High density epidural stimulation for facilitation of locomotion, posture, voluntary movement, and recovery of autonomic, sexual, vasomotor, and cognitive function after neurological injury

US9101769B2 · kind B2 · utility

Assignees

• The Regents of the University of California · US
• CALIFORNIA INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY · US
• University of Louisville Research Foundation, Inc. · US

Inventors

• Victor Reggie Edgerton · Los Angeles, US
• Roland R. Roy · Culver City, US
• Yury Gerasimenko · Los Angeles, US
• Joel W. Burdick · Pasadena, US
• Susan J. Harkema · Louisville, US
• Jonathan Hodes · Louisville, US
• Yu-Chong Tai · Pasadena, US
• Mandheerej S. Nandra · Pasadena, US
• Claudia A. Angeli · Louisville, US
• Thomas Anthony Desautels · Pasadena, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Jan 3, 2012
• Grant date: Aug 11, 2015
• Expiry date: Jan 3, 2032

Classification

• Technology area (CPC F): Mechanical Engineering; Lighting; Heating
• CPC primary: F04C2270/0421
• WIPO field: Medical technology
• WIPO sector: Instruments

Abstract

Methods of enabling locomotor control, postural control, voluntary control of body movements (e.g., in non-weight bearing conditions), and/or autonomic functions in a human subject having spinal cord injury, brain injury, or neurological neuromotor disease. In certain embodiments, the methods involve stimulating the spinal cord of the subject using an epidurally placed electrode array, subjecting the subject to physical training thereby generating proprioceptive and/or supraspinal signals, and optionally administering pharmacological agents to the subject. The combination of stimulation, physical training, and optional pharmacological agents modulate in real time electrophysiological properties of spinal circuits in the subject so they are activated by supraspinal information and/or proprioceptive information derived from the region of the subject where locomotor activity is to be facilitated.