News Finding: Byron M. Yu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon, believes this work demonstrates the utility of BCI for basic scientific studies that will eventually impact people's lives.
Paper Finding: However, animals were less able to learn to proficiently control the cursor using activity patterns that were outside of the intrinsic manifold.
News Context: Because the existing brain patterns likely reflect how the neurons are interconnected, the results suggest that the connectivity among neurons shapes learning. Byron M. Yu, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering and biomedical engineering at Carnegie Mellon, believes this work demonstrates the utility of BCI for basic scientific studies that will eventually impact people's lives. "These findings could be the basis for novel rehabilitation procedures for the many neural disorders that are characterized by improper neural activity," Yu says.
Paper Context: Here we show that the animals could readily learn to proficiently control the cursor using neural activity patterns that were within the intrinsic manifold. However, animals were less able to learn to proficiently control the cursor using activity patterns that were outside of the intrinsic manifold. These results suggest that the existing structure of a network can shape learning.