Experiments were conducted to selectively record the descending neural activity from the rubrospinall tract (RST) of the spinal cord at the cervical level in a chronic rat model. These signals were analyzed to extract the voluntary motor signals. The long term goal is to use the extracted motor signals as a means of generating command signals in high level spinal cord injury patients. The organization of the Lateral Corticospinal Tract (LCST) fibers was studied in the cervical spinal cord as a part of this project (Tie et al., 2006).

This project has been funded by NIH, The Whitaker Foundation, and The Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation.