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Long-term motor cortex plasticity induced by an electronic neural implant | Nature

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As part of a project to develop implantable electronic circuits or 'neurochips' to replace damaged pathways in the nervous system, Jackson et al. have produced a neural implant that forms an artificial connection between two cortical sites in the primate brain. The implant uses action potentials recorded on one electrode to deliver electric stimuli to another. After a few days, the output from the recording site resembles that from the stimulation site, consistent with the potentiation of synaptic connections between synchronized neuronal populations. This way of reorganizing neurons in vivo may have practical application in neurorehabilitation after injury.

Abstract It has been proposed that the efficacy of neuronal connections is strengthened when there is a persistent causal relationship between presynaptic and postsynaptic activity. Such activity-dependent plasticity may underlie the reorganization of cortical representations during learning, although direct in vivo evidence is lacking. Here we show that stable reorganization of motor output can be induced by an artificial connection between two sites in the motor cortex of freely behaving primates. An autonomously operating electronic implant used action potentials recorded on one electrode t

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