Subject-specific modulation of local field potential spectral power during brain–machine interface control in primates

Objective. Intracortical brain–machine interfaces (BMIs) have predominantly utilized spike activity as the control signal. However, an increasing number of studies have shown the utility of local field potentials (LFPs) for decoding motor related signals. Currently, it is unclear how well different LFP frequencies can serve as features for continuous, closed-loop BMI control. Approach. We demonstrate 2D continuous LFP-based BMI control using closed-loop decoder adaptation, which adapts decoder parameters to subject-specific LFP feature modulations during BMI control. We trained two macaque monkeys to control a 2D cursor in a center-out task by modulating LFP power in the 0–150 Hz range. Main results. While both monkeys attained control, they used different strategies involving different frequency bands. One monkey primarily utilized the low-frequency spectrum (0–80 Hz), which was highly correlated between channels, and obtained proficient performance even with a single channel. In contrast, the other monkey relied more on higher frequencies (80–150 Hz), which were less correlated between channels, and had greater difficulty with control as the number of channels decreased. We then restricted the monkeys to use only various sub-ranges (0–40, 40–80, and 80–150 Hz) of the 0–150 Hz band. Interestingly, although both monkeys performed better with some sub-ranges than others, they were able to achieve BMI control with all sub-ranges after decoder adaptation, demonstrating broad flexibility in the frequencies that could potentially be used for LFP-based BMI control. Significance. Overall, our results demonstrate proficient, continuous BMI control using LFPs and provide insight into the subject-specific spectral patterns of LFP activity modulated during control.