{"id":204119,"date":"2025-01-20T14:24:22","date_gmt":"2025-01-20T20:24:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/brain-controlled-interface-experiment-provides-empirical-support-for-one-way-neural-activity-paths"},"modified":"2025-01-20T14:24:22","modified_gmt":"2025-01-20T20:24:22","slug":"brain-controlled-interface-experiment-provides-empirical-support-for-one-way-neural-activity-paths","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/01\/brain-controlled-interface-experiment-provides-empirical-support-for-one-way-neural-activity-paths","title":{"rendered":"Brain-controlled interface experiment provides empirical support for one-way neural activity paths"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<p><iframe style=\"display: block; margin: 0 auto; width: 100%; aspect-ratio: 4\/3; object-fit: contain;\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/aRS1xmUp_To?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope;\n   picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Neural network models that are able to make decisions or store memories have long captured scientists\u2019 imaginations. In these models, a hallmark of the computation being performed by the network is the presence of stereotyped sequences of activity, akin to one-way paths. This idea was pioneered by John Hopfield, who was notably co-awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in Physics. Whether one-way activity paths are used in the brain, however, has been unknown.<\/p>\n<p>A collaborative team of researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh designed a clever experiment to perform a causal test of this question using a <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/brain-computer+interface\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">brain-computer interface<\/a> (BCI). Their findings provide empirical support of one-way activity paths in the brain and the computational principles long hypothesized by neural network models.<\/p>\n<p>Stereotyped sequences of neural population activity, also known as <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/neural+dynamics\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">neural dynamics<\/a>, is believed to underlie numerous brain functions, including <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/motor+control\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">motor control<\/a>, sensory perception, decision making, timing, and memory, among others. The group focused on the brain\u2019s motor system for their work, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nature.com\/articles\/s41593-024-01845-7\" target=\"_blank\">recently published<\/a> in <i>Nature Neuroscience<\/i>, where neural population activity can be used to control a BCI.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Neural network models that are able to make decisions or store memories have long captured scientists\u2019 imaginations. In these models, a hallmark of the computation being performed by the network is the presence of stereotyped sequences of activity, akin to one-way paths. This idea was pioneered by John Hopfield, who was notably co-awarded the 2024 [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[219,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-204119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-physics","category-robotics-ai"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/661"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}