%0 Journal Article %J Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A %D 2010 %T Cortical activity during motor execution, motor imagery, and imagery-based online feedback. %A Miller, K.J. %A Gerwin Schalk %A Fetz, Eberhard E %A den Nijs, Marcel %A Ojemann, J G %A Rao, Rajesh P N %K Adolescent %K Adult %K Biofeedback, Psychology %K Cerebral Cortex %K Child %K Electric Stimulation %K Electrocardiography %K Female %K Humans %K Male %K Middle Aged %K Motor Activity %K Young Adult %X

Imagery of motor movement plays an important role in learning of complex motor skills, from learning to serve in tennis to perfecting a pirouette in ballet. What and where are the neural substrates that underlie motor imagery-based learning? We measured electrocorticographic cortical surface potentials in eight human subjects during overt action and kinesthetic imagery of the same movement, focusing on power in "high frequency" (76-100 Hz) and "low frequency" (8-32 Hz) ranges. We quantitatively establish that the spatial distribution of local neuronal population activity during motor imagery mimics the spatial distribution of activity during actual motor movement. By comparing responses to electrocortical stimulation with imagery-induced cortical surface activity, we demonstrate the role of primary motor areas in movement imagery. The magnitude of imagery-induced cortical activity change was approximately 25% of that associated with actual movement. However, when subjects learned to use this imagery to control a computer cursor in a simple feedback task, the imagery-induced activity change was significantly augmented, even exceeding that of overt movement.

%B Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A %V 107 %P 4430-5 %8 03/2010 %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20160084 %N 9 %R 10.1073/pnas.0913697107 %0 Journal Article %J J Neural Eng %D 2009 %T Decoding flexion of individual fingers using electrocorticographic signals in humans. %A Kubánek, J %A Miller, John W %A Ojemann, J G %A Jonathan Wolpaw %A Gerwin Schalk %K Adolescent %K Adult %K Biomechanics %K Brain %K Electrodiagnosis %K Epilepsy %K Female %K Fingers %K Humans %K Male %K Microelectrodes %K Middle Aged %K Motor Activity %K Rest %K Thumb %K Time Factors %K Young Adult %X

Brain signals can provide the basis for a non-muscular communication and control system, a brain-computer interface (BCI), for people with motor disabilities. A common approach to creating BCI devices is to decode kinematic parameters of movements using signals recorded by intracortical microelectrodes. Recent studies have shown that kinematic parameters of hand movements can also be accurately decoded from signals recorded by electrodes placed on the surface of the brain (electrocorticography (ECoG)). In the present study, we extend these results by demonstrating that it is also possible to decode the time course of the flexion of individual fingers using ECoG signals in humans, and by showing that these flexion time courses are highly specific to the moving finger. These results provide additional support for the hypothesis that ECoG could be the basis for powerful clinically practical BCI systems, and also indicate that ECoG is useful for studying cortical dynamics related to motor function.

%B J Neural Eng %V 6 %P 066001 %8 12/2009 %G eng %U http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19794237 %N 6 %R 10.1088/1741-2560/6/6/066001