# Injecting instructions using intracortical microstimulation in association cortex

> **NIH NIH R01** · UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER · 2022 · $379,807

## Abstract

Project Summary:
 Efforts to develop neuroprosthetic devices that restore function for patients who have lost vision,
hearing, or somatic sensation typically aim to stimulate the sensory pathways of the nervous system in a
manner that mimics their normal function closely. Yet the well-known cochlear implant for deaf patients has
been successful even though the subject’s brain must adapt to the artificial stimulation, learning to interpret
sounds and discriminate speech. Is biomimetic stimulation of sensory pathways the only way to provide
neuroprosthetic inputs to the nervous system?
 In preliminary studies, we recently found that subjects could learn to interpret intracortical
microstimulation (ICMS) delivered through 1 of 4 different electrodes in the premotor cortex (PM) as
instructions to perform 1 of 4 arbitrarily associated movements. Even though ICMS in PM is not thought to
evoke sensory percepts, subjects learned to use PM-ICMS instructions at currents and frequencies too low to
evoke any muscle contraction or movement. Moreover, after the assignment of electrodes to movements was
shuffled randomly subjects relearned the task, indicating that low-amplitude ICMS did not simply bias the
subjects to perform specific movements, but instead evoked percepts or other experiences that the subjects
could distinguish and learned to interpret as instructions.
 Here we propose to investigate whether subjects can experience, distinguish and learn to interpret low-
amplitude ICMS delivered through different single electrodes in other select areas of the frontal and parietal
association cortex that receive sensory information only indirectly. In Aim 1 we will examine 5 frontal areas:
the supplementary motor area, the frontal eye field, the dorsolateral and ventrolateral prefrontal cortex, and the
dorsal anterior cingulate cortex. In Aim 2 we will examine 5 parietal areas: area 5, the medial intraparietal
area (parietal reach region), the lateral intraparietal area, the anterior intraparietal area, and area 7a. In Aim 3
we will determine whether subjects can learn to interpret ICMS in these frontal and parietal areas not only as
instructions, but alternatively as feedback. The results of this work will expand the territory available for
delivering artificial inputs to the nervous system substantially. Neuroprosthetic devices then may be developed
that use such inputs to help patients affected by a wide variety of diseases of the central and peripheral
nervous system including visual loss, sensory neuronopathies, stroke, and multiple sclerosis.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10405634
- **Project number:** 5R01NS107271-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ROCHESTER
- **Principal Investigator:** MARC H SCHIEBER
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $379,807
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-08-15 → 2024-11-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10405634

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10405634, Injecting instructions using intracortical microstimulation in association cortex (5R01NS107271-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10405634. Licensed CC0.

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