Biology subjects

Struber, L.

Publications and source records attributed to Struber, L..

2 recordsLinked to original sources

bioRxiv2025

Decoupling simultaneous motor imagination and execution via orthogonal ECoG neural representations

The brain coordinates multiple parallel motor programs, ensuring synergy and preventing interference during movements. Yet, performance often degrades when brain-machine interfaces are used during concurrent tasks or ongoing movements. We suggest that latent neural representations may represent a strategy to solve this issue. In this study, we addressed this question using neural signals from a tetraplegic individual with partial residual motor function, implanted with a wireless epidural electrocorticography (ECoG) device. By adapting dimensionality reduction techniques, we found that motor execution and motor imagery span partially overlapping subspaces in mesoscale neural signals, shaped by specific frequency band contributions. Despite substantial shared variance, we show that identifying orthogonal, condition-specific dimensions enables successful decoding of executed and imagined movements, even when performed simultaneously. These findings show that ECoG signals can expose separable neural subspaces, allowing executed and imagined actions to be harnessed independently and in concert. This opens a promising avenue to develop brain-machine interfaces that can simultaneously control multiple external devices or operate alongside natural movements.

neuroscience↗

bioRxiv2024

Savings in visuomotor learning is associated with connectivity changes within a cerebello-thalamo-cortical network encoding movement errors

Savings refers to faster relearning upon re-exposure to a previously experienced movement perturbation. One theory suggests that the brain recognizes past errors and is therefore more able to learn from them. If true, there should be a modification of the neural response to errors during re-exposure to a perturbation. To test this idea, we imaged the brains of participants who underwent two sessions (1 day apart) of adaptation to a visuomotor perturbation and investigated brain responses to movement errors. The magnitude of movement error was entered into different types of GLMs to study error-related activation and coactivation (or functional connectivity). We identified a cerebello-thalamo-cortical network involved in the processing of movement errors during adaptation. We found that connectivity between regions of this network (i.e., between the cerebellum and the thalamus, and between the primary somatosensory cortex and the anterior cingulate cortex) became stronger during re-adaptation. Importantly, participants with the largest increases in connectivity strength were those who demonstrated the largest amounts of savings. These results establish a relationship between the ability of the brain to represent errors and the phenomenon of savings.

neuroscience↗