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- Creators: Arizona State University
- Creators: Sutanto, Jemmy
Description
In order to successfully implement a neural prosthetic system, it is necessary to understand the control of limb movements and the representation of body position in the nervous system. As this development process continues, it is becoming increasingly important to understand the way multiple sensory modalities are used in limb representation. In a previous study, Shi et al. (2013) examined the multimodal basis of limb position in the superior parietal lobule (SPL) as monkeys reached to and held their arm at various target locations in a frontal plane. Visual feedback was withheld in half the trials, though non-visual (i.e. somatic) feedback was available in all trials. Previous analysis showed that some of the neurons were tuned to limb position and that some neurons had their response modulated by the presence or absence of visual feedback. This modulation manifested in decreases in firing rate variability in the vision condition as compared to nonvision. The decreases in firing rate variability, as shown through decreases in both the Fano factor of spike counts and the coefficient of variation of the inter-spike intervals, suggested that changes were taking place in both trial-by-trial and intra-trial variability. I sought to further probe the source of the change in intra-trial variability through spectral analysis. It was hypothesized that the presence of temporal structure in the vision condition would account for a regularity in firing that would have decreased intra-trial variability. While no peaks were apparent in the spectra, differences in spectral power between visual conditions were found. These differences are suggestive of unique temporal spiking patterns at the individual neuron level that may be influential at the population level.
ContributorsDyson, Keith (Author) / Buneo, Christopher A (Thesis advisor) / Helms-Tillery, Stephen I (Committee member) / Santello, Marco (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2013
Description
There is a tremendous need for wireless biological signals acquisition for the microelectrode-based neural interface to reduce the mechanical impacts introduced by wire-interconnects system. Long wire connections impede the ability to continuously record the neural signal for chronic application from the rodent's brain. Furthermore, connecting and/or disconnecting Omnetics interconnects often introduces mechanical stress which causes blood vessel to rupture and leads to trauma to the brain tissue. Following the initial implantation trauma, glial tissue formation around the microelectrode and may possibly lead to the microelectrode signal degradation. The aim of this project is to design, develop, and test a compact and power efficient integrated system (IS) that is able to (a) wirelessly transmit triggering signal from the computer to the signal generator which supplies voltage waveforms that move the MEMS microelectrodes, (b) wirelessly transmit neural data from the brain to the external computer, and (c) provide an electrical interface for a closed loop control to continuously move the microelectrode till a proper quality of neural signal is achieved. One of the main challenges of this project is the limited data transmission rate of the commercially available wireless system to transmit 400 kbps of digitized neural signals/electrode, which include spikes, local field potential (LFP), and noise. A commercially available Bluetooth module is only capable to transmit at a total of 115 kbps data transfer rate. The approach to this challenge is to digitize the analog neural signal with a lower accuracy ADC to lower the data rate, so that is reasonable to wirelessly transfer neural data of one channel. In addition, due to the limited space and weight bearing capability to the rodent's head, a compact and power efficient integrated system is needed to reduce the packaged volume and power consumption. 3D SoP technology has been used to stack the PCBs in a 3D form-factor, proper routing designs and techniques are implemented to reduce the electrical routing resistances and the parasitic RC delay. It is expected that this 3D design will reduce the power consumption significantly in comparison to the 2D one. The progress of this project is divided into three different phases, which can be outlined as follow: a) Design, develop, and test Bluetooth wireless system to transmit the triggering signal from the computer to the signal generator. The system is designed for three moveable microelectrodes. b) Design, develop, and test Bluetooth wireless system to wirelessly transmit an amplified (200 gain) neural signal from one single electrode to an external computer. c) Design, develop, and test a closed loop control system that continuously moves a microelectrode in searching of an acceptable quality of neural spikes. The outcome of this project can be used not only for the need of neural application but also for a wider and general applications that requires customized signal generations and wireless data transmission.
