Functional recordings from awake, behaving rodents through a microchannel based regenerative neural interface.

Area of Science:

• Biomedical Engineering
• Neuroscience
• Regenerative Medicine

Background:

• Neural interface technologies aim to connect the nervous system with external devices like prosthetics.
• Recording efferent, motor potentials is essential for neural interfaces to interpret user intent.
• These signals represent the neural output intended to control external devices.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate structural and functional neural regeneration through a microchannel neural interface.
• To characterize potentials recorded from electrodes within microchannels in awake, behaving animals.

Main Methods:

• Sciatic nerve transection and repair in female rats using either a microchannel interface or end-to-end repair.
• Monitoring muscle responses to nerve stimulation over a 13-week recovery period.
• Embedding electrodes in microchannels for recordings during stimulation and locomotion.

Main Results:

• Functional reinnervation of distal muscles was observed with both microchannel and end-to-end repair.
• Discrete stimulation-evoked and volitional potentials were recorded within microchannels.
• Recorded potentials correlated with intramuscular recordings during locomotion, with 19 identified as motor axons.

Conclusions:

• Motor axons regenerate successfully through microchannels, enabling functional muscle reinnervation.
• This study reports the first in vivo recordings from regenerated motor axons within microchannels in awake animals.
• Findings suggest microchannel-based interfaces can record volitional motor potentials for neural control applications.