Volitional activation of remote place representations with a hippocampal BMI (Part 3)

Janelia researchers have developed a novel system combining virtual reality and a brain-machine interface to probe the rat’s inner thoughts.
The first two videos provide an overview of the VR/BMI system:
In this video, the researchers disconnect the treadmill and reward the rat for reproducing the hippocampal activity pattern associated with a goal location. In this “Jumper” task - named after a 2008 movie of the same name -- the BMI translates the animal’s brain activity into motion on the virtual reality screen. Essentially, the animal uses its thoughts to navigate to the reward by first thinking about where they need to go to get the reward. This thought process is something humans experience regularly. For example, when we’re asked to pick up groceries at a familiar store, we might imagine the locations we will pass along the way before we ever leave the house.
Credit: Lai et al. DOI: 10.1126/science.adh5206
See related videos:
• Volitional activation ... (Part 1)
• Volitional activation ... (Part 2)
• Volitional activation ... (Part 4)
Read more about this research: www.janelia.or...