Neurohand

The way we use our hand plays a central role for our interactions with the environment. This project investigates in macaque (rhesus) monkeys how intentions to move the hand are generated and represented in the brain, and how these signals can be read out in real-time by brain machine interfaces (BMIs) to eventually control hand movement prostheses. In a first line of research, we are studying the higher-order coding of hand grasping movements in the parietal (anterior intraparietal area; AIP) and the ventral premotor cortex (area F5), which both contain neurons that are strongly involved in the sensorimotor transformation of sensory stimuli into hand movement actions. In a second line of research, we use permanently implanted electrodes to read out neural activity in real-time from a large number of neurons, which can then be interpreted and used to control a robotic arm. This research aims to deepen our theoretical understanding of how the brain generates hand grasping movements and to make use of this understanding for future BMIs that could benefit paralyzed patients.