ECoG signals appear useful for prosthetic arm control and may provide clinically feasible motor restoration for patients with paralysis but no injury of the sensorimotor cortex.

Semichronic implantation of a microelectrode-STS system showed that it was safe and remained functional for at least 4 weeks in two patients with advanced RP. (www.umin.ac.jp/ctr number, R000002690.).

The precentral gyrus (M1) is a representative target for electrical stimulation therapy of pain. To date, few researchers have investigated whether pain relief is possible by stimulation of cortical areas other than M1. According to recent reports, repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) can provide an effect similar to that of electrical stimulation. With this in mind, we therefore examined several cortical areas as stimulation targets using a navigation-guided rTMS and compared the effects of the different targets on pain. Twenty patients with intractable deafferentation pain received rTMS of M1, the postcentral gyrus (S1), premotor area (preM), and supplementary motor area (SMA). Each target was stimulated with ten trains of 10-s 5-Hz TMS pulses, with 50-s intervals in between trains. Intensities were adjusted to 90% of resting motor thresholds. Thus, a total of 500 stimuli were applied. Sham stimulations were undertaken at random. The effect of rTMS on pain was rated by patients using a visual analogue scale (VAS) and the short form of the McGill Pain Questionnaire (SF-MPQ). Ten of the 20 patients (50%) indicated that stimulation of M1, but not other areas, provided significant and beneficial pain relief (p<0.01). Results indicated a statistically significant effect lasting for 3 hours after the stimulation of M1 (p<0.05). Stimulation of other targets was not effective. The M1 was the sole target for treating intractable pain with rTMS, in spite of the fact that M1, S1, preM, and SMA are located adjacently.

High-␥ amplitude (80 -150 Hz) represents motor information, such as movement types, on the sensorimotor cortex. In several cortical areas, high-␥ amplitudes are coupled with low-frequency phases, e.g., ␣ and (phase-amplitude coupling, PAC). However, such coupling has not been studied in the sensorimotor cortex; thus, its potential functional role has yet to be explored. We investigated PAC of high-␥ amplitude in the sensorimotor cortex during waiting for and the execution of movements using electrocorticographic (ECoG) recordings in humans. ECoG signals were recorded from the sensorimotor cortices of 4 epilepsy patients while they performed three different hand movements. A subset of electrodes showed high-␥ activity selective to movement type around the timing of motor execution, while the same electrodes showed nonselective high-␥ activity during the waiting period (Ͼ2 s before execution). Cross frequency coupling analysis revealed that the high-␥ amplitude during waiting was strongly coupled with the ␣ phase (10 -14 Hz) at the electrodes with movement-selective high-␥ amplitudes during execution. This coupling constituted the high-␥ amplitude peaking around the trough of the ␣ oscillation, and its strength and phase were not predictive of movement type. As the coupling attenuated toward the timing of motor execution, the high-␥ amplitude appeared to be released fromthe␣phasetobuildamotorrepresentationwithphase-independentactivity.OurresultssuggestthatPACmodulatesmotorrepresentation in the sensorimotor cortex by holding and releasing high-␥ activity in movement-selective cortical regions.

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The present integrated BMI system successfully decoded the hand movements of a poststroke patient and controlled a prosthetic hand in real time. This success paves the way for the restoration of the patient's motor function using a prosthetic arm controlled by a BMI using ECoG signals.

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A concept in Parkinson's disease postulates that motor cortex may pattern abnormal rhythmic activities in the basal ganglia, underlying the genesis of observed motor symptoms. We conducted a preclinical study of electrical interference in the primary motor cortex using a chronic MPTP primate model in which dopamine depletion was progressive and regularly documented using 18F-DOPA positron tomography. High-frequency motor cortex stimulation significantly reduced akinesia and bradykinesia. This behavioral benefit was associated with an increased metabolic activity in the supplementary motor area as assessed with 18-F-deoxyglucose PET, a normalization of mean firing rate in the internal globus pallidus (GPi) and the subthalamic nucleus (STN), and a reduction of synchronized oscillatory neuronal activities in these two structures. Motor cortex stimulation is a simple and safe procedure to modulate subthalamo-pallido-cortical loop and alleviate parkinsonian symptoms without requiring deep brain stereotactic surgery.