Decoding Single-Pellet Retrieval Task From Local Field Potentials in Pre- and Post-Stroke Motor Areas: Insights Into Interhemispheric Connectivity Difference

Intracortical brain-machine interfaces (iBMIs) hold promise for restoring communication and movement in stroke-paralyzed individuals. Recent studies have demonstrated the potential of using local field potentials (LFPs) for decoding single-pellet retrieval (SPR) tasks in iBMIs. However, most research has relied on LFPs from healthy rats rather than those affected by stroke. This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of utilizing LFPs from both the right and left (stroke) cortical forelimb areas (CFAs) for the SPR tasks decoding under both pre- and post-stroke conditions.

LFPs were recorded via microelectrode arrays implanted into CFAs of eight rats trained to perform the SPR tasks. The relative spectral power method was used to represent frequency information, and random forest classification differentiated SPR tasks from resting states. We also assessed interhemispheric connectivity, including correlation, coherence, and phase-amplitude coupling (PAC), to compare differences between the SPR tasks and the resting states under both pre- and post-stroke conditions.

Our findings indicated that the relative PS method with LFPs achieves 87.10% 9.2% accuracy in post-stoke SPR decoding, where high gamma is crucial. Additionally, we observed changes in PACs from the right to the left sensorimotor cortex post-stroke during the SPR tasks compared to the resting states.

Our work provides a comprehensive insight into the role of different frequency band from LFPs in motor function recovery mechanisms, highlighting the importance of the high gamma in motor function. This research lays the foundation for developing post-stoke SPR-related BMIs.