Emergent coordination underlying learning to reach to grasp with a brain-machine interface
Abstract
The development of coordinated reach-to-grasp movement has been well studied in infants and children. However, the role of motor cortex during this development is unclear because it is difficult to study in humans. We took the approach of using a brain-machine interface (BMI) paradigm in rhesus macaques with prior therapeutic amputations to examine the emergence of novel, coordinated reach to grasp. Previous research has shown that after amputation, the cortical area previously involved in the control of the lost limb undergoes reorganization, but prior BMI work has largely relied on finding neurons that already encode specific movement-related information. In this study, we taught macaques to cortically control a robotic arm and hand through operant conditioning, using neurons that were not explicitly reach or grasp related. Over the course of training, stereotypical patterns emerged and stabilized in the cross-covariance between the reaching and grasping velocity profiles, between pairs of neurons involved in controlling reach and grasp, and to a comparable, but lesser, extent between other stable neurons in the network. In fact, we found evidence of this structured coordination between pairs composed of all combinations of neurons decoding reach or grasp and other stable neurons in the network. The degree of and participation in coordination was highly correlated across all pair types. Our approach provides a unique model for studying the development of novel, coordinated reach-to-grasp movement at the behavioral and cortical levels.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Pub Defense Publication
- Publication Date
- Apr 01, 2018
- Source ID
- 10.1152/jn.00982.2016
Entities
People
- Ahmed Eleryan
- Andrew Fagg
- Islam Badreldin
- Joshua Southerland
- Karim G. Oweiss
- Karthikeyan Balasubramanian
- Kelsey Shattuck
- Leslie Osborne
- Marc W Slutzky
- Mukta Vaidya
- Nicholas G Hatsopoulos
- Suchin Gururangan
Organizations
- Duke University
- Michigan State University
- National Science Foundation
- Northwestern University
- University of Chicago
- University of Florida
- University of Massachusetts
- University of Oklahoma