Yuxi Liao

Neural Decoding using a Parallel Sequential Monte Carlo method on Point Processes with Ensemble Effect

Sequential Monte Carlo estimation on point processes has been successfully applied to predict the movement from neural activity. However, there exist some issues along with this method such as the simplified tuning model and the high computational complexity, which may degenerate the decoding performance of motor brain machine interfaces. In this paper, we adopt a general tuning model which takes recent ensemble activity into account. The goodness-of-fit analysis demonstrates that the proposed model can predict the neuronal response more accurately than the one only depending on kinematics. A new sequential Monte Carlo algorithm based on the proposed model is constructed. The algorithm can significantly reduce the root mean square error of decoding results, which decreases 23.6% in position estimation. In addition, we accelerate the decoding speed by implementing the proposed algorithm in a massive parallel manner on GPU. The results demonstrate that the spike trains can be decoded as point process in real time even with 8000 particles or 300 neurons, which is over 10 times faster than the serial implementation. The main contribution of our work is to enable the sequential Monte Carlo algorithm with point process observation to output the movement estimation much faster and more accurately.

Tracking Neural Modulation Depth by Dual Sequential Monte Carlo Estimation on Point Processes for Brain–Machine Interfaces

Classic brain-machine interface (BMI) approaches decode neural signals from the brain responsible for achieving specific motor movements, which subsequently command prosthetic devices. Brain activities adaptively change during the control of the neuroprosthesis in BMIs, where the alteration of the preferred direction and the modulation of the gain depth are observed. The static neural tuning models have been limited by fixed codes, resulting in a decay of decoding performance over the course of the movement and subsequent instability in motor performance. To achieve stable performance, we propose a dual sequential Monte Carlo adaptive point process method, which models and decodes the gradually changing modulation depth of individual neuron over the course of a movement. We use multichannel neural spike trains from the primary motor cortex of a monkey trained to perform a target pursuit task using a joystick. Our results show that our computational approach successfully tracks the neural modulation depth over time with better goodness-of-fit than classic static neural tuning models, resulting in smaller errors between the true kinematics and the estimations in both simulated and real data. Our novel decoding approach suggests that the brain may employ such strategies to achieve stable motor output, i.e., plastic neural tuning is a feature of neural systems. BMI users may benefit from this adaptive algorithm to achieve more complex and controlled movement outcomes.

Decoding the nonstationary neural activity in motor cortex for brain machine interfaces

Previous decoding algorithms used in brain machine interfaces (BMIs) usually seek a static functional mapping between the spatio‐temporal neural activity and behavior and assume that the neural spike statistics do not change over time. However, recent work indicates the significant variance in neural activities, which suggests the nonfeasibility of the stationary assumptions on the neural signal sequences. To track the time‐changing neural activity during the nonlinear decoding process, we developed a time‐varying approach based on general regression neural network (GRNN) with a dynamic pattern layer. Applied on both simulated neural activity and in vivo BMI data extracted from rats motor cortex, the proposed method reconstructs the movement signals better than the original GRNN algorithm with static pattern layer, which raises the promise of successfully tracking the time‐varying neural activity for BMIs decoding.

Decoding grasp types with high frequency of local field potentials from primate primary dorsal premotor cortex

Recently, local field potentials (LFPs) have been successfully used to extract information of arm and hand movement in some brain-machine interfaces (BMIs) studies, which suggested that LFPs would improve the performance of BMI applications because of its long-term stability. However, the performance of LFPs in different frequency bands has not been investigated in decoding hand grasp types. Here, the LFPs from the monkeys dorsal premotor cortices were collected by microelectrode array when monkey was performing grip-specific grasp task. A K-nearest neighbor classifier performed on the power spectrum of LFPs was used to decode grasping movements. The decoding powers of LFPs in different frequency bands, channels and trials used for training were also studied. The results show that the broad high frequency band (200-400Hz) LFPs achieved the best performance with classification accuracy reaching over 0.9. It infers that high frequency band LFPs in PMd cortex could be a promising source of control signals in developing functional BMIs for hand grasping.

Mutual information analysis on non-stationary neuron importance for brain machine interfaces

Decoding with the important neuron subset has been widely used in brain machine interfaces (BMIs), as an effective strategy to reduce computational complexity. Previous works usually assume stationary of neuron importance, which may not be true according to recent research. We propose to conduct a mutual information evaluation to track the time-varying neuron importance over time. We found worth noting changes both in information amount and space distribution in our experiment. When the method is applied with a Kalman filter, the decoding performance achieve is better (with higher correlation coefficient) than when a fixed subset, which shows that time-varying neuron importance should be considered in adaptive algorithms.

