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

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.