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An Experimental Platform to Study the Closed-loop Performance of Brain-machine Interfaces
Published on: March 10, 2011
Volitional control of single cortical neurons in a brain-machine interface
Chet T Moritz1, Eberhard E Fetz
1Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, Unversity of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA. ctmoritz@uw.edu
Journal of Neural Engineering
|March 26, 2011
Summary
Monkeys learned to volitionally control single cortical cell firing rates using visual feedback, demonstrating potential for direct neural control in brain-machine interfaces and neuroprosthetics.
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Neuroprosthetics
- Brain-Machine Interfaces
Background:
- Volitional control of cortical activity is crucial for advancing neuroprosthetic devices.
- Optimizing control signals requires understanding neural activity modulation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate the volitional control of single cortical cell firing rates in non-human primates.
- To assess the efficacy of visual feedback and reward-based training for neural control.
Main Methods:
- Two Macaca nemestrina monkeys were trained to modulate the firing rates of 246 individual cortical cells.
- Visual feedback of neural activity and rewards for achieving target rates were provided.
- Performance was assessed during single-day and multi-day 'brain-control' sessions.
Main Results:
- Monkeys significantly improved their control of cell firing rates, achieving over two-fold performance gains.
- Cell activity modulation during brain control exceeded that during wrist movements.
- Performance improved across multiple days for a majority of tested cells, demonstrating learning and retention.
Conclusions:
- Arbitrary single cortical neurons can be volitionally controlled to operate a one-dimensional brain-machine interface.
- Direct conversion of single cortical cell activity offers a potential complementary strategy to population decoding for neuroprosthetics.
