Journal
JOURNAL OF NEURAL ENGINEERING
Volume 11, Issue 2, Pages -Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/1741-2560/11/2/024001
Keywords
neuromodulation; closed-loop stimulation; deep brain stimulation; mental disorders
Categories
Funding
- Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (National Science Foundation) [EEC-1028725]
- National Institute for Neurological Disorders and Stroke
- DARPA Young Faculty Award [D12AP00251, R01 NS066357]
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Objective. There is great interest in closed-loop neurostimulators that sense and respond to a patient's brain state. Such systems may have value for neurological and psychiatric illnesses where symptoms have high intraday variability. Animal models of closed-loop stimulators would aid preclinical testing. We therefore sought to demonstrate that rodents can directly control a closed-loop limbic neurostimulator via a brain-computer interface (BCI). Approach. We trained rats to use an auditory BCI controlled by single units in prefrontal cortex (PFC). The BCI controlled electrical stimulation in the medial forebrain bundle, a limbic structure involved in reward-seeking. Rigorous offline analyses were performed to confirm volitional control of the neurostimulator. Main results. All animals successfully learned to use the BCI and neurostimulator, with closed-loop control of this challenging task demonstrated at 80% of PFC recording locations. Analysis across sessions and animals confirmed statistically robust BCI control and specific, rapid modulation of PFC activity. Significance. Our results provide a preliminary demonstration of a method for emotion-regulating closed-loop neurostimulation. They further suggest that activity in PFC can be used to control a BCI without pre-training on a predicate task. This offers the potential for BCI-based treatments in refractory neurological and mental illness.
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