Advancing Brain-Computer Interfaces by adopting a neural population approach

Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) have afforded paralysed users “mental control” of computer cursors and robots, and even of electrical stimulators that reanimate their own limbs. Most existing BCIs map the activity of hundreds of motor cortical neurons recorded with implanted electrodes into control signals to drive these devices. Despite these impressive advances, the field is facing a number of challenges that need to be overcome in order for BCIs to become widely used during daily living. In this talk, I will focus on two such challenges: 1) having BCIs that allow performing a broad range of actions; and 2) having BCIs whose performance is robust over long time periods. I will present recent studies from our group in which we apply neuroscientific findings to address both issues. This research is based on an emerging view about how the brain works. Our proposal is that brain function is not based on the independent modulation of the activity of single neurons, but rather on specific population-wide activity patters —which mathematically define a “neural manifold”. I will provide evidence in favour of such a neural manifold view of brain function, and illustrate how advances in systems neuroscience may be critical for the clinical success of BCIs.