ContributorsZhou, Li (Author) / Muthuswamy, Jitendran (Thesis advisor) / Sutanto, Jemmy (Thesis advisor) / Yu, Hongyu (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2012
Description
An accurate sense of upper limb position is crucial to reaching movements where sensory information about upper limb position and target location is combined to specify critical features of the movement plan. This dissertation was dedicated to studying the mechanisms of how the brain estimates the limb position in space and the consequences of misestimation of limb position on movements. Two independent but related studies were performed. The first involved characterizing the neural mechanisms of limb position estimation in the non-human primate brain. Single unit recordings were obtained in area 5 of the posterior parietal cortex in order to examine the role of this area in estimating limb position based on visual and somatic signals (proprioceptive, efference copy). When examined individually, many area 5 neurons were tuned to the position of the limb in the workspace but very few neurons were modulated by visual feedback. At the population level however decoding of limb position was somewhat more accurate when visual feedback was provided. These findings support a role for area 5 in limb position estimation but also suggest that visual signals regarding limb position are only weakly represented in this area, and only at the population level. The second part of this dissertation focused on the consequences of misestimation of limb position for movement production. It is well known that limb movements are inherently variable. This variability could be the result of noise arising at one or more stages of movement production. Here we used biomechanical modeling and simulation techniques to characterize movement variability resulting from noise in estimating limb position ('sensing noise') and in planning required movement vectors ('planning noise'), and compared that to the variability expected due to noise in movement execution. We found that the effects of sensing and planning related noise on movement variability were dependent upon both the planned movement direction and the initial configuration of the arm and were different in many respects from the effects of execution noise.
ContributorsShi, Ying (Author) / Buneo, Christopher A (Thesis advisor) / Helms Tillery, Stephen (Committee member) / Santello, Marco (Committee member) / He, Jiping (Committee member) / Santos, Veronica (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2011
Description
In the honey bee antennal lobe, uniglomerular projection neurons (uPNs) transiently spike to odor sensory stimuli with odor-specific response latencies, i.e., delays to first spike after odor
stimulation onset. Recent calcium imaging studies show that the spatio-temporal response profile of the activated uPNs are dynamic and changes as a result
of associative conditioning, facilitating odor-detection of learned odors.
Moreover, odor-representation in the antennal lobe undergo reward-mediated plasticity processes that increase response delay variations
in the activated ensemble of uniglomerular projection neurons. Octopamine is necessarily involved in these plasticity processes. Yet, the cellular mechanisms are not
well understood. I hypothesize that octopamine modulates cholinergic transmission to uPNs by triggering translation
and upregulation of nicotinic receptors, which are more permeable to calcium. Consequently, this increased calcium-influx signals transcription factors that upregulate potassium
channels in the dendritic cortex of glomeruli, similar to synaptic plasticity mechanisms recently
shown in various insect species. A biophysical model of the antennal lobe circuit is developed in order to test the hypothesis that increased potassium channel expression in uPNs mediate response delays to first
spike, dynamically tuning odor-representations to facilitate odor-detection of learned odors.
stimulation onset. Recent calcium imaging studies show that the spatio-temporal response profile of the activated uPNs are dynamic and changes as a result
of associative conditioning, facilitating odor-detection of learned odors.
Moreover, odor-representation in the antennal lobe undergo reward-mediated plasticity processes that increase response delay variations
in the activated ensemble of uniglomerular projection neurons. Octopamine is necessarily involved in these plasticity processes. Yet, the cellular mechanisms are not
well understood. I hypothesize that octopamine modulates cholinergic transmission to uPNs by triggering translation
and upregulation of nicotinic receptors, which are more permeable to calcium. Consequently, this increased calcium-influx signals transcription factors that upregulate potassium
channels in the dendritic cortex of glomeruli, similar to synaptic plasticity mechanisms recently
shown in various insect species. A biophysical model of the antennal lobe circuit is developed in order to test the hypothesis that increased potassium channel expression in uPNs mediate response delays to first
spike, dynamically tuning odor-representations to facilitate odor-detection of learned odors.
ContributorsSmith, Adrian Nicholas (Author) / Castillo-Chavez, Carlos (Thesis advisor) / Sinakevitch, Irina T. (Thesis advisor) / Smith, Brian H. (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2016