Neuronal Activity in Motor Cortex and Related Areas

This chapter is organized into six sections. The first four discuss the anatomy and functional roles of the brain areas that are most relevant to the development of brain-computer interface technology. The final two sections discuss the information content of neuronal discharge recorded from these areas and review current methods for recording and analyzing spikes from many cortical neurons simultaneously. Although the cerebellum and basal ganglia play critical roles in the production of normal movements, their locations make them relatively inaccessible either to arrays of chronically implanted electrodes or to noninvasive electroencephalography. On the other hand, the exposed cerebral cortical surface is accessible to both electroencephalography electrodes and to the various types of implanted multielectrode arrays now available for recording neuronal action potentials (spikes).