Efferent microneurography recordings: A tool for motor control study and hand-prosthesis decoding

Abstract

Many efforts have been directed towards the characterization of nature and meaning of neural motor commands in persons with or without hand amputation. Microneurography is a well-established tool for afferent recordings, which could be potentially employed for a deeper understanding of hand motor control during manipulation tasks. Furthermore, it could hopefully enhance the assessment of users' capability to control prosthetic hands by means of residual electroneurographic signals. In the present study, the feasibility of recording of motor-related microneurographyic signals during different grasps is investigated, along with their successive signal processing and classification. Preliminary results show that microneurography could be a robust technique for in-depth understanding of the neural coding underlying motor control, and for improving peripheral nerve signal recording/decoding, in view of establishing precise peripheral nerve interfaces for hand prosthesis control.