Neural subspaces of imagined movements in parietal cortex remain stable over several years in humans

• Published in: Journal of neural engineering 2024-08, Vol.21 (4), p.46059
• Main Authors: Bashford, L, Rosenthal, I A, Kellis, S, Bjånes, D, Pejsa, K, Brunton, B W, Andersen, R A
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Adult; Brain-Computer Interfaces; brain–computer interface; brain–machine interface; Female; human; Humans; Imagination - physiology; Male; motor control; Movement - physiology; neural dynamics; Parietal Lobe - physiology
• ISSN: 1741-2560; 1741-2552; 1741-2552
• DOI: 10.1088/1741-2552/ad6e19

A crucial goal in brain-machine interfacing is the long-term stability of neural decoding performance, ideally without regular retraining. Long-term stability has only been previously demonstrated in non-human primate experiments and only in primary sensorimotor cortices. Here we extend previous methods to determine long-term stability in humans by identifying and aligning low-dimensional structures in neural data. Over a period of 1106 and 871 d respectively, two participants completed an imagined center-out reaching task. The longitudinal accuracy between all day pairs was assessed by latent subspace alignment using principal components analysis and canonical correlations analysis of multi-unit intracortical recordings in different brain regions (Brodmann Area 5, Anterior Intraparietal Area and the junction of the postcentral and intraparietal sulcus). We show the long-term stable representation of neural activity in subspaces of intracortical recordings from higher-order association areas in humans. These results can be practically applied to significantly expand the longevity and generalizability of brain-computer interfaces.Clinical TrialsNCT01849822, NCT01958086, NCT01964261.