Grant: Discovery Horizons

Paralysis is a devastating deficit where independence is maintained through physical adjuncts such as wheelchairs. In many cases, paralyzed muscles remain functional, but are disconnected from the brain. Thus, in theory, it is possible to control a paralyzed limb with a system to “read the mind” and transfer the intended motor command to the spinal cord. Two groups (NeuraLink and Brain Gate) are currently leading the development of brain-computer interfaces, but these systems are complex to implant and support, and currently provide unreliable chronic readings. Furthermore, no spinal cord stimulator exists to generate motor contractions from commands detected using any of these systems. The goal of this project is to develop a spinal cord stimulator generating precise motor contractions directly controlled by the patient using a haptic glove interface. The glove will remap finger motion into specific leg movements generated by the stimulator and vibrate in response to proprioceptive signals, bypassing the need for complex brain-computer interfaces and completely changing the current paradigm. The system will be created by a team involving a neurosurgeon (Iorio-Morin), neurophysiologist (Frigon), electrical engineer (Fontaine), robotic engineer (Michaud) and ethicist (Marchildon) working on the following objectives: 1) Adapt an existing retinal stimulator (doi: 10.1002/adbi.202000055) for use with multi-array electrodes implanted in the spinal cord and add support for bidirectional communication (Fontaine, Michaud, Iorio-Morin, Frigon) 2) Develop a haptic glove with required software to control the stimulator with short-latency and provide proprioceptive feedback through sensory substitution. (Michaud, Fontaine, Iorio-Morin, Frigon) 3) Design the implantation procedure, specify the optimal electrode location and configuration, and test the system in a spinal-transected cat model (doi: 10.1152/jn.00747.2019) (Iorio-Morin, Frigon) 4) Develop the ethics processes guiding the future use of the implant in humans (Marchildon, Iorio-Morin) The project will support the training of at least 2 MSc and 3 PhD and 1 post-doctoral fellow in physiology, engineering and ethics over 5 years. Students will join strong existing teams working in multidisciplinary environments (3IT-U. Sherbrooke, CRCHUS). They will present their progress in disciplinary biweekly meetings and in multidisciplinary monthly meetings thus creating a rich training environment.