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Reward Modulates Local Field Potentials, Spiking Activity and Spike-Field Coherence in the Primary Motor Cortex
EP30546
Poster Title: Reward Modulates Local Field Potentials, Spiking Activity and Spike-Field Coherence in the Primary Motor Cortex
Submitted on 02 Sep 2019
Author(s): Junmo An, Taruna Yadav, John P Hessburg, Joseph T Francis
Affiliations: University of Houston; SUNY Downstate Medical Center
This poster was presented at 16th Annual GCC Theoretical and Computational Neuroscience Conference
Poster Views: 446
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Poster Information
Abstract: A reward’s ability to modulate cortical neural activity during motor action or observation is an interesting phenomenon that can be exploited in building an autonomous brain-machine interface (BMI) using reinforcement learning principles. Through this work, we sought to understand the influence of reward expectation in the primary motor cortex (M1) by studying changes in neural spiking, oscillatory activities and their functional interactions. We analyzed local field potentials (LFPs) and single-unit/multi-unit activities, recorded simultaneously and bilaterally from M1 cortices while two NHPs either observed passively or performed cued one target center-out reaching movements with their right arm. Our results show that reward expectation led to suppressed alpha (8-14 Hz) power, decreased alpha-gamma comodulation and alpha spike-field coherence, and increased firing rates in M1 during both manual and observational tasks (An et al., 2019). Additionally, an increase in alpha-band power correlated with a decrease in neural spiking activity with highest firing rates at the trough of the alpha-band cycle and lowest firing rates at the peak of its cycle. Based on these findings, we suggest that reward expectation modulates alpha oscillations which in turn influence spike firing rate and spike timing in M1. Changes in M1 neural state captured by these different measures can serve as an evaluative feedback to improve the performance of the BMI.Summary: Reward influenced the strength of local field potentials (LFPs) power, phase-amplitude coupling (PAC), spike-field coherence (SFC), and spike firing rate in the primary motor cortex (M1) while the nonhuman primates performed center-out reaching tasks with their right arm using a two-link robotic exoskeleton (KINARM, BKIN Technologies Ltd.) either manually or observationally.References: An, J., Yadav, T., Hessburg, J. P., & Francis, J. T. (2019). Reward Expectation Modulates Local Field Potentials, Spiking Activity and Spike-Field Coherence in the Primary Motor Cortex. eNeuro, 6(3).Report abuse »
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