BIOENGINEERING
Doug Weber, PhD
220 Keystone Building | 3520 Fifth Avenue | Pittsburgh, PA 15213
Associate Professor Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation
P: 412-624-4055 djw50@pitt.edu www.rnel.pitt.edu
Research in the Rehab Neural Engineering Lab The Rehab Neural Engineering Lab is committed to advancing rehabilitation science and practice through scientific discovery and the development of new technologies for assisting and restoring sensory, motor, and autonomic functions after nervous system injury and limb loss. Central to this mission is the development of new strategies for interfacing directly with large population of motor and sensory neurons. In our lab, penetrating and nonpenetrating arrays of microelectrodes are used to record or stimulate neuronal activity in the peripheral nerves and brain. Research in the Rehab Neural Engineering Lab spans the continuum from basic science (neurophysiology studies of the somatosensory and motor systems) to highly applied (neural
engineering projects with an eye towards clinical translation). Our goals are to: • Understand how body-state information is encoded by sensory neurons (e.g. muscle length, bladder pressure) • Understand the roles of somatosensory feedback in motor planning, control, and learning • Develop new approaches to restoring function to paralyzed muscles via electrical stimulation of motor and sensory pathways • Develop somatosensory neural prostheses to restore touch and proprioception
Current Projects in the Rehab Neural Engineering Lab Reliable spinal nerve interfaces for sensorimotor neuroprostheses The goals of this project are to develop scientific and technological solutions that will enable a high-performance, clinically viable system for interfacing directly with motor and sensory fiber tracts in the spinal nerves. The specific aims of this project are to 1) obtain reliable recordings of motor signals from ventral root nerves, 2) decode volitional command signals from the DEPARTMENT OF BIOENGINEERING
ventral root recordings, and 3) deliver sensory feedback through patterned microstimulation of sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglia. Multichannel microstimulation of primary afferent neurons to restore proprioception The goal of this project is to develop a technique for providing proprioceptive sensations to users of prosthetic limbs via patterned electrical stimulation of sensory
neurons in the dorsal root ganglia. This approach is similar, in principle, to that of the cochlear implant which uses patterned electrical stimulation of auditory nerves to restore hearing in people with progound deafness. The goals of the study are to 1) develop stimulation paradigms that can effectively deliver proprioceptive information to the brain, and 2) provide proprioceptive feedback that is useful for maintaining balance during postural perturbations.
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