Topic: motor cortical population activity

Neural dynamics in a given brain region are generated either due to recurrent connections in the region (intrinsic dynamic), or due to temporally structured external inputs (input dynamics). These inputs can be sensory stimuli or excitations from upstream brain regions. While measuring all inputs is infeasible experimentally, measurements of sensory inputs such as task instructions or partial measurements of neural inputs into a brain region are often possible. When learning models of neural population dynamics, current learning methods can either account for measured input but not behavior, o

Animals can learn and perform many behaviors without interference. However, it is unclear how changes in neural activity during learning avoid interference with activity underlying similar behaviors. Recently, Losey et al. (bioRxiv, 2022) identified a possible explanation by examining monkey motor cortical population activity under a brain-computer interface (BCI) paradigm where linear mappings controlled a computer cursor. The activity produced for a known mapping was altered after learning a new mapping in a way that made the activity more beneficial for this new mapping. That is, the activi