Descripción del proyecto
Coordinación de neuroprótesis según el ciclo de sueño-vigilia
La tecnología para restituir la función perdida del sistema nervioso tiene potencial para proporcionar autonomía y mejorar la calidad de vida. Los dispositivos neuroprotésicos emplean componentes electrónicos para transmitir señales electrónicas al sistema nervioso y pueden sustituir funciones motoras, sensoriales o cognitivas deterioradas en distintas enfermedades. El proyecto MoRPHEUS, financiado con fondos europeos, tiene como objetivo desarrollar un nuevo método neuroprotésico que supervise la actividad cerebral y administre estímulos eléctricos de acuerdo con el ciclo vigilia-sueño. Los investigadores emplearán un modelo murino para registrar el patrón de actividad cerebral del ciclo vigilia-sueño y probarán la administración coordinada de estímulos eléctricos como medio para conseguir la rehabilitación motora en animales lesionados. Los resultados tendrán repercusiones clínicas importantes, en particular para la rehabilitación de pacientes de ictus.
Objetivo
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.
Ámbito científico
Palabras clave
Programa(s)
Régimen de financiación
MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)Coordinador
16163 Genova
Italia