algorithms are needed. We are working towards this goal using neural recordings obtained from micro-electrodes placed into the front leg region of the motor cortex area.