An intracortical brain-machine interface based on macaque ventral premotor activity

The majority of brain-machine interface (BMI) studies have focused on
decoding intended movements based on neural activity of primary motor (M1)
and dorsal premotor cortex (PMd). The ventral premotor cortex (PMv), and
more specifically area F5c, has been implicated in object grasping and
action observation, and may represent an alternative for motor BMI control
due to its phasic modulation during action observation. Using chronically
implanted Utah arrays in F5c, PMd, and M1 in two male macaques, we
compared the efficacy of controlling a motor BMI based on neural activity
of each area. PMv decoding reached similar or even higher success rates
than M1 and PMd in a 2D cursor control task, especially when controlling
for the number of motion selective channels that were used by the decoder.
We found similar results during a 2D robot avatar control task in a
simulated 3D environment. At both the multi-unit and the population level,
neural responses in all areas were highly similar during the training
phase (passive observation of cursor movements) and the online decoding
phase, and only a small subset of neurons modulated its selectivity for
the direction of motion. Thus, ventral premotor area F5c may represent an
alternative for online motor BMI control.