Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Cortical-based neuroprosthetics: when less may be more

Combined population activity is usually used to control neural prosthetics. A recent study in Nature finds that a single primary motor cortex neuron can control the artificial stimulation of paralyzed wrist muscles to move a computer cursor.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Potential design of a cortical-based prosthetic to re-animate a paralyzed limb.

Katie Ris-Vicari

References

  1. Moritz, C.T., Perlmutter, S.I. & Fetz, E.E. Nature advance online publication, doi:10.1038/nature07418 (15 October 2008).

  2. Georgopoulos, A.P., Kettner, R.E. & Schwartz, A.B. J. Neurosci. 8, 2928–2937 (1988).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Scott, S.H., Gribble, P.L., Graham, K.M. & Cabel, D.W. Nature 413, 161–165 (2001).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Wessberg, J. et al. Nature 408, 361–365 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Musallam, S., Corneil, B.D., Greger, B., Schergerger, H. & Andersen, R.A. Science 305, 258–262 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Santhanam, G., Ryu, S.I., Yu, B.M., Afshar, A. & Shenoy, K.V. Nature 442, 195–198 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Hochberg, L.R. et al. Nature 442, 164–171 (2006).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Peckham, P.H. et al. J. Hand. Surg. (Am.) 27, 265–276 (2002).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  9. Todorov, E. & Jordan, M.I. Nat. Neurosci. 5, 1226–1235 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Scott, S.H. Nat. Rev. Neurosci. 5, 532–546 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  11. Fetz, E.E. & Finocchio, D.V. Exp. Brain Res. 23, 217–240 (1975).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Scott, S. Cortical-based neuroprosthetics: when less may be more. Nat Neurosci 11, 1245–1246 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1108-1245

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nn1108-1245

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing