Preparatory encoding of intended movement in the human motor cortex and implications for brain-computer interfaces

Area of Science:

• Neuroscience
• Motor Control
• Brain-Computer Interfaces

Background:

• Motor cortical activity shifts between movement preparation and execution.
• Preparatory activity holds potential for enhancing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs).
• Understanding encoded movement features is crucial for clinical BCI applications.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate which movement features (direction, curvature, distance) are encoded by preparatory activity in the human motor cortex.
• To explore the potential of using preparatory activity for advanced BCI control.

Main Methods:

• Collected intracortical recordings from 3 participants in the BrainGate2 clinical trial.
• Analyzed motor cortical activity during voluntary movements.
• Developed an online control paradigm to leverage preparatory activity for cursor control.

Main Results:

• Preparatory activity is tuned to movement direction, consistent across different effectors.
• Activity also encodes initial and target directions for curved trajectories.
• Movement distance or speed were encoded to a lesser extent.
• An online paradigm demonstrated rapid, user-initiated cursor control using preparatory activity.

Conclusions:

• Human motor cortex preparatory activity encodes rich information about upcoming movements.
• This encoding supports the development of high-performance BCIs.
• Findings highlight the clinical potential of leveraging preparatory neural signals.