Projektbeschreibung
Neuroprothesen dem Schlaf-Wach-Rhythmus anpassen
Technik, die verlorene Funktionen des Nervensystems wiederherstellt, kann den Betroffenen ihre Autonomie zurückgeben und ihre Lebensqualität verbessern. Neuroprothetische Vorrichtungen übertragen mithilfe elektronischer Komponenten elektronische Signale an das Nervensystem. Sie können bei verschiedenen Erkrankungen beeinträchtigte motorische, sensorische oder kognitive Funktionen ersetzen. Ziel des EU-finanzierten Projekts MoRPHEUS ist die Entwicklung eines neuartigen neuroprothetischen Ansatzes, der die Hirnaktivität überwacht und elektrische Stimulationen gemäß dem Schlaf-Wach-Rhythmus zuführt. Die Forschenden werden ein Rattenmodell nutzen, um das Muster des Schlaf-Wach-Rhythmus der Hirnaktivität aufzuzeichnen und die koordinierte Abgabe elektrischer Stimulationen als Mittel zur motorischen Rehabilitation bei verletzten Tiere zu testen. Die Ergebnisse werden wichtige klinische Konsequenzen haben. Das gilt besonders für die Schlaganfallrehabilitation.
Ziel
Brain lesions such as stroke and traumatic brain injury are a major cause of adult-onset disability. Physical therapy, together with robotic aided rehabilitation, is the gold standard for promoting motor recovery. Yet, half of the affected individuals do not fully recover their daily living skills. Hope is provided by advanced neuroprosthetic devices, acting directly at the brain level to promote plasticity, but to date, they still fall short of producing long-lasting brain rewiring. The often neglected but close relationship between sleep, neural plasticity, pathogenesis, and recovery can constitute a key factor to advance treatment. Within this framework, the primary goal of this project is to devise and test a novel neuroprosthetic approach that monitors brain activity and the sleep-wake cycle (SWC) in order to deliver responsive and engineered electrical stimulation (ES) coded in time. To do this, we aim to: 1) investigate SWC architecture in animal models of brain lesion to better understand pathological modifications and to find privileged windows of neural plasticity to deliver therapeutic ES; 2) design, build, and test a closed-loop system capable of recording, processing and detecting SWC stages and electrographic events of interest (e.g. spindles), and also of delivering coordinated ES, including activity-dependent and time-coded stimulation, and; 3) evaluate the designed approach regarding its efficacy in providing long-lasting, robust, and safe motor rehabilitation to injured animals, while also obtaining a proof-of-concept in humans. Highly complementary skills from fellow and host will cooperate to carry in vivo electrophysiology experiments and technological development, while translational pilot experiments will be performed in close collaboration with partners in the medical field. Finally, secondments will provide additional training on state-of-the-art engineering of closed-loop systems and entrepreneurship in neurotechnology.
Wissenschaftliches Gebiet
Schlüsselbegriffe
Programm/Programme
Thema/Themen
Aufforderung zur Vorschlagseinreichung
Andere Projekte für diesen Aufruf anzeigenFinanzierungsplan
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Koordinator
16163 Genova
Italien