Our seemingly effortless ability to reach out and swat a fly or grab a cup belies the sophisticated neural computations at work in our nervous system. It has long been recognized that, before moving, we somehow prepare neural activity such that, when called upon, the desired movement unfolds. But the goals of movement preparation and the underlying neural mechanisms remain poorly understood. I will describe some of our recent electrophysiological investigations of how premotor cortex prepares movements. With this increased understanding of movement planning, it becomes possible to design real-time implantable electronic systems capable of translating neural plans into prosthetic-arm or computer-cursor movements. I will describe our recent electrophysiological investigations aimed at establishing the fundamental, neurobiologically dictated performance limits as well as recent algorithmic and circuit research aimed at achieving these performance limits. Our results suggest that swift and accurate performance is possible, which is essential for starting to assess the clinical viability of cortically-controlled prosthetic systems.
Professor Shenoy received his BS from UCI (1999), SM from MIT (1992) and PhD from MIT (1995) all in electrical engineering with a focus on optoelectronic devices and integrated circuits. He then joined the Division of Biology at Caltech where he was a postdoctoral (1995-1998) and senior postdoctoral (1998-2001) fellow with a focus on systems neurobiology. Professor Shenoy joined the Department of Electrical Engineering (and Neurosciences Program, Neurosciences Institute, Department of Bioengineering, and Bio-X) faculty at Stanford University as an Assistant Professor (2001-2008), and is now an Associate Professor. He heads the Neural Prosthetic Systems Laboratory where his group investigates the cortical basis of motor preparation and generation and designs cortically-controlled neural prostheses. Honors and awards include the Hertz Foundation Doctoral Thesis Prize, a Burroughs Welcome Fund Career Award in the Biomedical Sciences, Sloan Fellow, McKnight Technological Innovations in Neurosciences Award, DARPA Defense Sciences Research Council (fellow, member), and IEEE Senior Membership.