Quantized Attention-Gated Kernel Reinforcement Learning for Brain–Machine Interface Decoding

Reinforcement learning (RL)-based decoders in brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) interpret dynamic neural activity without patients’ real limb movements. In conventional RL, the goal state is selected by the user or defined by the physics of the problem, and the decoder finds an optimal policy essentially by assigning credit over time, which is normally very time-consuming. However, BMI tasks require finding a good policy in very few trials, which impose a limit on the complexity of the tasks that can be learned before the animal quits. Therefore, this paper explores the possibility of letting the agent infer potential goals through actions over space with multiple objects, using the instantaneous reward to assign credit spatially. A previous method, attention-gated RL employs a multilayer perceptron trained with backpropagation, but it is prone to local minima entrapment. We propose a quantized attention-gated kernel RL (QAGKRL) to avoid the local minima adaptation in spatial credit assignment and sparsify the network topology. The experimental results show that the QAGKRL achieves higher successful rates and more stable performance, indicating its powerful decoding ability for more sophisticated BMI tasks as required in clinical applications.

Decoding the Non-Stationary Neuron Spike Trains by Dual Monte Carlo Point Process Estimation in Motor Brain Machine Interfaces

Decoding algorithm in motor Brain Machine Interfaces translates the neural signals to movement parameters. They usually assume the connection between the neural firings and movements to be stationary, which is not true according to the recent studies that observe the time-varying neuron tuning property. This property results from the neural plasticity and motor learning etc., which leads to the degeneration of the decoding performance when the model is fixed. To track the non-stationary neuron tuning during decoding, we propose a dual model approach based on Monte Carlo point process filtering method that enables the estimation also on the dynamic tuning parameters. When applied on both simulated neural signal and in vivo BMI data, the proposed adaptive method performs better than the one with static tuning parameters, which raises a promising way to design a long-term-performing model for Brain Machine Interfaces decoder.

Monte Carlo point process estimation of electromyographic envelopes from motor cortical spikes for brain-machine interfaces

OBJECTIVE Representation of movement in the motor cortex (M1) has been widely studied in brain-machine interfaces (BMIs). The electromyogram (EMG) has greater bandwidth than the conventional kinematic variables (such as position, velocity), and is functionally related to the discharge of cortical neurons. As the stochastic information of EMG is derived from the explicit spike time structure, point process (PP) methods will be a good solution for decoding EMG directly from neural spike trains. Previous studies usually assume linear or exponential tuning curves between neural firing and EMG, which may not be true. APPROACH In our analysis, we estimate the tuning curves in a data-driven way and find both the traditional functional-excitatory and functional-inhibitory neurons, which are widely found across a rats motor cortex. To accurately decode EMG envelopes from M1 neural spike trains, the Monte Carlo point process (MCPP) method is implemented based on such nonlinear tuning properties. MAIN RESULTS Better reconstruction of EMG signals is shown on baseline and extreme high peaks, as our method can better preserve the nonlinearity of the neural tuning during decoding. The MCPP improves the prediction accuracy (the normalized mean squared error) 57% and 66% on average compared with the adaptive point process filter using linear and exponential tuning curves respectively, for all 112 data segments across six rats. Compared to a Wiener filter using spike rates with an optimal window size of 50 ms, MCPP decoding EMG from a point process improves the normalized mean square error (NMSE) by 59% on average. SIGNIFICANCE These results suggest that neural tuning is constantly changing during task execution and therefore, the use of spike timing methodologies and estimation of appropriate tuning curves needs to be undertaken for better EMG decoding in motor BMIs.

A Shared Control Policy for Center-Out Movement Decoding in Motor Brain-Machine Interface

Abstract Brain-Machine Interface provides a new way to control the peripheral devices directly using signals from brain. However, because of the uncertainty and instability of brain signals, the decoding method cannot fulfill the demand of accurate control of the intended movement. We proposed a shared control policy to involve environmental information into the decoding process of brain signals. While the monkey manipulated the joystick in a center-out task, the trajectory was updated with a control signal that derived from current decoded kinematic information considering the potential targets. Our results showed that using the proposed method combined with the decoding process, the correlation coefficient between the predicted trajectory and the true signals increased by 17.4% in average. It indicated the control policy involved the environmental information could greatly improve the performance of motor brain machine interfaces in practice.