A posture subspace in the primary motor cortex

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: pmarino162@gmail.com.
² Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
³ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
⁴ Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
⁵ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Starfish Neuroscience, Bellevue, WA 98004, USA.
⁶ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Rehab Neural Engineering Labs, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
⁷ Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁸ Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: schase@andrew.cmu.edu.
⁹ Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: byronyu@cmu.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: aaron.batista@pitt.edu.

PMID: 40876460
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.07.030

Free article

A posture subspace in the primary motor cortex

Patrick J Marino et al. Neuron. 2025.

Free article

. 2025 Aug 23:S0896-6273(25)00557-4.

doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.07.030. Online ahead of print.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: pmarino162@gmail.com.
² Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
³ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical and Molecular Sciences, Queen's University, Kingston, ON K7L 3N6, Canada.
⁴ Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA.
⁵ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Starfish Neuroscience, Bellevue, WA 98004, USA.
⁶ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Rehab Neural Engineering Labs, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA.
⁷ Department of Neurobiology, Physiology, and Behavior, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
⁸ Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: schase@andrew.cmu.edu.
⁹ Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Biomedical Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA; Neuroscience Institute, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: byronyu@cmu.edu.
¹⁰ Department of Bioengineering, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260, USA; Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, Pittsburgh, PA 15213, USA. Electronic address: aaron.batista@pitt.edu.

PMID: 40876460
DOI: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.07.030

Abstract

To generate movements, the brain must combine information about movement goal and body posture. The motor cortex (primary motor cortex [M1]) is a key node for the convergence of these information streams. How are posture and goal signals organized within M1's activity to permit the flexible generation of movement commands? To answer this question, we recorded M1 activity while monkeys performed a variety of tasks with the forearm in a range of postures. We found that posture- and goal-related components of neural population activity were separable and resided in nearly orthogonal subspaces. The posture subspace was stable across tasks. Within each task, neural trajectories for each goal had similar shapes across postures. Our results reveal a simpler organization of posture signals in M1 than previously recognized. The compartmentalization of posture and goal signals might allow the two to be flexibly combined in the service of our broad repertoire of actions.

Keywords: brain-computer interface; brain-machine interface; dimensionality reduction; motor cortex; neural population dynamics; posture; proprioception; sensory-motor integration.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of interests P.J.M., E.R.O., A.L.S., A.N.M., S.M.C., B.M.Y., and A.P.B. are inventors for a provisional patent application related to this work, “A posture-invariant brain-computer interface” (US Patent application no. 63/534,501).

Update of

A posture subspace in primary motor cortex.
Marino PJ, Bahureksa L, Fisac CF, Oby ER, Smoulder AL, Motiwala A, Degenhart AD, Grigsby EM, Joiner WM, Chase SM, Yu BM, Batista AP. Marino PJ, et al. bioRxiv [Preprint]. 2024 Aug 12:2024.08.12.607361. doi: 10.1101/2024.08.12.607361. bioRxiv. 2024. Update in: Neuron. 2025 Aug 23:S0896-6273(25)00557-4. doi: 10.1016/j.neuron.2025.07.030. PMID: 39185208 Free PMC article. Updated. Preprint.

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A posture subspace in the primary motor cortex

Affiliations

A posture subspace in the primary motor cortex

Authors

Affiliations

Abstract

Conflict of interest statement

Update of

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