MAPPING · Manipulating Arm movement Preparation via a comPuter Interface for Neural decodinG
Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
- Duration
- 2023-11-01 → 2025-10-31
- EU contribution
- €211,755
- Participants
- 1
- Scheme
- HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF
Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.
Results in brief
Manipulating Arm movement Preparation via a comPuter Interface for Neural decodinG
The MAPPING project was motivated by a central challenge in systems neuroscience: understanding how neural activity in motor-related cortical areas supports the preparation of voluntary movements. While the recent dynamical systems theory of motor planning has provided a powerful conceptual framework—proposing that movement preparation consists of optimizing neural states in premotor cortex—experimental tests of its predictions have largely been confined to highly constrained laboratory paradigms. This limitation has hindered progress toward a more general understanding of how planning operates in complex, naturalistic behaviors. MAPPING addressed this gap by developing experimental and analytical approaches capable of probing preparatory neural dynamics across both constrained and unconstrained movement contexts in order to test novel predictions of the dynamical systems theory. The overall objective of the project was to gain mechanistic insight into how preparatory neural states are organized, updated, and exploited to generate voluntary actions. To achieve this, MAPPING combined non-human primate behavioral paradigms, chronic intracortical recordings from premotor cortex, and population-level decoding methods. The project pathway to impact was structured around generating fundamental knowledge about motor planning principles that are robust across contexts, and translating this knowledge into generalizable decoding frameworks. By identifying invariant, low-dimensional neural representations of planned movement direction, the project lays the groundwork for future advances in adaptive brain–computer interfaces and neuroprosthetic control, while also contributing to theory-driven progress in motor neuroscience.
Data: CORDIS, © European Union
Project objective
Our daily behaviors critically depend on our ability to execute carefully planned movements. While motor planning is known to rely on the motor cortex, the logic by which specific patterns of neural activity in the motor cortex contribute to the planning of a movement remains unknown. Addressing this issue is not only central to our understanding of the brain, but may also lead to concrete advances in neuroprosthetics. A recent theory of motor planning proposes that neural dynamics in the motor cortex acts as a dynamical system whose state is optimized via a putative “corrective” mechanism during the planning phase of the movement. While this theory has had a profound impact on the field, empirical evidence corroborating the existence of such a mechanism is crucially lacking. In this proposal, I devise a 3-step approach to fill this experimental gap and test key predictions of the theory. First, I will design a behavioral task in non-human primates to probe the neural basis of motor planning. Second, using this task, I will characterize baseline motor cortical dynamics during normal movement preparation. Finally, I will selectively perturb neural dynamics to assess the existence of a corrective mechanism within the motor cortex. This manipulation will rely on a highly innovative approach based on brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) to perform targeted perturbations of neural activity. The project will combine the technical expertise of the host laboratory in motor control with my own expertise in complex neural data analyses acquired during my PhD. Both the host and I will benefit from the project. I will acquire technical and managerial skills I intend to leverage in my future research. In turn, I will bring a set of new analytical tools in the host team to complement and expand their existing research. The project will be a major step in the direction of my future scientific agenda, and will strengthen my application for a permanent research position in France.
Original text from CORDIS.
Participants
- UNIVERSITE D'AIX MARSEILLE · MarseilleCoordinatorFrance
Links
- View on CORDIS
- DOI: 10.3030/101108533
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e50eeca159&appId=PPGMS
- https://ec.europa.eu/research/participants/documents/downloadPublic?documentIds=080166e5247834bf&appId=PPGMS
Data: CORDIS, © European Union