TAPPING THE PERIPHERAL NERVOUS SYSTEM; DECODING THE BODY’S SIGNALS FROM ITS TRANSMISSION LINES

Abstract

An acute rodent model for peripheral neuroprosthesis design would allow for the rapid iteration of prototype designs and facilitating the acquisition, analysis and application of peripheral nerve data. However, it is limited by stimulation artifacts and limited ability evoke complex movements. Thus, this thesis developed an acute experimental model that evoked prolonged hindlimb contraction while limiting the impact of stimulation artifacts. An acute rodent model used long duration (500 ms) intracortical microstimulation of the motor cortex to evoke dorsiflexion, extension and mixed contraction of the hindlimb while simultaneously recording from the sciatic nerve and its associated muscles. The data collected was processed, underwent feature extraction, and successfully correlated these behaviors to specific ENG patterns from the sciatic nerve and EMG patterns from the hindlimb. Furthermore, motor signals were isolated from the compound action potentials within the sciatic nerve through distal nerve transection.