Neuromodulation methods for animal locomotion control

Abstract

Recent advances in neural engineering and neuroscience have enabled practical brain computer interfaces (BCIs). This paper reviews the BCI technology narrowed in the methods for controlling animals’ behaviors using invasive neural interface methods. Currently, using stimulation on various brain regions, it has been shown that animal behaviors can be precisely controlled in accordance with the experimenter’s commands. To date, two distinct strategies have been proposed and shown effective. One is to control animal behaviors with reward- or punishment-related neuromodulations based on operant conditioning. The other is to force the actual movement by stimulating motor-related brain region. Mesolimbic pathway, amygdala and somatosensory cortex are a set of target regions for the former approach, while nigrostriatal pathway is the typical target area for the latter one. This review describes the underlying principles of those neuromodulations depending on the different target regions. In addition, electrical and optogenetic modulation methods are also reviewed as valid neuromodulation strategies to manage the animal behaviors. © 2016, Korean Society of Medical and Biological Engineering and Springer.