Neural Prosthesis for Recovery of Impaired Cognitive Function: Bridging the Gap Between Concept and Reality

pends to some . l recordings of le of predicting igure 1). Then, was making a from the comdoing so, they erved with norin the face of y a significant et.Hampsonet n the treatment erformance in ling inducedby L5 stimulation n-making win. on the role of asks and demormal perforby partially reed in selected application of tore disrupted Cognitive deficits are commonsequelae of a variety of neu tions, fromtraumaticbrain injury tocerebrovascular accid ativediseases.Developingtherapiestotreatthesedeficitsis ingbecause theneurophysiologyunderlyingcognitivepro poorlyunderstood,andthetechnologyrequiredtosuccess such functional aspectsof thenervoussystemisstillnasce tive paper by Hampson et al. (1), however, the authors future therapeutics for such deficits by demonstrating th neuralprosthetic canpartially restore cognitive skills inph impairednonhumanprimates. Usingamulti-electrodearray implantedintheprefronta macaquemonkeys,theauthorssimultaneouslyrecordedm ronalactivityfromsupragranular layers(L2/3)andinfragra while themonkeyscompletedadelayedmatchtosample( ing the task, the primates were presentedwith an image after a variable delay, had to select the appropriatematch distractors to receive a reward. This experimental paradi investigators to study interlaminar processing during a manding task. Asexpected,thesubjects’performancedeclinedasboth delay period and number of distractors increased. Intere served an increase in interlaminar synchronization betw neurons specifically during target selection. In addition, synchronizedfiringof supragranular and infragranular la ical condiodegenervelydauntg remains ntervenein aprovocat potential implanted cologically